“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ~ Rumi
In working with clients over the past twenty years, I have been honored to witness the transformative power of healing past hurts and trauma. The remarkable courage and strength my clients embody every time they embark on healing their wounds inspires and encourages me. Reflecting on this process, I can’t help but acknowledge the irony that our empowerment is often inextricably tied to our suffering. It is the recognition that we can learn and grow as result of our challenging experiences that feeds our empowerment and moves us away from feeling victimized.
Nurturing ourselves becomes essential in this process as we endeavor to reconnect with our true selves and deepen our self-awareness, self-compassion and self-acceptance. I believe our commitment to our healing is in itself a self-nurturing act as it allows us to move toward wholeness and embrace our authentic truth and beauty. Challenging situations will no doubt continue to occur throughout our lives, so actively cultivating strategies and practices that support our ability to cope and thrive is crucial. For truly, it is not what happens to us, but how we respond that creates our experience. Our empowerment lies in our choice and the meaning we give to our experience. We can choose to transform our suffering and pain into empowerment and inspiration.
Here are seven ways you can begin to engage in nurturing practices that will support your healing process and bring you more peace, joy and meaning.
1. Start by noticing how you speak to yourself and choose to flood your consciousness with positive thoughts and affirmations.
2. Create a mantra of self-compassion like I love and accept myself unconditionally and use it throughout the day.
3. Journal each day with a timer and free write your feelings and thoughts about a difficult situation.
4. Acknowledge yourself daily for your courage, strength and willingness to heal.
5. Recognize your growth by identifying what you have learned.
6. Share your gratitude for this healing process.
7. Treat yourself with kindness and foster an attitude of curiosity and non-judgment throughout the process.
As Steve Maraboli reminds us “A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal…” so make responding to yourself with kindness and compassion a nurturing habit. Adding these seven nurturing practices into your self-nurturing tool kit will empower you to transform your past hurts and trauma into healing and growth.
May cultivating these nurturing practices support your healing and may you live authentically in truth and beauty through the practice.
My meditation and journaling time are the most important tools in my tool box of empowerment and self-care.
Thank you, Kelley! As a therapist, I agree these are great healing practices to support one’s healing.