Healing

           I started my wellness journey back in 2010 when I was in my first year for Acupuncture.  I’ve gained a lot of knowledge and have done a lot of healing in the past 15 years, but it didn’t all happen at once, nor was it continuous.

          There are a lot of people in the “wellness” industry with a lot of opinions. Some good, some not.  Social media makes them more readily available to the public.  I’ve always been really cautious about what they’re preaching, applying my own critical thinking skills.  Something clicked for me this past week as to why I’ve been so cautious around their messages, and that’s because most of them have taken western capitalistic values and attached it to wellness.  Not just in a monetary way, but in the way that we have to constantly be doing, constantly being productive and providing results.  Healing doesn’t work like that. I can’t really blame them either, because they’re just mimicking a system they’ve grown up in.  

          Healing is a journey.  At times it can be exhausting, not something to be done consecutively.  It can take months or years to heal past traumas or illnesses.  There will be days or months where it feels like you’re going backwards, or that you need to take a break from it all.  I think we need to allow ourselves time to allow things to integrate and just be.  Usually things will pop up for us when we’re ready to work on something else.   We need space to do that.  If we’re trying to fix everything one after the other, or worse trying to fix it all at once, we’re likely to fail.  There also isn’t one way to heal, it can look different for everybody.  Healing isn’t always pretty, and not everyone will understand what you’re trying to do.  Think the hardest part about healing for me, is the friends lost along the way, because you’re just no longer on the same page.  You do tend to meet new friends however who get it, and are in the same place as you.

          What’s important to remember when you’re on your healing journey, is it is just that, your journey.  Try not to compare yourself to others, because you could be comparing your chapter one to their chapter 20.  Healing can be a subtle and gradual process, and you won’t always notice the changes right away.  Even though I am constantly striving to be better, I am generally focusing on one or two things at a time.  Over 15 years I’ve taken small, gradual steps that have built up into better habits over time.  When I’m ready I’ll add a bit more.  There are days that are more challenging than others. Days I’m ready to pack it all in.  Days where I’m grateful and content.  So just because I’m always striving to become better, I’m not always working, at least not in the way people think.  Rest and recovery are importantly for healing, so they should be just as important in everything else we do.