Last night I woke up in the middle of the night. I rolled over and looked at the clock that read 2:48 a.m. I ha woken up from a nightmare and found it difficult to get back to sleep. I worried about work, about the coronavirus pandemic, and about my family.
I tried hard to get back to sleep, but found it difficult to do so.
As I write this, the stress that many of us are going through is great. Loss of jobs, health issues, fear of the pandemic, and great political upheaval in the United States due to the fast approaching presidential election, has many people on edge.
But today is a new beginning—if we choose to see it that way.
When I was little, I used worry as a means to help me prepare for the unknown. I didn’t know when violence would breakout again within my family or how alcohol or drugs would destroy more of my life. I was just a kid, and I didn’t know how to get out of the surrounding problems, so I used to worry. When I would worry, I could then use my imagination to start preparing for what could be coming.
Over time, I found that when I prepared for the worst; I wasn’t hurt as much because I had steeled myself against the pain.
The only problem is that I shielded myself from the good things as well as the bad. When you’re numb from all the pain and suffering, you also can’t feel the good things.
Yet that was then, and this is now.
Whatever pain and suffering you went through in growing up in an alcoholic or dysfunctional family, you can move beyond it. You now have the skills and the support to live beyond what you suffered through as a child.
If you’re still struggling today, you can not only survive, but you can thrive.
When you embrace change and accept yourself for who you are, the love you give yourself as well as the boundaries that you set with others will help you carve out healthy spaces. The choices that you have in front of you are life changing.
When you embrace your past, do the work to heal, you’ll not only feel better, but you will create a sustainable network that will strengthen you and bring you great joy and peace.
Instead of reacting to the effects of alcoholism and dysfunction in your family, you can choose a new path.
Whether you go to see a therapist to help you work through your past trauma, decide to follow the Twelve-steps, or choose another health path on your journey, the choice is up to you.
Embrace today.
You deserve it.
Like what you’ve read? Be sure to check out my other posts in my Let Go and Be Free blog.