How Long Does It Take To Heal?

We are consumers of a rapid-wish-fulfillment culture, and we can get cheeseburgers in 30 seconds. Beautiful graphics and music at the touch of a button. Our fondest desire takes less than a week to get to our homes by Amazon delivery.

So how long is “feeling better” gonna take already?!!

I have good news and bad news on this one, my friends. Bad news first.

It will take longer than a cheeseburger. Longer than your internet download. Longer than most anything you could purchase with a “one-click-buy.”

This is also the good news.

What?

Yes, it is good news that your healing will take longer than some kind of instant gratifcation. I will tell you why, but first I’ll tell you how.

Let’s start with the fact that your particular healing is custom-made. It is completely, 100% tailored for you–your body, your mind, your heart. And as you know, customized work takes extra time because of the hand-crafting.

This isn’t machine-made, off-the-rack, or one of millions made in bulk. This healing is one-of-a-kind. It has to be, because otherwise it wouldn’t fit, right?

Then, speaking scientifically, which I’m terrible at, you’ve got a bunch of stuff inside your brain that tells you how to behave on a regular basis (we call that “patterns” in therapist lingo). And that stuff needs to be rewired if you want to have healthier patterns of behavior.

Would you really want that rewiring job to be a hasty one?! Nope, cause you’d probably end up thinking you could drink through your toes or something.

Also, there are likely a lot of aspects to why you’re not feeling great. So even though therapists and healers like me can help you get results pretty quickly (compared to the days of Freud and early talk therapy), it just takes some time, and more than a couple sessions to identify the things that aren’t working for you.

Yes, you have more than a few Things That Make You Feel Bad (TTMYFB). You might not feel them because, well, humans are geared to only be able to consciously hold a couple painful issues in their mind/body/heart at a time.

If you were aware of every single of of your TTMYFB, you’d probably overload your circuits. Therefore, these things just come up a few at a time, so they’re manageable. Trust me, it’s actually a good system. Your mind/body/heart is actually a marvel of engineering.

What about the “why”?!

Right, right: “why is it good that healing takes time?”

Because, whether you’re into believing this or not, our lives are about learning (and experiencing joy, but that’s another post). If you’re done learning, you’re done living.

If you’re still practicing and learning and repairing your past and present self, you still have a good reason to hang around in this lifetime. And I see that as a good thing.