Almost every person in the world is recovering from something. We each have lessons we must learn, and some of those lessons leave deep, painful cuts. It is those cuts we must heal. Through time, thought, and practice those cuts become a faded scar that we can look at and say, "I remember that."
Now just as there are many techniques and products to heal from physical cuts and bruises, there are just as many to heal emotionally and mentally. I'm going to share with you the path I've taken to heal and that is using spirituality as my healer.
Spirituality is different to everyone. You can have spirituality without religion but it's hard to have religion without spirituality. I'm going to focus upon the spirituality without religion aspect because I believe religion is a private matter between you and your god-head of choice.
The issues I've had to recover from, and am still recovering from, are typical of most women: depression, low self-esteem, a cycle of abusive relationships from childhood to my first marriage. I have, however, not had to deal with chemical dependencies such as alcohol or drug addiction. Thus far, I've ended the all the abusive relationships (my mother died and my first husband is far and away from me, although the divorce is still pending), my current relationship is about as close to pure bliss as possible. He's wonderful, caring, supportive, worships the ground I walk on, treats me like the goddess I am, and I could not ask for anyone better in my life. I'm truly blessed and thankful every day. My depression comes and goes as I clean out the mental and emotional rooms of my soul. There are days when I feel all the junk as if it just happened then there's days when it felt as if all that happened to someone else. My self-esteem improves each day, in part because I'm in a wonderful relationship, also in part to the fact I work on it each day. If you're wanting to take that first step into recovery you must understand this point from the get go: recovery does not happen in a day, a week, a month or even a year.
Recovery is a commitment to yourself. Recovery is not instant. My metaphysical teacher likes to remind us, "There is no McEnlightenment." Well guess what folks, there is not any McRecovery either. Recovery takes time, and it's an on-going, daily process, and "10 Steps to a Healed You," isn't going to work. You have a lot of junk to send to the dump, you've got cuts to disinfect and suture, you've got to find new clothes, a new hairstyle, even a new religious path (as I had to do) and an all new you under all the hurt and anger. If you thought extreme makeover was just a television show, you haven't seen anything yet. As in the words of my ex-husband, "I don't even know you anymore." Yeah, that's right, you don't, but I do and I couldn't be happier.
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