How Denial Holds Us Back from Healing
When we deny any part of ourselves, we hold ourselves back from experiencing the fullness of our life experience. The same is true for our pain. Being in denial about our fears, traumas and pain means we cut off entire parts of ourselves. Our difficulties help inform our life paths and are part of what makes us who we are. When we deny them, we essentially deny ourselves.
We can’t experience real healing and transformation when we’re denying who we are. In order to move out of our pain, we have to be able to accept it. Accepting something allows us to surrender to it, and both acceptance and surrender are alchemical processes that can transform our pain into peace. Coming to terms with our most painful thoughts and emotions brings us a sense of peace that we cannot find if we are fighting them. Resisting our pain amplifies it, gives it strength and adds more momentum for it to continue to hurt us. Denial is a form of resistance. If we can accept our challenges as part of who we are, we can incorporate them into the light of our inner strength. If we can’t accept them and continue to deny them, they are essentially excluded from that light and never have the opportunity to heal.
Accepting our addictions and mental health issues might be one of the hardest things we’ll ever do, but it’s a crucial step in our recovery process. How can we heal ourselves when we don’t accept entire parts of who we are? The answer is, we can’t. We have to find a way to embrace self-acceptance if we want to move forward, otherwise we remain stuck. We continue our self-destructive patterns. We stay in our unhealthy relationships. We perpetuate our toxic cycles.
Denial might feel easier at first. “Ignorance is bliss.” When it comes to our thoughts and emotions, however, we come to learn that we can’t run from them forever, and trying to hide from them only tightens their grip on us. Our addictive behaviors, thought patterns and limiting beliefs are a manifestation of our fears and also feed off of our fears for as long as we allow them to. When we face our fears, we starve them of the oxygen they use to breathe (our denial), and eventually the light of our courage extinguishes them.
Choosing recovery is one of the hardest, best things you’ll ever do for yourself. The community at Enlightened Solutions is here to help. Call (833) 801-LIVE.
