Thought Awareness
This article on thought awareness that Heba Mohamed sent me illustrates how the energy of our thoughts have such a profound effects on our physical health. Not only that but as I am sure she would attest manifesting what we want in life when we are at such a low energy vibration from negative thinking is next to impossible.
But fortunately I realized early on that I need to become a student, so I studied the philosophies and teaching of modern day spiritual teachers.
My turning point came when I came across Eckhart Tolle's 
In my case I began to be aware the state of my inner world was the result of all my thoughts and experiences.
Observing my thoughts led me to feel this “dark” energy which expressed itself as depression. I began to understand the important of dissolving this energy. Alongside thought observation I also practiced gratitude as a way of aligning myself with the harmony of the universe. By then I understood on a deeper level that my ailment was about my misalignment with the universe. Furthermore, I understood that I had become my wants, my family, my work, and that my relationship with the universe was essentially based on fear. Once I understood that I cannot make demands on the universe, my attitude changed, so to start a new way of being, I allocated days where I would totally let go of my wants, instead I would give thanks for everything in my life. Slowly hope surfaced and I started to feel good through appreciation. I began to become clear and identify the blocks and darkness I felt in my body and mind.
I would feel the darkness and read it’s vibration and let it go by giving thanks
for the things that are working in my life i.e. that I woke up that day, my first
cup of coffee, that I can talk, walk etc. To quote Eckhart Tolle
Another thing I let go is idea of control, I was a control freak and even though I liked the idea of surrender it was the most challenging thing to do. My experience of control was actually about my lack of self esteem, for years I said I believe in a power higher than myself, yet being a very analytic person by nature hampered my relationship with the divine. Letting go is a process and for some people it takes a while, it’s a process of trusting the higher self. My experiences and lack of self esteem made it difficult to trust myself or the universe. Surrender is about unconditional love and learning to release judgment.
Depression is a soul destroyer: it robs one of joy, peace and the freedom to be oneself and realize your purpose. Be open, aware and never give up on healing. I always knew deep down that it doesn’t make sense to live with pain, especially in the 21 century, this is an abundant universe but one must be willing to question their conditioning and be willing to think outside the box.
Heba Mohamed
Affirmations are another great way to become aware of your thoughts and heal yourself. However if you do not go about using affirmations correctly they will do you little or no good at all.
Living with pain is not fun, especially when your functionality is at stake and your ailment interferes with every aspect of your life, your work, relationships, dreams, hobbies etc.
I lived with pain most of my life, not knowing how to deal with it initially I took the conventional route: the doctors, therapy, prescriptions and when I complained about the immense pain in my life their advice was to learn to live with it. A major breakdown prompted me to look deeper and I started my journey of discovery; this journey had many downs because as you can imagine when one is in pain all they want is the end to the pain.