What Healing Actually Looks Like

I moved out of home young in an attempt to escape the neglect and the perpetual fear that comes from having a drug dealer for a father. To survive, I lived off charity, government handouts, and part time work to get me through high school.

I have been dealing with the mental health ramifications ever since. 

Suffice to say, it is a continual struggle. It really does feel like that in order to improve I need to take two steps forward, one back, then I’ll tread water for a while. Perhaps I’ll then get side tracked before finally getting my shit together long enough to take a few more steps forward.

All progress is great, and over the long term I am clearly trending up.

But the thing is, every back step hurts. It reignites all the self doubt and insecurities that I (thought) I had put behind me.

With years of experience, I now know to expect such back steps, so they don’t hurt as much. I know they will come, and I know I will be able to survive.

There is always something to learn; about myself, the world, and my place in it.

The key that I now try to keep in mind is that: 

It is possible to heal, but that healing won’t be linear, nor will it be simple. In fact it will be one of the hardest things you commit to.

It requires a change in mindset and the breaking of well formed toxic coping strategies and bad habits, then replacing them with good ones.

Diet.
Meditation.
Therapy.
Exercise.
Self care.
Expression.
Dream pursuits.
Relationships.

I have found it best to tackle all these areas one at a time, and little by little.

Get them all to a 2/10, then work on moving them all to a 5/10, then beyond. This sequential approach works well because you will start to see synergy; one area will positively impact another, and both of those will help the rest.

To heal, you only need to do two things:

1 – take action and start, any area will do.
2 – don’t stop, even when you take a backwards step.

Let’s heal together, yeah?