Healing as a journey
“Without compassion, empathy, and regard for ourselves, we will not have a strong foundation upon which healing can take place.”
One of the things I have learned in my years of being both a therapist and a client is that healing is more about undoing rather than doing. It’s about undoing all the ways in which we were taught the way we are is wrong and undoing the harsh criticisms externally placed on us.
Some of us have been given so many messages about ourselves by people who were incapable or unwilling to see our light. And while recognizing that can be upsetting, it can be liberating because those messages were never about us. I invite you to be critical of that voice that likes to criticize you at every turn – who in your life does it sound like? What’s its purpose? When does it feel louder?
It can be hard to believe we’re worthy, we matter, or that good can happen if we have been continuously given messages that tell us the opposite. Here’s the thing though, you’re always allowed to add what you wish to have had. You can add more joy, love, gratitude, acceptance, compassion, and whatever else you feel you did not receive in your life. It may not be the same, but it can be good enough.
Healing is a journey and a process. Are you so focused on getting it done and over with that you find yourself missing out on your life right now?
Start asking...
What would it look like to add more joy, fun, pleasure, and love into my life?
If I started believing I was good enough, what would I do differently?
If I were to wake up tomorrow at the destination I was seeking, what in my life would be different, how would I feel? What would I do?
