Your healing journey will be continual – it will be lifelong. You must renew the promises you made to yourself each and every day and keep pushing forward. This is why the recovery concept of ‘one day at a time’ is so important. If you rush things, or you expect to be ‘cured’ one day and not have to keep putting in the work, the results will be fleeting.
Always take things one day at a time. Recovering addicts make this commitment to themselves each and every day by vowing that they will continue to stay sober just for one day – each and every day. In the same way, you must vow to yourself each morning to continue your commitment to self-care and achieving wellness. You can tell yourself you will do this, of course, and you can actually set tangible goals everyday that will help guide you.
For example, you might tell yourself you will make a point to meditate for ten minutes before falling asleep that night, you will go for a walk after dinner to clear your thoughts, you will journal the best parts of the day and reflect upon these or you will not allow yourself to worry about your troubles until a specific point in the day in which you sit down and give yourself the time to work through them. These are just some of the ways in which you can formulate goals to stay on track ‘one day at a time.’
Being able to stay connected with the present, rather than letting your mind wander to the toxicity of the past or worry about the future, is the concept of mindfulness. This is a learned way of thinking that will help you to keep pushing forward. You must focus only on what life presents you with in any given moment and on your reaction to this. Let tomorrow’s troubles come when they do and continue with this same mindset each and every day so you can effective deal with them when the time is right.
It can feel counterintuitive to not be forward-thinking, but it is also important not to confuse having anxieties about the future with being proactive. We all have an idea of what we would like to accomplish beyond the present. It is simply important to view your healing journey in this way and to focus any anxieties we might have on the present, so these do not become overwhelming.
Continue pushing forward, one day at a time, and pretty soon all of the days in trauma recovery will start to add up! You will notice positive changes and heal sustainably from the inside out.