Self healing involves identifying areas of trauma or daily stressors/challenges and coming up with practices in your life that promote healing. Whether it be writing, meditation, art, or exercise, the process can help you heal from the past.
Recalling and processing trauma can be overwhelming, especially if you’re dealing with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). But there are ways to help ease the process.
Self-awareness
Developing self-awareness can help you stay motivated in recovery. It helps you identify your strengths, weaknesses, and feelings so that you can make informed decisions about your future. It can also improve your relationships and personal growth. Practicing mindfulness, meditation, journaling, and scheduling daily time for yourself are all ways to become more aware of yourself.
Your brain begins processing experiences as soon as you’re born. It recognizes patterns and creates default responses that affect your habits, beliefs, and emotional responses. These processes can have positive or negative consequences. In healthy individuals, self-awareness leads to greater empathy and compassion for others. It also promotes accountability in maintaining sobriety and healing.
However, self-awareness can have dysfunctional effects, such as self-inspection to the point of stifling one’s function, misreading feedback from other people, or maintaining a self-perception that is incongruent with reality (Duval and Silvia 2002). This can be particularly problematic for individuals with implicit biases who may become defensive when confronted by feedback.
Self-compassion
When you’re feeling down, self-compassion can help you heal and become a healthier version of yourself. This is because people who are more compassionate toward themselves tend to have a positive mindset, which helps them overcome challenges and motivates them to work harder. Moreover, research has shown that self-compassion can lead to better physical health by reducing stress and promoting healthy behaviors.
A key component of self-compassion is being able to recognize your own suffering and the suffering of others. This enables you to understand that averageness and inadequacy are part of human life, and this knowledge can make you less prone to isolation when the going gets tough.
Self-compassion can also help you develop a more healthy sense of self-worth and identity, as it is not contingent on being superior or performing well. Furthermore, it can help you stop brooding over your mistakes and allow you to move on with your life. Moreover, research has found that self-compassion predicts unique variance beyond self-esteem for a range of variables related to mental health.
Self-care
Self-care involves taking deliberate actions to prioritize one’s physical, emotional and mental well-being. It can include activities such as eating healthy meals, getting enough sleep, and engaging in hobbies. It can also involve establishing supportive relationships with others and practicing gratitude. It can help reduce stress and improve mood, and it can foster better self-esteem.
Self care has been shown to be an important factor in the overall health of chronic disease patients. However, it is often overlooked by clinicians and patients alike. It is crucial that we define the defining attributes and antecedents of self-care in order to promote its benefits.
Many people struggle to find time for self-care, especially during busy periods. It is important to start small and make self-care a regular part of your routine. It can be as simple as a 10-minute walk on your lunch break or deep breathing. You can also set aside a dedicated time for yourself every day and make it non-negotiable.
Self-acceptance
Self-acceptance is the first step to addressing negative beliefs, behaviors, and emotions that can cause emotional distress. It involves separating your actions and qualities from who you are as a person, acknowledging that you can err and act poorly without becoming a bad or flawed person.
Learning to accept yourself, flaws and all, can help you develop a healthy sense of self-worth. It also allows you to take steps to change the parts of your life that aren’t serving you well.
Practicing self-acceptance in calm moments can help you build new “inner wirings” that will allow you to treat yourself with kindness during triggered times. It can also help you develop a deeper understanding of your values and make more intentional choices that align with your core principles. Self-acceptance is a journey that takes time and requires resilience, but the rewards are great—improved mental health, stronger relationships, and authenticity. If you are struggling to cultivate self-acceptance, a therapist at Bridger Peaks Counseling can help.
