Blog for April 14th, 2025
The Healing
I have no idea where this blog is gonna go right now, but I can tell you that one word keeps bouncing in my head. Healing. Maybe it’s because recovery is all about healing, maybe it’s because I’m with my old friend who just had knee surgery and is healing. Maybe it’s because my husband isn’t feeling well. Maybe it’s because there are too many people, I know either with health issues, relationship issues or emotional and mental issues.
Whatever you may need healing from, I do believe you can find it in the twelve step programs and with God. As the old credo goes for doctors, “physician heal thyself”, so then we must begin our own healing. But not by healing ourselves, but by admitting we are powerless over addiction, people, places, things and our maladies, all of them. Yes, we need to take responsibility for ourselves, for our recovery and life, but by giving it away, giving it up to our Higher Power, to God.
As I said there are many people with illness and physical issues, some of them, by no fault of their own and others, by their own hand. For instance, they wouldn’t get clean, they wouldn’t stop eating and eating, especially food that is bad for them. They wouldn’t quit smoking, they wouldn’t exercise or get regular checkups. They wouldn’t brush their teeth and take care of themselves with good hygiene. There are many reasons that people get ill.
Some people are genetically predisposed to certain physical problems. On my mother’s side, she has passed down arthritis to me and I passed it to my daughter. Alcoholism and addiction also passed down from generation to generation. If you ever go to a meeting or talk to a room full of recovering people, they will tell you their parents, grandparents and aunts and uncles have struggled with addictions to one thing or another. And yet, in other families, they do not seem to have one bit of trouble with it all.
Fortunately, these days we have all kinds of help for all kinds of problems, from addiction to arthritis. From heart disease to kidney disease. I know we can’t cure it all, cancer and Alzheimer’s are the worst, but we can do so many preventative things. As it is recovery from substance abuse, just don’t use one day at a time. Go to meetings, get a support group, a sponsor, work a program, aka the twelve steps.
Yes, a lot of lifestyle changes need to be made, changing playmates, playgrounds and playthings for a start. Or as my husband calls it, nouns. He says, “I’m powerless over nouns”. Lol. But that’s the truth. Once I know these basic things, I am free to heal. And indeed, that is where the healing began for me. After I surrendered and came to believe.
Tears are another healing method, as well as anger, meltdowns, screaming and running until you just can’t run anymore. A counselor once advised me to make a punching bag and hang it up outside and punch it hard pretending it was a person who hurt me. They also told me to yell into a pillow. Turn the music up loud and sing at the top of my lungs, dance and just get all that energy out.
Those things all have their place in a healing process perhaps, but so do vacations, walks on the beach, chill’n at a park. BBQ with family. A meal with friends, a heart-to-heart talk with someone who loves you and cares. Laughing out loud with friends. Writing. Art and creating
artful things. Reading a good book, like the Bible. Healing for me is often going for a drive and playing music that matters to me about the feelings I’m having.
However, the bottom line, is the Lord is my Healer, He takes me on a path, filled with choices for the healing. Being unconditionally loved and cared for is the most healing experience I’ve ever had. Actually, that is still in the process. I’m still experiencing the healing love of God.
Question of the Week: What do you need healing from?
