Healing

Someone shared something in a OA meeting on Saturday that made a big impact on me. They were a nurse, and they talked about how physical healing works and its parallels to how we heal spiritually and emotionally in http://www.oa.org/index.htm.

Apparently, when we have a big gaping wound, no amount of stitches or skin grafts can completely heal the wound. The body has a number of stages it needs to go through to heal, and it needs to heal slowly, from the bottom up. It reminds us that we are healing from compulsive overeating from the inside out (not healing simply by changing how we look on the outside – our weight).

The first stage of healing is inflammation – the swelling and the redness. Someone later shared that inflammation made them think about something that was big, red and angry. Isn’t that just like healing emotionally? I always feel like that when I am upset. It reminds me of those first abstinent weeks, where my emotions rise to the top and I am big, red and angry.

I am hoping that looking at my emotional healing this way will help me to embrace my pain (when I need to), to know that it is what I need to go through to heal. That feeling pain is a positive sign of healing, not something that should be avoided at all costs or numbed with food.