Has Your Healing Practice Gone to Shit?

Hey diy Ass-kickers!
We need to be perfectly honest here ladies, we all want to feel our best and most of us know what we need to do to get there, but there are so many things that interfere with our healing practice. And we let that shit get in our way.
I am big on healing practices. Your healing practice can include anything that you know makes you feel good. Not the good that lasts for a few moments as you swallow that donut hole. That other kind of good that stays and has no lingering guilt sticking to it.
Healing practices are things that you know support your body, you mind and your soul with nutrition, body movement, spirituality, and self care that may or may not include standing up for yourself with that “Fuck you” when necessary. Healing practices support your authenticity and your wholeness as a human being.
Truthfully, there is nothing that can force you to stop your healing practice. Except you of course. And that’s usually rooted in beliefs that don’t serve us well. Beliefs that give us what looks on the surface like a good reason to halt the work.
We start believing that we just can’t handle stress.
We start believing that we need the backup of food, booze, cigarettes, sex or spending money that we don’t have.
We start believing that we deserve to stop our practice because it’s hard.
And, we start believing that next week, or next month, we will be much better prepared to take this on.
Get the picture?
Our minds can come up with some pretty cray cray reasons why we should avoid our healing practices, and they all ignore the fact that your healing practice is what you put in place to feel the way you want to feel. To do the things you want to do. To be the woman you want to be.
I believe that on some level, we’re aware of all that. And we hate ourselves just a little bit more because we couldn’t make it work. Maybe for a second, third, or tenth time.
Setting up a healing practice that will stick, means that you know that beliefs that don’t serve you are gonna creep in, and that you include strategies that help you stay on track when they do.
Because if you look deeply enough to understand your usual “way out” of working on yourself, you come to understand that in the moment, it seems easier. But it’s not easier at all, least of all on your positive sense of self. And it’s not going to get you what you want. So try some of these on for size…
When you believe that you can’t handle stress come up with your own evidence, by looking at your experiences with previous stressful times. I know you haven’t lived a perfectly charmed life, and you’re still here, right? You managed it and it’s worth remembering that when stress has you wavering. Think ahead about things that support you when you feel stressed, make a list even so you have it handy when the stress shit hits the fan. Remember that your stress release might include tears, exercise, yelling, dancing it out, coffee with a bestie, meditation or journalling, it’s really quite personal. Just keep it something that makes you stronger, not weaker. Use it to give you extra energy, to accept things that are not yours to change, and to stay with what makes you feel good when you’re not sure you can take anymore.
When you believe that you need to numb out with things that are short term fixes for shitty feelings, remember that you darling, are resilient and can handle the feelings that you’d rather avoid. Let yourself sit with your feelings, be with them, and ask yourself when you started to feel that way and what triggered it? What do you need to support yourself as you are sitting in the “muck” of deep feelings? What do you need to do to resolve the feelings that are messing with your practice? Resolving our feelings is a challenge for sure, but unresolved feelings will leave you looking for places to hide.
When you believe that you deserve to stop working on yourself because it’s hard, I’m calling bullshit. You are deserving of the outcome of your healing practice, and the feelings, the confidence, the contentment, the peace, the self love and self compassion that will come with it. And you deserve to fight for your own happiness. What you don’t deserve is the lack of all of the above, the belief that you can’t do it, or a life that doesn’t make you as happy as shit. Change doesn’t happen without action so take each day at a time, give gratitude for what has gone right in that day, and plan out what you’d like to change up for tomorrow. A healing practice is hard work, super hard work, but you are worth each and every ounce of effort you put out and it will get easier as you go. I promise!
When you believe that there is another time that you will be better prepared to take on your healing practice, what is truly different about now and later? Things will not be any better then than they are now, there will always be something in your way that you will want to lean on. Recognize what your barriers are, and when you really want to just chuck the whole thing out the window. This isn’t about when you do it, or even what you do. It’s about breathing deeply, staying very clear about what you really want, and taking steps to get there. Baby steps if need be. This time next year, what will you wish you had done today?
You know that all these suggestions are not just ideas to help you stay on the path of your healing practice, right?
They become part of the practice.
Why?
Because everyone falters, everyone fails, everyone has that time when they just say fuck it. You are not alone.
Everyone has those moments when they are ready to let their healing practice go straight to shit.
And when you’re there, having your own back up in mind is a really good thing.
Because the person who will make it easier for you to stick with your healing practice is the same person who is keeping you from doing it.​​​​​​​