Over the last three years I’ve taken intentional and incremental steps towards healing. A LOT of them. It’s been hard, it’s tested my resolve, and it’s brought greater strength, enhanced courage, and significant freedom in the long run.
Maybe you heard a little about this on the Mom Struggling Well podcast I did with Emily Thomas a few weeks ago? If not, click on through here to find it online or look for Mom Struggling Well on iTunes or Stitcher. There are many great stories here and Emily is just plain a hoot.
This healing journey has been a long process which continues today. Honestly, while I attribute the last three years to healing with great intention, there have been many other seasons where I’ve faced the choice to heal and found myself crying at the feet of Jesus in desperation. He’s brought me through them while showing me a vast need to keep relying on Him.
Today, I rejoice in the outcome of greater freedom, joy, and peace in my heart and soul as well as increased mental capacity. I still have hard days, where I just want to curl up in a fetal position and hide from the world around me, but those days are less and less. In fact, they are often more like moments which I allow so pain can work it’s way through and my heart can be honest with God. But, I no longer feel trapped in them, or in fear of them.
I fully believe every step towards healing has held an important piece to the greater picture of my current state. The gamut runs from professional counseling, to inner healing work with trained helpers, to the intentional pursuit of community despite apprehensiveness, steps which activated my faith and much more.
There was a time when I probably could have benefited from some short term pharmaceutical use as well. Right, or wrong, or whatever, I choose not to. A personal choice talked through with my counselor. Although, had I to do it over again I may have made a different decision.
Regardless, it is what it is. I issue no indictment either way. While I prefer natural options as much as possible, I believe in leaving room for greater help when and where needed. Like the aid of a counselor, or the wearing of eye glasses, or the need for others to help us do what we cannot do for ourselves, I am grateful for what keeps me more humble and cognizant of my need for God’s guidance in all the things.
Even so, I chose every natural method I could find. EMDR and other methods helped rewire my brain from the effects of trauma. I also choose herbal and essential oil options in order to complement the work going on in my heart.
Strong tea filled my coffee pot in the afternoons, filled with bulk herbs such as St. John’s Wort, Rhodiola, Chamomille, and Rose Hips to calm nerves and help heal the effects of stress and anxiety on my worn body. I’d later fill Mason jars with lovely unsweetened tea and ice to drink for the remainder of the day.
I’ve also made blends to invigorate the brain which included Ginkgo, Ginseng, Green Tea. I’ve taken regular doses of B Complex vitamins like mom used to give me when I was younger because she saw how hurts impacted me then.
Added to my arsenal a bit over a year ago was the use of essential oils like Lavender, Rosemary, and Peppermint as well as essential oil blends for stress or brain acuity. I diffuse them and I blend them in roller bottles to rub them on.
Though my shelves hold a number of specialty purchased amber glass bottles for my herb collection, and although I began blogging many years ago to talk about organic gardening, herbs, and cooking, I’ve rarely talked about it on this blog, or the posts I’ve written for the last couple of years.
Much of my writing focus remains on the things of the heart, soul, and mind, but honestly y’all, there are times when our bodies just need a little practical nutritional help too. As much as we need the deeper work of our hearts to experience significant life transformation, we also need the outer work of tending to our physical needs.
We are whole people in need of wholeness from the One who has it to give. Thankfully, He has it in abundance and it’s available to each one of us as we seek Him above all else.
