Getting Well - Staying Well: Healing vs. Cure - Part #3

Recovery and Healing: Turning “Crisis into Opportunity"

Getting Well - Staying Well: Healing vs. Cure - Part #3

As a Philadelphia and Chester County - based therapist, certified addictions counselor and co occurring disorders/ dual diagnosis specialist, I see clients in my practice who have been trying to work through tough health, mental health and addictions challenges for a long time.

"When am I going to feel better?" "When are things going to change?" These are questions that my clients in my practice in Chestnut Hill and West Chester, PA ask when feeling uncomfortable or when life presents an illness, disability, or loss - some sort of crisis that was not asked for but happened.

There are times in life when we want change and often need change to happen in order to establish or restore well-being. However, as adults who have been around a while, perhaps we know that change is a process not an event. That there is no real "cure" to our problems or conditions - But, our desire for things to be fixed can keep us searching for immediate solutions and attached to false expectations, reinforcing and prolonging our discomfort.

I listen closely to people's life experiences. I hear about the adversity and struggle that people have endured and survived.  Although such wear withal is a sign of strength, such rallying can certainly take a toll over the long term. When help is long overdue is only natural to want to be done and better. So, it is important to be aware of expectations and to have a sense of the difference between curing and healing.

"Cure" is intermingled in the definition of healing, healing means something very different than merely "curing" or eradicating illness or disease, but restoring to balance, repairing, and returning to soundness. Healing often has more to do with emotions and a sense of safety; fostered by self- respect and control, and having positive people and conditions in one's life. Healing requires the deeper work of change involving reflection, self-examination and acceptance of what was and is. This type of settlement prepares the foreground for health and life-long well-being, the type of inner comfort and satisfaction that most of us long for and see in others who we deem "enlightened," but often do not know how to attain for ourselves. Healing is necessary for any lasting change to take place.

Starting with "what is" and accepting "what is" is the starting point - developing a willingness and capacity for being and staying in the moment and noticing what is real as compared to the mental fiction of our minds is necessary if we wish to develop inner resilience and strength.  Being able to follow and notice the moment to moment changes within ourselves, including our thoughts and emotions and how we respond to other people and our environment is part of regaining control of ourselves, behavior and improving our lives.

One of my favorite as well as being a client favorite books for teaching mindfulness and how it is linked to our health and well-being is The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle. His teaching on the "Pain Body" is helpful in understanding the mind-body connection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcgSYC3h1ew

Join us next week to read about: Recovery - Healing: Forbearance and Resulting Gifts