Rediscovering Healing: How Early Lessons Shape Our Beliefs About Recovery

This post is written from the perspective of a young person who participated in CHYP.

Early Lessons
From an early age, humans are introduced to the miraculous healing properties of the body. A painful and bleeding papercut on one’s finger can be mended and forgotten about by the next day. Given the right conditions, even broken bones can heal without external interventions. With healthy and adaptive behaviors, humans can also heal emotional/mental wounds on their own. It is clear that we were made to heal ourselves, and yet, when someone develops a chronic condition, most are quick to seek an external solution.

While children are developing an understanding of their body's innate ways of healing, they are simultaneously being strongly influenced to believe that healing comes from pharmaceuticals and external interventions. This is especially true in countries with Western medical systems in place. After years of taking pills to make symptoms “go away,” most become disconnected from their natural healing process.

The Disconnect
This disconnect affects caregivers and their ill loved ones alike. For example, when I developed my chronic symptoms at the age of fourteen, my parents and I believed a Western medical diagnosis and treatment protocol would be the only way to heal. We did not consider it possible that I could heal through safe, holistic practices that promoted nervous system regulation, though that is exactly what eventually led to my recovery.

Instead, I worsened with countless expensive medications, treatments, and doctor visits. I wish someone would have helped me understand that the reason why the interventions weren’t working was because healing only happens within one’s natural process. We only heal when our bodies and minds are ready, not when we take a pill. I was not told this; I wonder if I would have even accepted this before I learned the truth through experience. I was sure that healing did not require conscious mental/emotional/spiritual work. This is why it took seven years to find recovery and half a year to recover.

Healing is Possible
I didn’t choose or create my illness, but once I understood my role in my recovery, I chose and created my healing. I encourage you and your child to continue shifting your perspective on what it will take to recover. My parents and I knew for a long time that there would not be a magical “fix-it” pill, and yet we still longed and searched for one.

There is a difference between your brain knowing what's possible and yourself knowing what's possible. The mind and body can absolutely heal themselves with the right environment and tools. The more you believe that the more your child will, too.