"The healing process takes time. When we look at the cycles of nature, we see how winter follows the harvest. This is a time of processing, of setting down new roots, of integration. We unfold in the same way.
You’ll find times when you’re setting down roots followed by a lot of external change – where spring, summer, and fall take hold. At other times, your growth will feel stagnant, like nothing’s happening. Your growth may feel messy, a back and forth as you release old habits.
This is normal. We slow and even hurt our healing process when we expect healing to be instantaneous, when we think our insights should directly lead to new behaviors and habits. The reason its called practice is because that’s what we do. We practice, over and over and over. We practice to grow into new habits and practice to continue our new habits.
Give yourself permission to grow messily, to try and fail, and to be a beginner instead of expecting to get it right the first time. When we adopt new behaviors, we’re also changing our brains – and it takes time to create a new pathway. As they say in 12 step programs, "Progress, not perfection." Or to paraphrase Jack Dixon - focus on change, not results."
From the new workbook Growing Human(KIND)ness by Karly Randolph Pitman - www.firstourselves.com
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