A Break from Healing

Do you ever feel like you’re in a constant, endless loop of healing? Like, you’re always trying to heal from something and not quite healing? We’re all said to be healing from something and because the healing journey isn’t linear, it’s easy to find yourself feeling underwhelmed with your progress and overwhelmed with grief, sadness or even despair. Naturally, we expect to get better at anything we dedicate time to so why is healing so hard?! Well, maybe because we try too hard. 

Working on healing from any pain or trauma is exactly that, work. And constant work without rest is a one-way road to burnout. 

When trying to heal a wounded heart, we often make the mistake of thinking only the heart needs healing but that’s the furthest thing from the truth. Healing the heart requires healing everything within us and that takes time. Our souls need time to process all the gains they make in restoring themselves. Our minds need time to reimagine new identities that are separate from the brokenness that was previously normalised. Our bodies need time to release the trapped energy that was making us sick. This is why healing is described as a journey with many twists and turns, setbacks and challenges, peaks and valleys. Like any long journey, you must rest along the way if you are going to make it to your destination in one piece. You must make time to stop and smell the scent of Spring in the air or feel the chill of Winter in the wind. You have to take in your surroundings, see the beauty and marvel at how far you have come. You have to awaken to each moment with gratitude and finally, you have to just rest. 

Resting from healing is the most underrated part of healing. And without it, you can easily get stuck. Don’t wear yourself out trying to make yourself whole. There is so much healing that happens in the stillness, in the laughter, in the everyday, mundane tasks that we previously couldn’t complete without falling apart. 

We need breaks from everything, including healing, so take your breaks, live your life and watch yourself come into full bloom.

By Phemi Segoe