Healing

I like Gabor Maté’s definition of healing as “a natural movement toward wholeness.” He refers to healing as a process, a direction rather than a destination. In other words, we’re going to have to work at healing ourselves and it is a journey.

We need first of all to acknowledge that we are wounded. We need to analyze those wounds and their impact on our lives. Growth and change, i.e. the journey to healing is almost always started because of some setback, loss, illness or alienation, according to every psychologist I have ever read.

My own journey of healing was prompted by a deep desire to find a way to live with multiple sclerosis and to minimize the disease’s impact on my life. My “natural movement toward wholeness” included learning ways to help other people through counselling.

Which wounds do you carry? How do they affect your life and the lives of those you love? Can you analyze those wounds and their impact on your life so that you can start a journey of growth and change toward healing? Are you, like me, already on this journey?