RECOVERY TIPS These tips and quotes are from veteran survivors of grief and trauma |
Pace recovery like a turtle. Recovery cannot be forced to go faster than what's natural. Our brain needs time to process new information and ideas. |
There's no miracle cure. Real recovery requires courage, time and hard work. |
You're the only person who can fix you...only you can recover yourself. |
Recovery is made up of many small steps and choices. We must continue to step through one more fear, dare to hope one more time. |
Recovery is about connecting. Grief and trauma recovery is often the loneliest time of life. Dare to reconnect with whatever refreshes and enriches your soul: nature, worship, dance, music, art, sports, animals, family, friends, exercise, good food, wise elders, support groups, therapy...whatever helps you to reconnect with life and other humans. |
Develop new coping skills as insurance for the future. Learning new ways to deal with trauma and loss is like paying up-front for an insurance policy. We hope we won't ever need it. But if we do, we're more likely to survive and land on our proverbial feet. |
The pain of growth: what once nurtured us now confines us. |
Every discovery leaves some things behind. |
If we cannot figure out ourselves, how can we begin to know and figure out God? |
Faith is coming to the edge of the light and believing a path will appear beneath our feet ... or we will learn to fly. |
The hardest thing to do is learn to walk through the pain of not hurting ourselves. |
Surrender = lay down weapons, take off armor, reveal the defenses; accept, don't fight. |
Get a bigger God. Yours is too small to handle all the crud you're in. |
Self-pity and resultant anger, and even rage are connected to our feelings. |
I may not be afraid of snakes, but that doesn't mean I keep several in my sock drawer. |
If we choose to recover, we must be willing to die two deaths. The second is the death is of the body; we all die that one. The first is the death of our unauthentic self...when we die to that, we become free to enjoy and participate in life. |
Full recovery requires the courage to trust that others will not harm, deceive, reject or abandon us. Even if some do fail us, we must continue to trust that others will not. |
To develop the ability to trust others, we must associate - as much as possible - with people who choose to be helpful, honest, accepting and emotionally supportive. |
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It's not our job to be perfect as humans or recovering survivors. When we do our best with what we have, it is up to our higher power - whatever we consider it/him/her/them to be - to supply the rest. Our job is to be on the lookout for opportunities - perhaps just around the corner - that will help us to continue our journey of healing and growth. |
Disclaimer
No part of the Healing Journey recovery website is to be used as a substitute for professional therapy. If you need professional support, please contact a qualified ministerial or mental health professional. Materials in this website may be printed or copied for personal use only. Readers are welcome to agree or disagree with any statements made in this website, and may benefit from sharing and discussing them with support persons.
