Me-hab
After any trauma there is a commonly held belief that the work of recovery involves reestablishing or restoring a lost state of better than now. The word “rehabilitate” literally means “to restore to good condition”. I find re-hab to be an inaccurate term to describe what needs to occur after trauma. While it may sound like a pessimistic view, I believe that these events are impossible to really “recover” from. Scar tissue can be influenced and amended, but it does not go away. Believing that with the right amount of elbow grease and the right type of therapeutic interventions we can somehow revert back to a previous state can set us up for failure, and usually a hearty dose of unwarranted disappointment in ourselves.
Whether emotional, mental or physical you cannot undo whatever blow was dealt, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing if you frame your mind right. The challenges we face and the hurdles we overcome provide us with opportunities to change, to learn, and to grow. The chaotic collagenous cluster of connective tissue fibers can be rearranged, realigned, and rewoven into new patterns of function and strength within your soft tissue systems. This can bring you a heightened respect for and awareness of the unique contributions of each piece of your whole physical system. It's powerful. The synaptic cerebral symphony of thought and emotion that lights up each time you connect to the memory of the original somato-emotional offense can be integrated and rewired into a structured system of compassionate recognition and conscious response. This can provide you with a new level of understand about your self, your history, and the folks with whom you share this planet. It is incremental and revolutionary.
None of this involves moving backwards or reverting to some earlier draft of what it means to be you. This revision of your internal landscapes involves a stubborn commitment to self-study, and a steadfast willingness to move forward into the uncomfortable, uncharted waters of what ever comes next in your personal story of self. It leaves you stronger than you were when you started. The process of healing though which I support my clients is not rehab. No one is restoring anything to what it previously was. Life does not allow us to move backwards. Instead, it’s a process of moving forward and digging deeper into the many multifaceted layers of the essence of you. It is me-hab. It is a painful and beautiful monster mash of movement towards becoming the latest and greatest version of your ever-evolving self.