Monday Aug 21, 2023

Sitting in the Mental Health Shadow of an Eclipse

A shadow passed over them. An eclipse shadow of the soul, but I didn’t want them to be alone, so I sat and listened to the darkness.

The light slowly changed.

What was the middle of the day seemed more like dusk, but I looked at my watch, and sure enough, it was midday.

The time when it was supposed to be full sunlight. Something beyond my control had moved between myself and my source of light.

I was living in the shadow of an eclipse.

Every analogy and metaphor breaks down somewhere, but the shadow of an eclipse has often helped me understand the interconnected relationship with my body and soul.

We want clean-cut precise connections. We like concentric circles drawn with accuracy and perfection.

This affects this, and that affects that.

If I do this, then that will happen.

We want to chess play our lives to manage out a particular outcome, but there is always the unpredictability of an eclipse that could shadow our effect.

What is an eclipse?

Lets get our definitions and understandings correct.

For a technical definition here is what Wikipedia has to say.

An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured by passing into the shadow of another body or having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three celestial objects is known as a syzygy. Apart from syzygy, the term eclipse is also used when a spacecraft reaches a position where it can observe two celestial bodies so aligned. An eclipse is the result of either an occultation (completely hidden) or a transit (partially hidden). Eclipse Wikipedia

It sounds very techincal, but simply put, it is when an object, typically the moon, comes between the Sun and the Earth, and so a shadow is cast over the Earth.

A total lunar eclipse is when we can see the outline of the moon against the backdrop of the Sun, and we are sitting in the shadow.

A simple image may help. Source – simple.Wikipedia

It’s a wierd feeling when you are in the shadow of an eclipse.

Things have changed. It’s shadowy and slightly dark. it’s so eerie that animals act differently. Birds stop singing and puzzlment grips the lands.

I want you to hold in your thinking that picture and the feelings of living in an eclipse.

An eclipse generally doesnt last long. Everything is moving. The Earth rotates, the Moon as a satelite spins around us and shadows flee.

But what if the eclipse lasted longer than expected. What if it took up a kind of permanent residence over us. A shadow falling on us seemngly forever.

Then answer these questions.

What is it like living with a physical illness?
What is it like living with a mental illness?
Whats it like to be living in the shadow of anothers illness, particulary someone you love?
What is it like to be living in the shadow of past trauma – large or small?

Three kinds of problems

Larry Crabb considers that we face three kinds of problems when people come to us for deep conversation.

These three problems are related to the brain and the soul.

Brain/ Soul problems
Soul/ Brain problems
Mostly Soul problems

Let’s unpack these further

Brain/ Soul problems
The problem is primarily related to the brain. It is chiefly a physiological issue and, secondly, a soul-related issue.There is something wrong with the physical functioning of the brain.It might be a chemical imbalance, a physical injury, or other physical brain-related condition.Other bodily organs, especially hormonal glands, might affect a person’s ability to think and process information.But this person also has a soul, an inner world that needs some degree of soul care, nurturing, guidance, and hope.Many times, I have sat with people in states of confusion. They see things, hear things, and feel things that no one else can perceive.The stresses of various events around them have cracked the fragile balance of the brain, and now they are subject to forces seemingly beyond their control.With its human fragility, the brain is casting its imbalanced view over the soul.
Soul/ Brain problems
The problems are primarily related to the inner workings of the soul. There is a deep hurt and a struggle with some life issues. Perhaps a coming to terms with a loss, etc.With all the struggles being faced, there may need to be some form of medication to help the brain with the processing that is going on.The medication is not the solution to the problem; it is more a means by which the brain can function so that the soul can attend to the issues it faces.The soul’s pain-filled shadow casts its effect on the operation of the brain and body. Therefore, it needs help to process.
Mostly Soul
The issues are primarily related to the Soul, as in category two, but it could be better than the functioning of the brain and body is impaired.

These three categories are very useful in helping others and ourselves. I would also add to this model the general effect of the body on the brain.

Today I will go and do probably a physically heavy day.

Tonight my body will be tired and possibly sore in certain places.

My brain, the supercomputer between my ears, will be processing this pain, and I may feel quite down. But I have to understand that this comes from a place of physical exhaustion.

Wisdom tells me to relax, go to bed, and maybe take some painkillers if the pain is too much.

I enter the shadow

Good conversations enter into the shadow.

I listened to someone recently, and the shadow cast from bodily pain. This pain was affecting their thinking. Certain behaviors resulted. Can I forgive them?

Then there was someone with a soul injury from many years past that was now expressing itself in the body. The healing for the body may come from a recovery of the soul. (read The body keeps the score)

It’s shadowy work. Stumbling and knocking into things.

I enter into the shadow as much as I sit in the shadow that passed over the body/soul of Jesus.

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining.
And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
When he had said this, he breathed his last. Luke 23:44-46

I sit in the shadow and pray for resurrection.

For whatever is blocking the light to dissipate and the fullness of light to flood over us both.

What’s your shadowland like?

Quotes to consider

Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination. G.K. Chesterton
There is a persisting notion in some circles that the medications used to treat depression and other psychiatric illnesses can somehow interfere with deeper spiritual processes such as the dark night [of the soul]. Nothing could be further from the truth. To my mind, there is never an authentic spiritual reason to let any illness go untreated. Jesus Wept: When Faith and Depression Meet by Barbara C. Crafton
We are unfinished creatures– longing, reaching, stretching towards fulfilment. Eugene Peterson
Spiritual paths and practices that distance us from what it means to be a human are not good for humans. David Benner
Spirituality can and should help us become more deeply human and more fully alive. David Benner
The route to wholeness is not perfection but embracing the realities of our lives David Benner
If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. C.S. Lewis

Questions to answer

What is your shadow like?
What do you most long to do When you’re sitting in the shadowy land of someone’s pain? Run? Fix? Something else?
Which of the three categories – Brain/ Soul, Soul/Brain, or mostly Soul, do you most understand in yourself and others?

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