"I have found a few steady practices that have helped along the way. They include accumulating experiences and relationships instead of things; convening with the Beloved facing any number of different directions at least once a day; creating fine and not-so-fine art; listening to music; learning; teaching; reading; taking deep breaths; keeping a journal in an odd and ever-expanding spreadsheet to track and enhance my mood, sleep, prayers, charity, goals, and gratitude; turning off my phone, closing my inbox, shutting down tabs, and logging off social media more often; giving myself permission to laugh, cry, and pray at will — as well as license to continue seeking psychiatric help and taking medications as needed; sending thank-you notes to friends and family; taking walks in the wilderness; and more.
"Together, these habits have helped me treat every diagnosis herein, but they're not one-size-fits-all solutions by any stretch. In sharing how the words of an ancient mystic poet have changed my modern manic life, I know better than to promote any single path toward changing yours. For one, no such path exists. And just as well, because the goal here isn't to follow some rigid uniform map. Rather, it's to create our own: to customize our own rites and rituals as we apply Rumi's counsel to our own lives — guiding us to our source, our inner gold, our purpose, our Beloved.
"Rumi didn't whirl because he wanted others to whirl like him. He whirled because his heart led him to it — just as he composed poetry and recited Quranic verses while whirling because his heart led him to that.
"Thus, to follow the Rumi prescription is not to whirl like Rumi or to recite the same words he recited. Rather, it is to liberate yourself from your own ego, to stop asking 'What would people think?' and to start following the divine spark uniquely excessed within you. Point being, when it comes to filling Rumi's prescriptions, make them your own and apply them from within.
"Seek the tonic nectar in the bitter sting.
Go to the source of the source of your spring."
