This Is How You'll Know You're Healing đ¸
'Everyoneâs healing journey looks different, and because of that, you wonât always recognize when itâs happening.'
Welcome to the Collective World X Thought Catalog Newsletter. Collective World is a one-of-a-kind creative network powered by the minds and voices behind The Thought & Expression Company. Weâre so glad youâre here.
How do you know when youâre healing? Truthfully, sometimes you just donât.
Sometimes healing isnât obvious. Sometimes it sneaks up on us without us ever knowing, and we donât realize it until one day we donât respond to triggers the same way we once did.
Sometimes we donât realize weâre healing because it doesnât feel the way we think it should. Healing isnât about never feeling the sting of pain again. Itâs not about forgetting everything that hurt you. Itâs not about feeling invincible. You wonât always feel the peacefulness youâd expect. Sometimes healing is just moving forward, even when it feels easier to take a step backwards.
Sometimes we donât realize weâre healing because we donât fully notice our own progress. When you take life day to day, itâs hard to see the way we steadily inch forward. Itâs easier to notice the relapses, the trip ups, the moments where we donât feel like weâre as far along as we should be. Itâs much harder to step back and see your whole journey, especially when itâs a slow change over time. You donât see the way youâve changed in a year, or five, or even ten.
Sometimes we donât realize weâre healing because we just forget to keep noticing it. Healing isnât some big revelation, and while itâs a transformative process, youâll rarely feel like a brand new person. Sometimes healing blends in with the flow of life, and itâs not until later that you realize you reached the small milestones without even noticing it.
The truth is, sometimes we donât realize weâre healing because we donât always completely understand what that means. As Bianca Sparacino so beautifully put it, âWe are all healing from things we may not understand, things that feel unfair, and haunted, and gritty within our bones. We are all healing â and there is no right or wrong way to approach that journey, because healing is not linear, it does not exist within a structured or sensible timeline.â
But I will say this: There will always be small moments that tip us off to this progress. Like when we choose to keep putting in the work, even when itâs hard, even when it feels much easier to quit. Like when, instead of falling back on old coping mechanisms, we find healthy ways to deal with our emotions. Like when we fight against our impulses to self-destruct or beat ourselves up and instead try to extend ourselves true compassion.
Everyoneâs healing journey looks different, and because of that, you wonât always recognize when itâs happening. And itâs okay if you donât know which way this journey will take you. Itâs okay if you donât know what healing is supposed to look like on you. All you can do is do your best. As Chelsey Armfield wrote, âAll you can do is take each step as it comes and wander down each new path as it presents itself to you.â
What Weâre Reading This Week đđ
âIn the mirror, I am myself and something elseâa shadow, a memory, a leaf on a branch of a hundred-foot tree.â â Callie Byrnes
âWhy should this person be at the storyâs heart? And whose voice has been lost in order to elevate it?â â Sarah Manavis
âiâm learning to long for things that are simpleâ â Natalia Vela
âThough the monsters of literature are sometimes beholden, even prisoner, to their own idiosyncratic rules, they areâor at any rate, they seem to beâutterly free of the manners and mores that keep the rest of us locked within limits.â â Jess Zimmerman
âIf it means that much, if it is that central to everything that matters to you, it is worth doing regardless of the outcome, right?â â Melissa Febos
For more reading recommendations follow Quote Catalog where we find and file the best things to read every single day.
Let us leave you with this:
âYouâll know youâve healed
when you find gratitude
in the pain
that once broke youâ â Taj Arora   Â
Trust that youâll get there đ¤
Thank for your beautiful, reading on healing ' ..appreciate it muchly " ...đđđâ¤