5 Ways to Encourage Healing in Your Daily Life
There will never be a journey quite like the one you have to take to greet yourself. For some of us, it can be hard to begin. Where do you start? What tools do you need? Here are five activities to encourage healing and find peace within. All you need is a journal and time to yourself. ***
Create a safe space for your dreams.
Some of us put off our trauma as a means of survival. Months and years can pass before we’re ready to tackle it head-on. Start creating a safe space for your dreams and memories in a journal. Try writing down the times where you feel strongly upset, off-balance, or distrusting and the reasons why.
Prepare to spend time with yourself.
It’s hard to do things with intention when you don’t pay attention. Once you begin identifying the things that trigger you, prepare to sit with them and yourself. This process can take hours or even days, but if you can sit in your discomfort, you can begin to learn about and dissect it.
Start observing your own patterns.
Every time you tend to your own emotions, you are doing two things: 1) gathering more data about how you really feel and 2) actively caring for yourself and creating a new positive habit. Eventually, you can observe your own natural patterns. How DO you deal with stress? How ARE you coping with anxiety? If you don’t remember every bit, refer back to your journal for help.
Set realistic expectations of progress.
Caring for yourself as you unpack trauma means setting realistic expectations about feeling better. Whether you accidentally participate in a little self-sabotage, have a depressive episode, or start bawling at the idea of something that happened a decade ago, just remember that progress doesn’t happen in a straight line. Document how you’re feeling and give yourself grace.
Be kind to yourself no matter what.
Being kind to yourself is at the core of any healing you will accomplish on your journey. If nothing else, do what you can to be nice to yourself as you deepen your connection with self and tackle some of your greatest traumas once and for all. If it hurts to think, create physical comfort for yourself and rest. There’s always tomorrow.
***These tips are not meant as a replacement for seeking professional therapy, but to assist with the independent exploration of self.
