Are We Ever Completely Healed?

Are we ever completely healed?

Some people wonder if they are ever going to be healed and return to their life just the way it was before the trauma.  I would like to be able to say “yes” but in my opinion, the answer is “no”.  And my definition of “healing” is tied to embracing the “new you.”

My very good friend Sam has a spinal cord injury and is unable to walk. Sam has created Zen Warrior Training, which is the belief that challenges are man's greatest ally in disguise. Zen Warrior Training includes a comprehensive system of awareness techniques and physical skills that will help you to optimize your mind and body so that you can live your life with the power and clarity that is your birthright.

Sam is an example of someone who has not been defeated mentally or physically. He has been forced to accept having a whole new body that no longer moves the way it used to. Like me, he was also involved in an automobile accident. Over many years of our friendship, we have come to understand how similar our journeys have been, yet how different the outcome. Sam and I are both new people in new bodies. I think everyone who undergoes a trauma is faced with becoming “a new you” whether they want to or not.  Discovering the “new you,” can be a very exiting process. This only happens if there is true acceptance of the trauma. Usually there is simply no choice and how you learn to deal with the “new you” can be what defines how healed you will finally be.

There is both mental and physical healing. One comes to learn that healing is a process; a process that might cause frustration and anxiety, but a process that is both emotionally and physically nurturing. No one is able to speed up this process or decide what will improve and what won’t. The body and brain have their own wisdom that constantly amazes me. We can use energy work and different modalities to reach a feeling of, “healed.”  But the question remains, are we ever totally healed?

I feel my healing will never stop. Isn’t this what you want, to always keep improving and changing? Each day something happens to promote growth and improvement. You don’t have to experience an automobile accident and suffer a traumatic brain injury or a spinal cord injury to need to be healed in some way or another. 

I am a new person in a new world, and I don’t think I could have gotten there without going through the exciting process of healing every day. I treasure what I have learned, what I have been given, and what has been taken away. 

The only way that you can stop your healing process is to give up and stop moving toward achieving your goals.  I use the expression, “stay the course,” to encapsulate the journey that I have encountered. This journey may not always be enjoyable, but I for me there was only one choice, to keep moving forward.

My traumatic brain injury and Sam’s spinal cord injury are forks in our road of life. I was faced with a decision, a decision to give up, or fight to regain what had been lost. What I discovered is that maybe I couldn’t regain what had been lost, but I could build a new life… I am constantly trying to find new ways to improve,  and to develop new mental pathways of never giving up.