A Path of Healing

Reaction.

Our strongest emotional reactions are the breadcrumbs on our path to healing. Screaming, crying, or that thing we just can’t deal with are clues to what we need to heal. Each one signifies something that needs a closer look within us.

Once we have awareness of our reactions, we can begin a path of healing. It is our awareness of it that tells us that it is time to take the next step. And the next step is a gentle investigation.

Gentle Investigation.

The word “gentle” is intentional. Beating ourselves up isn’t going to work. Judging ourselves will not work. Stepping into the process with a kinder intention helps us move through the challenging energies and strong reactions.

A gentle investigation begins with a question, or several. What am I reacting to? Am I reacting to the current situation or a past trauma? What about the current situation that is inspiring a strong reaction? Additional questions may arise from within us.

Without judgment we begin answering those questions and moving forward to the next breadcrumb. What does this remind me of? What traumatic life experience am I reacting to? What is this related to? What past situation does this mirror?

The situations that inspire our strong emotions are often tied to our past pain. Understanding our reaction is a step towards healing. Looking back through our lives, remembering our trauma and the events that shaped us, is what is needed to heal.

For some of us it is a theme which runs through our lives. A pervasive, sometimes karmic, experience that shaped our lives. For others it is an event, a one-time occurrence. And some of us are here to heal generational trauma. For most of us it is a blend of experiences.

Knowing what has inspired our strong reaction is the first step towards healing. Identifying the cause through a gentle investigation of our reaction and past trauma will help us move forward. We can then acknowledge and process our pain.

Acknowledge and Process.

Once we’ve identified the inspiration for the strong reaction, we can begin processing our emotions. That begins by acknowledging what we experienced in whatever way we can.

An inner dialogue, writing in our journal, or a conversation with someone we trust can all help us move through the memories of our trauma. Other times it happens when we least expect it.

Processing the emotions, allowing them to surface and be expressed, is how we heal. By expressing ourselves, we start to diffuse the strong emotions around it. Each time we acknowledge our emotions and feel them, we are taking another step on the path towards healing.

Softening and diffusing can continues happen in any way that serves us. Spiritual practices such as energy releasing may help. Seeking professional help or spiritual healing may help. We must do what serves us and our path to aid in the healing we seek.

Acknowledgment can help us experience our emotions and allow them to move through our awareness. Moving them from stuck in our body and mind to the forefront helps dull their impact as we process them.

Diffusing the emotional impact of our trauma makes it easier to move forward towards forgiveness.

Forgiveness.

With the emotional impact diffused, we can begin to move towards forgiveness. It is a process that is for no one else. It is for us. We forgive not for those who have done us harm, but for healing the part of us that is carrying the pain and trauma.

Forgiveness doesn’t require a conversation with anyone else. We don’t have to contact our perpetrators or our abusers. We forgive them within us. Forgiveness is for our healing.

Some of us may need to forgive ourselves for our part in the trauma. Or we may want to forgive how we reacted or how it impacted our lives. We will know what we need or want to forgive.

Forgiveness is an act of letting go, softening our hold on the pain and trauma. It is a way to let go of the blame and release attachment to the situation. It’s part of the process. A path that we walk and practice.

The Path is A Practice.

Healing is a path and a practice. With intention we move through it. Our reactions soften over time and with intention. And we forgive. It is a way of life. A process of healing.

The path includes identifying the source of strong emotions, acknowledging them, processing them, and forgiving ourselves and others. And doing so until one day we notice that we feel more healed than not.

The process may not be linear. We may move through it many times. We may move through different parts of it back and forth. And it is not likely to work the first time. But it does work.

With love and patience, we can walk the path of healing. We can soften the emotional charge of our trauma and soften our reactions. We can forgive. In time we can clear the space in our minds and bodies. And we can heal.

Grateful.

I invite you to bookmark the Exploring Spirituality main blog page. So that you can come back soon and often.

I’m grateful you’re here. I love you.

Be well, beautiful soul and human,

Nikki