Living Mentally Free
Top 3 ingredients for success
Mental freedom = doing life present, sane and healthy without psychiatric drugs.
Making the transition from ↓ living within the modern medical system that “treats” mental suffering with pills TO → living fully present, feeling everything and managing your own mental wellness requires a major mindset makeover + behavioral shift!
If you choose mental freedom too, it’s imperative that you claim your life and act with radical, total responsibility. You’ll have to learn who you are, embrace the gifts of your crazy magic and lovingly manage YOU.
Living mentally free looks like:
- Fiercely caring for yourself
- A nurturing daily practice to train your brain & support stability
- Using positive crisis management coping skills
- Flowing with life instead of fighting against it
- Working with who you are and what you’ve got right now
- Learning what lights you up and brings you joy (and doing those things!)
- Spending time with your community for support and love
The Mental Freedom Formula
1 Mindset Makeover.
Change the way you THINK.
Getting off meds did not mean my “mental health struggles” disappeared! I’m still an incredibly sensitive person; I feel the astros move, events affect me deeply, my moods fluctuate up and down with cycles and seasons. I had to stop thinking there was something wrong with me if I had a difficult day. I had to accept that mood fluctuations are completely normal! Being a a human includes feeling!
Living drug free requires embracing your full range of emotions as “normal” and healthy – then working to flow with them.
The mental freedom mindset makeover requires you to release the belief that you’re a victim of your mind or life. A victim mindset thinks something (like a pill) outside of you is going to come fix you or save you. That’s not true – only YOU can fix you and save you. That’s why this a path for the brave rebel heroes. You’ll have to claim total responsibility for everything in your life and take real action to address what isn’t working.
You must declare sovereignty over your life and practice self-care so you can be healthy! From what you put into your body to your daily habits, every little thing adds up to determine your mind / body / soul wellness. The good news? You have so much control over these choices and can make big impactful self-care change fast.
Guaranteed life will throw you challenging moments where you’re forced to go ALL IN and face problems + pain without drug disassociation. Now you’re present all the time, and that can be uncomfortable. But it’s also a gift! Now you get to experience life in all of it’s textures: dark, light, painful, pleasurable! You get the the full spectrum of your emotions back, baby!
Remember: Suffering is not a disease. Suffering is an essential part of the human package – it’s the tough love tactic life uses to force us to learn and grow. Sadly, we humans do not make big moves when we’re comfortable and cozy. We have to get squeezed and uncomfortable to be pushed into action. It’s the suffering moments that evolve you. It’s the suffering moments that teach you. It’s the suffering moments that create your greatest triumphs! Everyone on this planet will experience suffering. We must learn to embrace pain, not medicate it.
Here’s the good news! When we feel completely, suffering can PASS and we are left with the lessons + opportunities. Learning to fully feel and let emotion move through us is an essential key to mental wellness.
2 Energy Work
Out of the mind, into the body!
Try this with me: let’s think about some of the common mental health diagnosis labels and think about them as energy movement issues instead of “diseases.” Depression = stuck energy. Mania = out of control energy. ADHD = fragmented energy. Anxiety = anxious energy! Do you see it?
We are literally ELECTRICAL! A heart EKG test measures the electrical impulses that your heart sends out with every beat. There’s a 3-foot electromagnetic field that your heart gives off! Shuffle your feet on the carpet and you can literally shock people. You are full of energy; you emit energy!
Takeaway: You are an energetic being! Learning how to move your energy with intention is essential for mental freedom.
This is why it’s so important to experience your feelings! E-motion is energy in motion, and when you don’t feel that energy it gets trapped and causes the blocks that result in mental suffering. I’m a firm believer that unfelt or blocked emotions are one of the top causes of what gets labeled as “mental health disorders.”
So how do we move that old blocked energy out of our bodies? How do we experience feelings and let them flow through us so we’re a clear channel? Energy work!
Being psych drugs-free looks like a daily practice to maintain emotional stability. It means consistent exercise. It means actively using positive coping strategies in the midst of crisis. Yes, it’s work; but it also feels delicious! This is worth it work, my friend.
Examples of energy work practices:
- Breathwork
- Meditation, Visualization, Shamanic journeys
- Yoga
- Chanting Mantras, Kirtan
- Moving your body with exercise or dance
- Singing and sound healing
- Rituals or ceremonies
- Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) tapping
3 Community
Better together!
Communion with likeminded humans is nurturing for the mind / body / soul. There is nothing more effective than listening to another human to get you out of your head. When we spend too much time alone, our world gets small. We become obsessed with out own thoughts and feelings.
We need other people to shake us up, help us process, inspire us and make us laugh! We have an innate need to share our internal worlds with others. Hearing a new perspective can create a breakthrough. Holding space for a loved one can make you realize how powerful your own presence is. Whether you’re giving or receiving love – it’s good for your mental health! The best relationships are reciprocal: give, take, dance, laugh, balance, create in community.
Plus physical touch is incredibly healing for our bodies – it releases a slew of feel-good hormones like oxytocin into your system that are scientifically proven to benefit your mental health! A hug is REAL medicine, folks.
Health Benefits of Community
- Prevent depression and anxiety
- Improve your ability to cope with difficult life situations
- Improve your ability to recover from stress, anxiety, and depression
- Improve sleep, well-being, and quality of life
- Promote healthy eating, physical activity, and maintaining a healthy weight
- Reduce your risk of violent and suicidal behaviors
- Prevent death from chronic diseases
- Prevent serious illnesses like heart disease, stroke and dementia
Post pandemic, surveys showed that people with social support had a 55% LOWER chance of depression.
Are you convinced yet? Your community is your family and friends. Identify people who you know who you feel connection with and make extra effort to reach out and spend time with them. Go to group events, join a club, say “hi” to your neighbors. We can make new friends and discover new connections at any age anywhere on the globe!
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YOU'VE GOT THIS.
Going from a life managed by pills to being mentally free can be a big change, especially if you’ve taken mental health drugs for years. Know that it’s absolutely possible, and you are absolutely capable.
Mix up these three ingredients for mental freedom into your own special blend! This is your life and you know exactly what you need – all the healing you seek is already inside of you just waiting to be activated.
You’ve got this and I’m rooting for you, brave hero!
Amber Renee
WORK WITH AMBER
I offer 1<>1 personal mental freedom coaching.
We’ll work together on the project of YOUR mental freedom. That might look like a mindset makeover, finding more joy in life, learning the energy work modality that most connects with you or helping you achieve freedom from mental health drugs.
MORE COMING SOON!
The vision for Mental Health Rebels is much bigger than personal coaching. We’ll be doing community groups + classes soon. Sign up for emails to be the first to know:
