Re: What I've Learned

"I'm not very far along my healing path, and I stumble and falter, often...."

An awareness or realization that one has pain that they've not worked on is 90% of the healing process.  Give yourself loads of credit for what you've learned and the direction that it has taken you in your healing journey.  I can't remember her name but there was a University of Washington psychology professor in the Seattle area who had a call in radio program who would many times repeat her mantra "Life is three steps forward, and then two steps back" and it's very true.

As a child I didn't know that I had pain.  As an adult I've practiced an inward focused meditation for more than thirty years and it is a slippery slope but it is a healing, and yes there are many discouraging days though the progress and inner satisfaction is something that I cannot live without.

"There is nothing warm and fuzzy about healing emotional damages and success requires courage, strength, and resolve. Fear is a "normal" reaction to risk, but without the risk of learning truth, healing will never take place. Emotional healing is comparable to healing from a compound fracture."

There can be a lot of warm and fuzzy but for me the most difficult part is taking responsibility for my creations and it takes time and space to recognize that I have created all the pain in my reality.  Yes there are ogre's out there, but I have created everyone of them - including my childhood family.

Great post.  We are all here to learn to love ourselves and everything that has ever happened in our lifetimes.  One form of the Golden Rule is to "Love thy neighbor as thyself" but most people forget that what it says is that if we don't love ourselves first - we ain't going to love our neighbors.