5 Powerful Ways to Navigate & Overcome a Dark Season

I’ve never been professionally diagnosed with depression or anxiety, but I have certainly experienced depression-like symptoms and a whole truckload of anxiety in my lifetime.

Addressing mental health is more important than ever before and it’s no secret as to why.

The world has changed so drastically in the last twenty – or even ten – years alone, and these changes have fundamentally altered us as a species.

Through all the technology, industrial growth, and destruction of the Earth, we are so cut off from Creation and the Creator.

With all the chemicals we consume, the blue light we take in, the ridiculously packed schedules, and the mindless consumption of social media, mental health issues are a huge part of our lives.

1 in 10 people struggle with depression. Over 40 million people over the age of 18 have an anxiety disorder. Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the US.

This has become the new normal, and it’s not okay.

I was incredibly blessed to never experience issues that fall under the mental health umbrella for most of my life.

I thought people who said they struggled with things like depression and anxiety were being dramatic. I literally didn’t think anxiety was real.

Talk about karma. About two years ago, it went from zero to a hundred with the blink of an eye.

The highest season of my life was followed by the lowest season of my life, and like getting in a car accident, I received major spiritual whiplash, along with a string of mental health issues that I had never dealt with before.

Grief, anxiety, and depression hit me like those “fighters” on WWE; I was body slammed into the ground repeatedly, and I couldn’t find the strength get up and brush myself off.

I call this season, The Dark Season.

Days turned into weeks turned into months, as I struggled.

I started to have panic attacks before going into my serving job, which got so bad I had to call out of work – something I never did, even when I was sick (pre-pandemic). During my shifts I would struggle to perform well underneath the anxiety that pressed on my chest like a boulder.

I moved home at the start of the pandemic, and struggled to make money, feeling lost and confused. I also injured myself and was unable to hike or weightlift, which further affected me mentally. My chronic pain was the cherry on top of everything I was dealing with.

I spent many days in bed binging on Netflix, and eating processed junk food, suppressing my emotions because they were too overwhelming to process.

I lay awake in bed all night, going in circles about how I messed up my life, regretting the choices i made, choking on the grief that seemed to suffocate me.

Then there was the state of the world, which I did a pretty good job of ignoring at first, but as the racial injustice issues exploded, and the pandemic turned into a political issue, any sense of foundation I had crumbled beneath me like the wolf blowing down the pig’s house of straw.

People were getting sick and dying alone, they were losing their businesses, children were struggling to continue their education – the world was falling apart.

It was all too much. I stopped going out, I stopped seeing friends – and not just because there was a lockdown. Being around people gave me anxiety. Even the thought of posting on Instagram stressed me out.

I was stuck in a cycle of trying to rise and push forward, only to succumb to distraction and procrastination, then beating myself up for it, and criticizing myself for not doing better.

Over and over and over again.

It was a Dark Season.

But it didn’t last forever. Over time, I was able to untangle myself, bit by bit from the sticky web of darkness in my brain.

Because I was never formally diagnosed with any of the mental conditions listed above, I’m going to refer to those times as seasons of darkness.

This isn’t professional information on how to treat depression and anxiety (there are professional resources at the bottom of this post), but my own personal experience on how I got through it and how I’ve continued to get out of the dark seasons when they pop up again. 

If you struggle with your own Dark Seasons, know you’re not alone. I’ve been there and I’m sharing what I’ve learned on how to cope, and how to deal with them with more gentleness, ease, and self-love.

Here are five remedies that help me cope with, navigate, and conquer a Dark Season:

The Healing Power of Jesus

I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you, the number one reason I am where I’m at today is because of God’s grace, love, and strength.

He alone can do the miraculous, he alone can heal you from whatever darkness you’re facing.

You can do all of the other things I’m going to list but only Jesus can truly set you free.

There is only so much we can do on our own. And when we feel incapable of fighting, how are we supposed to get ourselves through this? That’s where Holy Spirit comes in. He fights for us when we are too weak to do so ourselves.

In my Dark Season last year, my faith was like a tether of sparkling light in the darkness that I was able to hold on to as I navigated my healing.

At first all I could do was hold on. Even though life hit me like a ton of bricks, and I stopped making God the priority, my hands didn’t let go of that tether. I wasn’t spending time with Him, I wasn’t doing any of the things that grew me closer to Him. But that little thread of light remained.

Even though I was angry at God, even though he wasn’t answering my questions, he was right there loving me through it all.

I started to realize that when I really gave everything to him, and kept asking for healing, he gave me the strength to do it. So I surrendered my darkness to God.

And as time went on, I was able to stand in the darkness, then I was able to take one step forward. Then another.

I was able to start following that tether, my strength returning to me, the farther I followed it. The tether grew as it wove through the mass of black, until I was able to step out of the darkness altogether, and back into the light.

I trusted God even when I didn’t understand what was happening. I followed the tether even when I couldn’t see where it was going.

The stronger I became, the more I tried to put him first, to start my day with him. I started tuning into church again (thank goodness for YouTube), and I prayed a lot.

I shifted my focus from my stress, my anxiety and my deep sadness to God.

The more time I spend with God, the faster my strength returned. The stronger I felt, the easier it was to get out of bed, and the more often I was productive. It was a beautiful cycle.  

Hope took root in my heart and eventually bloomed into joy.

God didn’t give up on me, so I didn’t give up on myself.

Get Outside

Starting my day off with a walk helped me get out of that fuzzy mental state. Being in nature, breathing in the crisp early morning air and marveling at God’s creation helped put me in a state of gratitude.

I would try to get outside just before the sun was rising to catch the sky explode in pinks and purples, the pre-sunrise light bathing the mountains in a rosy glow.

There’s something so peaceful about rising with the sun, being awake before the rest of the world wakes up.

It was a good reminder that each day is a new chance to try again. To do better that the day before, even if it’s the smallest step.

I liked to pray as I walked, it helped me connect with God and hear from him more clearly than other ways of communicating.

I was able to work through things with him during this time, which was something I was starving for, since my injury kept me from hiking (my favorite way of connecting with Jesus).

Gratitude, Prayer, and Positive Affirmation Journal

When I first dove into self-love years ago, I would start my day with writing down 5 things I was grateful for, 5 prayers, and 5 positive affirmations.

I did this consistently for two years and my mindset drastically changed as a result. I was generally more thankful, positive, and happy. It deepened my faith to look back on my prayers and see how God had answered them.

This practice fell off over time, but I picked it up again during the Dark Season, and I believe that some days it was the only thing that kept me from totally surrendering.

Reminding myself of all that I was blessed with, reminding myself of who I was (even though I didn’t feel like myself), and ultimately reminding myself whose I was kept things in perspective.

I told myself that I was going to get out of this season. Over and over and over again. Until I believed it.

It helped me push onward, even when I didn’t want to move.

Therapy/Counseling

Talking to someone during this time really helped. It was helpful getting an unbiased perspective who was educated in this field. It’s one thing to talk to a friend or family member, but there’s only so much they can say/do to help.

I know from talking with other people that sometimes talking to loved ones makes things worse, or that they are the cause of the mental health issues, so that person will bottle it up and not talk to anyone.

Being able to spew and vent and be honest with someone who didn’t know me personally took some of the weight off. They were able to give good insight that helped me see things more clearly and they gave me tools to work on my struggles.

I’ve recently started therapy again, and I love it. If you feel self-conscious or afraid of letting a stranger in, don’t worry. There are so many different options to choose from – I’ve been doing mine online – that you can find someone who suits your personality and can help you with what you’re doing through.

Diving into your feelings is painful and uncomfortable, but if you never confront them, you’ll never move past them. You’ll either keep suppressing them until they blow up in your face – like I did or go in endless circles – like I also did.

Having a someone guide me through my thoughts and emotions helped me break the patterns that were keeping me down and made me see that it wasn’t completely hopeless. There was a way to get out of it.

Medicine

I have friends who take prescription medication for their mental health, but what do you do if you’ve never been formally diagnosed with anything?

What I found worked for me was food, exercise, water, and sleep. These are powerful forms of medicine are often underused, and they are free.

What you’re fueling your body with affects your mood. As someone who is addicted to sugar, I was eating tons of processed foods during my dark season. Those junk foods were chains that tied my spirit down.

Seriously. Processed foods are pumped full of chemicals that cause the brain to release dopamine, the happy chemical. This causes people to continue to eat those foods to keep feeling that pleasure/reward feeling.

These foods have literally been created to get your brain addicted to them because of the feelings the brain emits when you eat them. In addition, processed/junk foods attack your body, leading to all sorts of diseases and illnesses in the long run.

Fueling your body with whole foods is what you always need, but especially when your mental health has taken a toll. It’s all connected.

Drinking plenty of water and staying hydrated is also important. I like to call water the elixir of life. It plays such a vital role in keeping our bodies functioning. There are all the physical benefits, such as fighting illness, keeping organs running properly, and the delivery of nutrients to cells, but there are also benefits that directly affect the brain.

By drinking plenty of water, you can improve your mood, cognition, and even sleep better.

Sleep can be so hard when you’re in a dark season. I know I would frequently laze around all day and be up all night with anxiety.

There are so many things you can try to do to get a good sleep, but for me, the biggest thing that helped was ending screen time at least an hour before bed and having a routine.

No phone in bed is my general rule, but I made sure to not watch or scroll right before bed. I also set my alarms for the next day, then placed my phone in bathroom.

Never sleep with your phone next to you – those 5G rays are badddd for your health.

I also created a nighttime routine that enabled my brain to wind down. This usually consisted of having tea, reading a book, and doing some stretching. Now I’m blessed to have a hot tub in my home, and I do that every night before bed.

Having a routine creates stability, and when you’re in a whirlwind of wild emotions, it’s hard to feel stable.

I think we all know the benefits of exercise. Increasing your heart rate creates endorphins. Endorphins are the happy chemical that will fight – seriously fight your darkness all on its own.

Many people say they hate exercise but finding what works for you is key. You don’t have to go for a run every morning or become a body builder to get your heart rate up.

Do some yoga, dance around in your room with the music blasting, walk up and down the stairs in your apartment while listening to motivational speeches. Seriously, find what works for you.

The dark seasons are hard, but when you start taking those tiny steps (or big, if you put it in God’s hands) you can and you will get out of it. I believe in you.

Also, while I can give you all the resources that worked for me, there are professionals that specialize in mental health. Listed below are hotlines and therapy services.

Hotlines

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): 1-800-662-HELP (4357)

National Hopeline Network: 1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433)

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Colorado Crisis Services 1-844-493-8255

Therapy Services

Faithfulcounseling.com

Sondermind.com

Betterhelp.com