The Journey of Healing

Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you - all of the expectations, all of the beliefs - and becoming who you are. ~ Rachel Naomi Remen
A lot of people say they want to get out of pain, and I'm sure that's true, but they aren't willing to make healing a high priority. They aren't willing to look inside to see the source of their pain in order to deal with it. ~ Lindsay Wagner
There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with. ~ Harry Crews
Recently someone asked me an interesting question, "What hurts the most emotional pain or physical pain?". My answer was emotional pain because it is not always obvious to people. When you have a physical pain or an injury of some sort it is typically visible to the eye. People can look at sympathize with you whereas emotional pain is somewhat subtle.
The first step in the journey of healing is to be willing to look at whatever it is causing you the pain. Even though it is not always clear to others you know if you are feeling pain in your life. You have to be willing to acknowledge the pain and have a desire to resolve it.
Many times we are afraid of looking at the sources of our problems because it also will mean facing our fears. It means facing reality as it is and at times the reality maybe too painful to face. However process of healing can only begin when we're willing to look at what is no matter how painful it is. It takes a lot of courage to do this.
What you need to know is that you're not alone in your feelings of fear. Whatever it is that you're facing in your life that is causing you pain and is just calling your attention that there is a part of you that needs to heal.
I have learned in my life that my greatest pain and fears stemmed from not being myself. It came from my past hurts and painful experiences I went though in my childhood. However there came a time when it was more painful to continue living my life the way it was than to begin the work of healing.
I was afraid to face my fears and the truths and realities of everything that has happened. I was too angry and I wanted to hold on to the resentments I had of the people that hurt me. I wanted to hold on to the anger and the hurt.
What I realized though was that holding on to those things that weren't my true nature was hurting me more than anyone else. I had to feel the pain and grieve my losses and let them go. I had to let go. Letting go is not the easiest thing to do but is is a necessary step in order for healing to take place.
When you are willing to let go then you also become willing to take responsibility. You take control of your own happiness. No one will have power over you. Not the people that may have caused you pain, not your emotions, or anything else for that matter.
When decide to let go and embrace your fears and vulnerabilities you'll find freedom. Freedom to be yourself, freedom to feel your feelings, freedom to own your pain and freedom to grieve your losses. It is a liberating and cleansing experience. From this point there is no where but to go up.
The first step maybe the hardest step you'll take in this journey of healing. Ask yourself and reflect on, What is it that is causing me pain? What am I afraid of? What are the areas of my life that I am not happy with? Then listen to the answers.
All the answers may not come to you right away, but listen to your heart. No one is more qualified. This is the beginning of your journey to healing and recovery.
Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it. ~ Tori Amos
Peace, Love & Gratitude,
Neseret

Neseret Bemient is a Personal Health and Wellness coach, speaker, author. She helps women and mothers on their journey to healing, health and wholeness. If you would like to learn more about Neseret and her work follow this link http://www.neseretbemient.com/

Addiction Treatment

Addiction has to be distinguished from habit or experiment or party time. Addiction is the inability to predict what will happen in any day after the first use of a mood-altering substance or process. Will the person always - every time - be able to take it or leave it by choice or will an uncontrollable binge sometimes occur?
Habit is often related to home or social environment. That's the way things are usually done in the family, at work or socially.
Party time is what students and other merry-makers do. At times they go too far. Eventually they grow out of it or get bored.
Treatment will depend upon the cause: Party time is enjoyable just occasionally. Slow down if it is becoming too much of a good thing. Be concerned if you can't.
Habit is when you get stuck in a rut. Get out of it if it becomes tedious to you or to others. Worry about it if you can't.
Addiction is when you keep going back to a mood-altering substance or process after giving it up for a time. Be appropriately frightened if that is what happens to you or if you become depressed and angry when you are abstaining.
The three underlying influences in addiction are genetic inheritance, emotional trauma and social opportunity.
Social influences are treated by changing the environment. Abstain from anything and anywhere that causes you damage in any way.
Emotional trauma from the past is best treated professionally. EMDR is a psychological process that heals shame and promotes gentle acceptance of past hurts. NLP helps to re-frame past fear or sadness, seeing life in new ways. Psychodrama works on thoughts, feelings and actions all at the same time, enabling new insights and behaviours to develop.
Genetic influences are countered each day by choosing specific alternative behaviours. Obsession with self disappears when helping others with their compulsive or addictive behaviour anonymously.
Treatment of addiction through drug substitution, such as with Methadone or Prozac, simply creates another dependency. Treatment with CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is helpful for people who were confused but who had no emotional difficulties. Doctors and therapists tend to like CBT because it shows how clever they are. Psychodrama, EMDR and NLP require imagination, creativity, training and skill.
There are many psychological techniques that can help people to settle their tormented spirits. The tortuous processes of analysis should be confined to history. Positive psychology looks at what people do well and builds on that.
The tailor-made treatment for addiction is the Twelve Step programme, first formulated by Alcoholics Anonymous but now applied to many addictions. One day at a time, as with the treatment for any chronic illness, we meet other addicts, we work the Twelve Steps, we read the appropriate books and pamphlets, we find a guide to help us, and we abstain from all mood-altering substances and processes that affect us.
We come to depend upon a higher power than ourselves, specifically as each of us may understand this concept, to restore sanity to our troubled minds and order to our disturbed lives.
Professional treatment aims to help sufferers from addictive disease of any kind to develop peace of mind in spite of unsolved problems, happy and mutually fulfilling relationships, spontaneity, creativity and enthusiasm.

Dr Robert Lefever is regarded as the pioneer of addiction treatment methods and rehab centres in the UK. He established the very first rehabilitation centre that treated patients with eating disorders, alongside those with drug and alcohol problems. He was also the first to treat compulsive gambling, and workaholism.

In the last 26 years, he has worked with over 5000 people suffering with stress, depression, and various forms of addictive behaviors, (principally problems with alcohol, drugs and food), as well as running a busy private medical practice.
With this unrivalled experience, he now offers intensive two week one-to-one interventions that achieve results in one third of the time than the traditional 6-week residential programs offered elsewhere.
This approach is ideal for people for whom time really is money. The one-to-one nature of this treatment also comes with the reassurance of real confidentiality when compared to group residential treatment, regardless of prestige.
In 2009, he retired as a GP, and from medical practice altogether, in order to focus on the work that he loves."