Mental health is a topic that is unlikely to stop trending on social media anytime soon. But openly sharing one’s inner mental state in a public forum is a very recent phenomenon.
It was unheard of to express your doubts or insecurities to anyone outside of your immediate family before psychotherapy became en vogue in Europe and in the United States. But even then, therapy was considered a private and sacred meeting place between two adults, and “airing one’s dirty laundry” was left to the likes of Woody Allen - those with a natural flair for self-depreciation and shamelessness about their psychological complexes.
A big change happened when Tumblr exploded in popularity during the late 2000s and early 2010s. Young people (mostly young teenage girls) were able to anonymously share their collective sense of sadness with other people they were unlikely to ever meet in person. (Article: Tumblr’s Depression Connection)
Sharing your fears, lack of confidence, depressive tendencies, and even self-abuse, created its own form of social clout amongst these young and vulnerable people. It became “cool” to be unwell, chic to be suicidal, and normal to be depressed. (Article: The Sad-Girl Trope is Getting Old.)
Looking back, many didn’t realize how utterly toxic this environment was to ruminate on one’s problems in the seemingly infinite manner that Tumblr’s feed was designed. And the trend went mainstream with phrases like “it’s okay to not be okay”, and the general trend to celebrate one’s brokenness.
Our weaknesses are not the qualities that should defines us. The result has been the cult of victimization. The victim stance is like drinking a slow-acting poison that goes down sweet and satisfying, but it eventually destroys you.
Instead of being encouraged to improve and become a more courageous in the midst of seemingly insurmountable odds and the challenges of life, describing oneself in negative terms has created a modern ethos of seeing weakness as strength.
In many ways, what is called therapy and mental wellness today has become an inverted ideology that has strayed from it original purpose of helping a person understand and then grow stronger in the midst of psychological problems.
Astrology as a Solution-Based Therapy
The beauty of astrology as a therapeutic method is that we can identify a specific part of our conscious or unconscious selves in need of improvement, and focus on actually improving it instead of dwelling on the problem itself.
For example, there is an enormous amount of research and attention paid to narcissism, which has become a very popular discussion topic in podcasts. Most of the discussions are about how to deal with narcissistic personalities who can sabotage our life, but what causes a person to be narcissistic?
Mental health professionals rightly identify it as: someone who feels a lack of internal confidence, self-esteem, an over-whelming sense of inferiority, and an inner emptiness. They compensate for these sensations with a selfish posture towards the world, and oftentimes with a need to dominate and manipulate others to fill that hole within them.
Everything I wrote in the above paragraph … what causes that? The answer in astrological terms is an unhealthy Solar Consciousness, the Sun within us. This is one of the actual roots of the problem, and using astrology we can then work to heal that Solar Consciousness within the person.
This is a very short, simplified example, and every person will experience another narcissistic personality in a myriad of ways, and everyone has the capacity to experience narcissistic tendencies within themselves at certain points in their life.
But the point is that astrology can not only point to the root problem, but there is a flip-side - a positive side - to every unhealthy aspect of our personality. There are countless possible problems, and there are countless possible solutions if we understand the root causes.
Most importantly, we need to draw our attention away from problem-based therapy into solution-based therapy.
Individuals who are suffering from the debilitated feeling of any mental issue need to prevent themselves from falling into the seductive trap of seeing psychological issues as a permanent aspect of their personality, and to not define their existence by them.
We are complex, multi-faceted and powerful beings, and emphasizing solutions is just one aspect of how astrology distinguishes itself as a unique methodology that help us work towards building a positive self-image and higher-functioning personality.