stages of healing

I love how Dr. Linnea’s program, The Nervous System Solution, takes us through 5 stages–awareness, regulation, restoration, connection, and expansion. Like the writing process, I imagine the healing process is recursive (i.e., going back to previous steps to refine our practice or doing the steps out of order based on our needs).

For example, I may practice steps in the awareness stage and then learn about my coping strategies in the regulation stage. I’ll jump ahead and try to make flexible boundaries in the connection phase and then return back to the awareness stage once I realize I need more practice in it because my boundaries (I became aware) weren’t as flexible as I intended.

In a February e-newsletter that Dr. Linnea emailed to me, she wrote about the “7 signs your body is healing from dysregulation”:

– You are more in control of how you react to emotions and feel mentally stronger.
– You aren’t drained by other people or by your own negative self-talk.
– You actually live your life instead of constantly feeling triggered by everything.
– You resolve the burnout cycle of taking on too much and then having to withdraw when you have no more energy.
– You can tune in to your intuition and clearly distinguish it from anxiety.
– You finally stop the 24/7 stream of ruminating thoughts and enjoy your free time.
– You aren’t limited (or even resentful) of your sensitivity anymore and start leveraging the superpowers it gives you instead.

Do these “goal posts” resonate with you? Which ones do you hope to live into or already are?