Heal your wounds
It's better for you...and everyone around you
The other day Giovanni fell and scraped his knee. We put a bandaid on it that later came off in the bath. Overnight it scabbed over and for the next few days he kept falling and reinjuring the unhealed wound.
I told him sometimes when we have a cut or bump, we tend to continue to hurt it because it’s already vulnerable. Like when you bite the inside of your cheek and you keep biting it because now it’s swollen and simply in the way.
Then I got to thinking. This is the same as emotional wounds. We will keep getting hurt in the invisible yet vulnerable places if we don’t tend to them and heal them. Because they are already vulnerable, they are more susceptible to being reinjured.
I am not a psychologist, nor do I have any formal training in the human psyche but I am curious and interested in being the best version of myself for my family and friends but also for myself.
I think this is why childhood wounds come up so much in therapy. We get wounded at a very formative time in our life that, if left unhealed, continue to be vulnerable and susceptible to reinjuring.
I’m not suggesting that everyone needs therapy but I do think it’s an interesting—if not insightful—exercise to look at the things that “trigger” us or that we tend to be super sensitive or reactive about. Like, maybe your family growing up always teased you for having buck teeth and you’ve been self conscious of it ever since?
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
—Socrates
So, beautiful souls, have a look at your sensitive spots. Sit with them, examine them, and heal them. Healing looks different for everyone. Sometimes just acknowledging the wound/sensitive spot is enough to heal it, that’s like just airing out a cut and giving it time to heal. Other times we have to tend to our wounds a bit more, dressing them and changing the dressing regularly, metaphorically speaking. Maybe what that looks like is journaling or talking about your sensitive spots until they’ve healed up. Sometimes they take years to heal, you think they’re good and then out of nowhere you scrap the scar tissue and reinjure yourself.
Either way, you’ll feel better once you do. And those around you will, too.