Recovery from Pain Involves Pain

This is where spiritual work is critical.

The emotional pain within recovery must, at some level, be both acknowledged as reality and resisted as not the new norm. This is where spiritual work is critical.

Spiritual work is the effort to connect with a higher power. It is not the work of salvation. Doing this particular work is training our mind’s focus away from our own pain. It isn’t denial of the pain because, like being tethered to a rubber band, when we relax our mental efforts away from our own recent difficult event, we find ourselves being pulled back into the hurt.

It is an exercise of the will.

It requires time and attention. It is a battle and is opposed by our own mind in the same way a tired athlete may love nothing more than to rest but understands that now is not the time.

Escaping is avoiding, which means the overall pain will not be addressed. It is like allowing a wound to heal without touching it, so it isn’t cleaned and perhaps, if it involves broken bones, they are not set.

Both activities have their own level of pain.

The end result of this neglect in both the physical and emotional worlds is to fail to heal. This could mean death, either physical or emotional, or it could mean chronic emotional disability.

Emotional recovery involves changing the way the brain processes information.

It's more than the idea of thinking, which is what I imagine myself doing. It is observing what it is I think about or the context in which I think about things.

I guess part of the problem is finding the words that convey what I am trying to express, even to myself.