What does healing look like?

In our society, we think healing means becoming symptom free.   Ideally, we would all like to accomplish this end result. However, the journey to this point may not be so easy.  When we heal, we must face the things that may have caused the problem in the first place.

It is very common to have more symptoms when we are going through the process of healing, because the body often feels like it is safe enough to release old toxins, traumas, and thoughts.  For example, people usually detox when they are eating healthy foods.  The body feels like it can finally handle letting the toxins go because there are not new toxins coming in.  However, because many people do not understand this process, they may start eating well, and then feel very sick.  Assuming that healthy food makes them sick, many people revert back to eating the toxic foods they have always eaten.  The problem is that the body stores toxins only because it thinks it will be able to release them later.  If we never eat clean food, the toxins build up until major diseases occur.

When we start to heal, our body finally has a chance to release old pent up toxins, viruses, emotions, and traumas.  True healing and transforming are very seldom easy.  Many times things get worse before they get better because we are learning to do things differently.  While our bodies are learning to function in this new more balanced way, we may feel pain, anger, hopeless, or sick.  It is common to get scared and go back to the old way of doing things because it feels safer. Unfortunately, growth and change hardly ever happen when we feel safe and secure.

When you are doing healthy things for your body, remember that you are not getting worse.  You are so healthy that your body has the opportunity to release major issues. Releasing issues in a safe healing space gives us the opportunity to prevent them from coming out in the form of disease, emotional breakdowns, or addictions.  When we choose to become empowered by and embrace the experience of healing, we can truly thrive!

-Laine Morales DC