Healing Isn’t Linear — But Your Effort Still Counts

Healing isn’t a straight upward line.
It’s not a neat sequence of:

• Awareness → Action → Success → Peace
  

Real healing looks more like:

• Awareness → Tears → Trying → Backslide → Clarity → Pause → Repeat
  

And that’s not failure.

That’s integration in progress.

🌀 Why Healing Feels Like a Loop

You’ve probably noticed this pattern:

• You thought you were over it
  

• Something triggered you
  

• The feelings came back
  

• You started to question your growth
  

But here’s the truth:

The issue didn’t come back — you just revisited it with new awareness.

🧠 The Science of Emotional Revisiting

According to trauma researcher Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (author of The Body Keeps the Score), unprocessed emotion often reactivates when:

• We feel safe enough to explore it again
  

• A current experience mirrors a past wound
  

• Our nervous system is trying to complete the stress cycle
  

This isn’t regression.
This is your body saying, “We’re ready for the next layer.”

🛠 3 Grounding Reminders for Nonlinear Growth

1. You’ve Been Here Before — But You’re Not the Same

Even if the emotion feels familiar, you’re meeting it with new tools this time.

Write down:

“Last time this happened, I…
This time, I’m choosing to…”

2. Measure Progress in Capacity, Not Speed

Ask:

• Can I sit with this longer than before?
  

• Can I talk about it with more clarity?
  

• Can I hold this pain without becoming it?
  

That’s growth. Quiet, but powerful.

3. Stop Using Old Pain as Proof You’ve Failed

Pain returning = capacity deepening.
Not failure, not relapse, not weakness.

📘 Read: It’s OK That You’re Not OK by Megan Devine — honest and validating for all forms of grief

✍️ Journal Prompt

“What do I need to hear right now that no one else is saying?”

Now write that down. As if from your future self.

Let your own words remind you:
You’re not behind. You’re deepening.

Bonus Tools for Nonlinear Healing

• 📱 The Tapping Solution App — guided EFT to release stuck emotion
  

• 🎧 On Being Podcast – “The Inner Landscape of Beauty”
  

• 📓 Emotional Wave Tracker (Free Template) — see your emotional cycles with compassion

“This time, when it hurts again — don’t question if you’re healing.
Recognize that you’re healing deeper.”

Progress isn’t perfect. But it’s still real.

With grace and deep repair,
- Growth Mode

Forward this to someone who feels like they’ve “fallen back.” Remind them: they’re actually growing forward, just on a spiral path.