Today’s reading brings us face to face with our past. We are being asked to learn from our history so that we can heal old wounds and create a surprising future for ourselves. We are being told to learn and grow from our experiences, to not live in the past but acknowledge the impact it has on our present. All of this, so that we realize the influence our present has on our future. It sounds inspiring and exactly like something we should do, but how do we do this? How do we heal again wounds that seem to keep showing up?
The first step is acknowledging that the wounds are there. Whether we mistakenly thought we were past our hurt or we were triggered into reliving it all, the last thing we should do is avoid it. Grover (2017) outlines 5 steps that will help us through this process in How to Recover When Life Crushes You. The important thing to remember is that while we honor our pain, we do not allow it to consume us. We will need a support system and we will need a break from the pain. This doesn’t mean that the pain goes away, this means that for however brief a moment, or hour, or day, or week, we think about other things. We allow a respite from whatever is hurting us.
The next step is working our way towards letting go. Lindberg (2018) provides 12 tips in How to Let Go of Things from the Past. Regardless of how many steps or tips we take, the idea is to be kind to ourselves. Pain and hurt is real and not something that can be easily ignored or forgotten. However long it takes for us to process, heal, and move on is unique to us. We shouldn’t let anyone else tell us otherwise.
Midnight Crab Oracle 