Adapted from What You Take To Heaven:

Are you condemning yourself? Is a negative self-image causing you to descend into deeper darkness?

“Our thoughts have exceptional power to draw on the negative or positive energies around us,” says the most famous of afterlife chronicles. “When they draw at length on the negative, the result can be a  weakening of the body’s defenses.

“This is especially true when our negative thoughts are centered on ourselves. I understood that we are at our most self-centered state when we are depressed. Nothing can sap our spiritual strength and health as much as prolonged depression.

“But when we make the effort to move ourselves away from self and begin to concentrate on the needs of others and how to serve them, we begin to heal. Service is a balm to both the spirit and the body.”

We know we are advancing in the right way when we can summon joy even on those “disastrous” days (knowing that God is above any calamity).

Life is a test. There are good days and bad days. A great day is followed by a less-than-great one.

As a researcher named Kenneth Ring noted, “Joy in living is the truest sign that we are living right. What kills is judgment; what heals is love.

“The Light itself is only love and it never judges; instead, it gently nudges you toward your essential self. When you become identified with this Light, you will have only love and compassion for yourself—and for everything—and you will be able to let go of all judgment.”

There is always the caution that the “light” can be a deception. We have to be careful if an account does not include Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The devil can come as an “angel of light.”

Take what is good and leave the rest. Beware the New Age.

But we also know that God is Light—it’s how He struck down Saint Paul!—and that He’s also Love.

Love heals. Love cleanses.

Through life, we pick up grit.

It’s our chore to get rid of that.

[resources: What You Take To Heaven and Italy pilgrimage]