The Choice to Heal
by guest contributor Allie Nava
Our choice of response to an event in our lives, is one of the most influential factors that will determine how we, as individuals, will experience that event. Individual choice, and the resulting individual actions, can ignite us on a journey which can involve learning and betterment, healing or renewal, or the opposite.
Consider the case of a personal challenge, or even a crisis. We often feel helpless in the moment, wondering how we are going to overcome the challenge. When I’ve felt challenged in the past, I’ve found that learning from others far wiser than me has been helpful.
A good first step in dealing with challenges is to take a pause, and think about the things for which we’re grateful. Making the choice to feel gratitude can change our perspective on the challenge in front of us.
Another helpful step is to choose to focus on the things that are within our control. We can choose to not get frustrated by those things outside of us that we cannot control. For example, we may not agree with how a situation is being handled. Or we may not like the feeling of helplessness we feel in a given moment. Rather than getting frustrated and angry, we can evaluate the ways in which we can contribute to the change that we want to see. Or we can write down a list of the things that we can do that are within our control, and focus only on that.
Choosing to adopt a long-term outlook on solving the challenge in front of us can also be a powerful way to begin to address a challenge, especially if a healing process needs to be involved. Healing doesn’t happen overnight. It can take days or weeks or months or years of discovery, learning, and mending to see the results we desire. We should be patient with ourselves, and persist in our efforts over days or weeks or months.
Practicing simple forms of meditation can help reduce stress. This is another proactive choice we can make to pause and care for our health and mental state. There is evidence that even just ten to twenty minutes a day of focused time meditating can help with stress and healing. It doesn’t require a fancy place. Simply finding a quiet room or corner somewhere, to sit down and close your eyes, and focus on breathing, is a good start.
These are just some of the ways in which the choices we make, and the individual actions we take, can help us begin to address challenges, or even initiate a healing or renewal process.
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Author Bio: Allie Nava is the author of bestselling novel JULY AND EVERYTHING AFTER, a modern tale of resilience against extraordinary odds. You can find her online at www.allienava.com and on social media at www.instagram.com/
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