Tag: recovery
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Becoming Rooted
A Letter to the Woman Who Thought She Had Lost Everything I know you’re scared. I know you haven’t been sleeping. I know your mind is racing through every possible outcome and almost all of them end in disaster. I know you’re staring at the wreckage of your life wondering how things got this far.…
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Safe People, Safe Places
One of the hardest lessons recovery has taught me is that not everyone who loves us is safe for us. And not everyone who was once safe will remain safe. I wish that weren’t true. I wish healing automatically strengthened every relationship. I wish growth brought everyone along with us. I wish becoming healthier meant…
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Returning to Yourself
I used to think people woke up one day and decided to completely abandon themselves. That they made some dramatic choice to stop taking care of themselves, stop being honest, stop reaching out, stop doing the things that kept them healthy. But that’s not usually how it happens. At least it never happened that way…
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Holding Grief and Gratitude Together
For much of my life, I believed I had to choose. Either I was grateful… Or I was struggling. Either I was healing… Or I was hurting. Either I was hopeful… Or I was grieving. I didn’t realize there was another option. I didn’t realize that some of the deepest forms of healing come when…
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Resting Without Guilt
I used to wear exhaustion like a badge of honor. The busier I was, the more productive I felt. The more I accomplished, the more valuable I believed I was. The more people needed me, the more secure I felt. I don’t think I realized it at the time, but underneath all of that busyness…
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When Old Voices Start Getting Loud
I wish healing meant the old voices disappeared forever. I wish there was a point in recovery where shame packed its bags, self-doubt vanished, and the lies we believed about ourselves simply stopped showing up. But that hasn’t been my experience. The truth is, there are still days when the old voices get loud. Usually…
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Learning to Sit in Uncertainty
I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to try to live three months ahead of where I actually am. Something small happens, and before I know it, my mind has built an entire future around it. A difficult conversation? Suddenly my brain is preparing for the collapse of every relationship I have.…
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Storms Don’t Mean You’re Failing
I used to think that healing meant eventually arriving at some place where life stopped feeling hard. I thought that if I worked hard enough, prayed hard enough, dug deep enough, and did enough work on myself, eventually I would reach this imaginary place where difficult emotions didn’t hit so hard anymore. A place where…
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Living Forward Without Looking Back
For a long time, I lived with one foot in the present and one foot in the past. Physically I was moving forward, but emotionally I was constantly looking over my shoulder. Looking back at mistakes.Looking back at shame.Looking back at the person I had been.Looking back at moments I desperately wished I could erase.…
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Building a Life That Reflects Your Values
For a long time, I lived my life by reaction instead of intention. I responded to crises.I responded to fear.I responded to shame.I responded to whatever emotion happened to be screaming the loudest that day. I wasn’t stopping to ask: What actually matters to me?Who do I want to be?What kind of life am I…
