How to Heal Emotionally?

How to Heal Emotionally?

Here at ERSM we believe emotional healing begins with being affirmed. The need to be affirmed can be met through a spouse, counselor, clergy, CranioSacral therapist, or trusted sponsor. No matter who it is, it needs to be someone with the gift/ability/training of Therapeutic Listening. Here at Edge of the Red Sea we call it Christ Center listening. For most of us, therapeutic listening isn’t something we just possess. It’s a skill we’ve learned through experience. (In the Spanish language, there are two words for to know Saber and Conoser: Conoser means to know something through experience, Saber means to know it by reading about it in a book. The best therapists, counselors, sponsors, disciplers, etc know what they know by the definition of conoser. They’ve experienced it. They’ve been in the front lines. They’ve lived to tell about it and have better lives because of it.

When looking for someone with whom we can work, it needs to be someone who we feel we can trust, is an empathetic listener, hears our story, listens to our pain, affirms us in what we’ve been through, and asks clarifying questions. Only in this process can we heal. Lastly, it goes without saying the person needs to be non-judgmental, and allows and encourages us to FEEL what we feel. 

Has finding someone with Christ-Centered listening skills been difficult for you? Does this feel scary? Are you willing to take a risk and try something new?

As we are working on being affirmed and having someone listen to our story, it’s equally important for us to learn to listen to our head, heart and gut. This allows us to be in our bodies. To experience life. Our head will often tell us one thing, thinking very logically, while our heart might be telling us something else. Perhaps be more loving, and our gut will tell us truth. It will never steer us in the wrong. 

There is a difference between worry, and that of true gut intuition. To help decipher the difference, think of a time when you listened to your gut, and it helped you. Or a time you should have listened to your gut and you didn’t and something went bad.

Often we come into recovery dissociated, and unsure what we feel emotionally, let alone knowing where we feel our various feelings in our body. And seldom do we know our head has a story, our gut has a story, and so does our heart. We need to make the head, heart, gut connection. The head, heart, and gut are known as our three brains.