The emotional road to recovery is often a slow one, full of unexpected twists and turns. When our spirit needs healing, we might set out on the path… only to face plenty of back sliding moments along the way, and more than a few land mines that set us back several paces.
You may be taking the first few steps on this journey with the idea that “it isn’t so bad… I’m doing okay,” going through the motions from one day to the next.
However, it can take years and even tens of years to work your way out of the avoidance stage. This is where you are mostly in denial of needing any sort of special care for your fragile emotional state… thinking that you will simply move on from this pain, sadness and/or anger that has perhaps become so ingrained in your personality that you don’t even notice it’s there.
If you truly hope to move past the emotional turmoil that holds you hostage in your own mind and keeps a padlock on your heart, then you must take the important first step to healing. You must overcome avoidance so that you can step into awareness.
Move beyond avoidant behavior – like putting on a happy face and saying/telling yourself “I’m fine” when asked about your welfare – because you simply can’t face that you’re deeply hurting on the inside.
Move past avoidant behavior – so that instead of drowning your feelings in things like alcohol, binge eating, casual sex, “retail therapy” or other escapist activities, you can finally take the needed steps to feeling good and whole again.
Move past avoidance and into acceptance – where you can easily and plainly identify the people and situations that may have contributed to your diminished sense of self and any accompanying emotional states that may go along with how you think and feel about you.
Emotional recovery comes with being able to work through psychological trauma that has caused you pain, to emerge on the other side, healed and whole once again.
This post is part of the Emotional Healing series. Printable version available soon.