Hi! Welcome back to my kitchen. 🙂 If you read this blog for any amount of time, you might wander how a person started on their healing journey. In this post, we will explore how the healing journey begins. How do you know you started? What might you feel or what prompts you to start? How do you deal with the initial starting pains and keep going?
Leisel starts her healing journey
All of those are great questions. Now, you might wonder how I started, and that is where we will begin. I believe that if I am going to teach you what I learned and suggest what you could do, you ought to know that I did not sit here comfortably typing up something that sounded good. I went through this myself. My journey started some where also.Â
When the healing journey started, I did not know that I had started or that others called it a “healing journey” or used any variation of that phrase. What I experienced was feelings of anxiety and consternation. I started thinking about the things that had happened to me and asked questions. I reached out to folks I thought I could trust. This started when I was in high school. I was a senior too. The pain welled up like a basketball under water. Because I was in a church and a Christian school, I reached out to those folks. Some of the teachers went to a church where they had kind older ladies who could listen and help. They called it “Healing Rooms.” I eventually went on to watch the same training and help in the Healing Rooms.Â
The journey continued in college and subsequently died for a while when I got married and moved out of my parents’ house. It continued in 2016 when I became angry at my husband for not making our move to our new house about us but included everyone – not to mention they probably wanted to be involved. Counseling took things to a new and better level. Counselors trained in addressing needs of the sexually abused brought healing to my life. I reached a level recently (2023) where I felt ready to move forward and find a new normal for me – one that did not focus or hold on to the abuse and its affects on my life.Â
How to know you have begun
Assess your life
Take a look at your life. Are you seeking answers to even the smallest questions? Or, maybe you started with a big question. Did you move away from the source of the abuse? Are you talking about the pain with a friend and finding relief? Do you continually pursue new thoughts and tools to help chart your path? All of these questions (and many more) are great ways to assess whether you have started or not. You might just be feeling the pain of the past and are wondering what to do about it. To me, that is the absolute beginning. You need to see that the pain is real and that it needs love and attention. If you leave it alone, you might be that basketball underwater ready to explode.Â
What about pain in the healing journey?
Honestly, you might not want to start. The healing journey is painful, and you know it.  However, no reward exists for staying where you are. I encourage you to take a deep breath, assess the situation, and go as slow as you need to go. Eventually, the ups and downs become evident. You will know when you are at a resting point and things go well for a while. You will also know when to deal with more of the pain and you need to find a counselor or other forms of support.
Your healing journey begins the minute you realize you have a problem and you start looking for answers. Always remember that you are not alone. Honestly, lots of people are on their healing journey, but most do not talk about it. Hence this blog. 🙂
Alright. Thanks for stopping in for a visit. Leave any comments you might have or simply say hello.
-Leisel
