How to Get Through the Plateaus in Your Healing Journey
In the journey to healing from chronic illness (or any illness), feeling stuck at one of the many stages in the process is only a close second to actually feeling worse.
You’ve made so much progress and yet lately you feel like you’re just… rolling along without moving forward.
Frustratingly, I speak from experience.
In my case, it’s always my gut health that trips me up. Repairing the gut can be a one step forward two steps back kind of process, and there are often many layers to address.
Regardless of your specific ailment, there are some things you can do that will get you to the next stage of healing, both mentally and physically.
Know how much progress you’ve made
Where were you this time last year? The year before even?
In June 2019, I was literally unable to do anything except lay on my couch and watch Netflix. It might seem ludicrous, but for me personally, 2020 is a massive improvement over 2019.
The year before that I was stuck in a dead-end corporate job I hated, stressing myself out week after week, blindly driving my mental and physical health into the ground.
Since then I have:
- taken charge of my health, even if it’s a little stuck right now
- climbed out of crippling depression
- regained (better) employment
- started freelance copywriting
All of the progress I’ve made — physically, mentally, and emotionally — is tremendous. And it took time. This is just another blip on the radar compared to all of that.
Compare where you are now to where you started. You’ve made tremendous progress in your journey too; I know it. So don’t forget how far you’ve come.
Don’t stop learning, but don’t obsess either
When you’re suddenly not improving at the rate you were previously, it’s easy to fall into a research trap trying to figure out how you can ramp up your progress.
You may be tempted to crawl through every corner of the internet looking for answers and lose hours on end scrolling through Google results or supplement reviews (one of my favorite internet black holes).
You should never stop learning about how you can live healthier and happier, but if you’re not careful it can become a crutch that holds you back. I’ve definitely gotten stuck researching and researching and not being able to pick a direction out of so much information.
So if there’s a new angle you feel you need to pursue — a diet change, a new supplement, or a new practitioner — try it out, see where it leads, and feel confident knowing that you’re giving it a shot. If it doesn’t work, you just go back to the drawing board.
But maybe that will be the change that kicks you up to the next level.
Find stories of people that have gone where you want to go
No matter what health issue you’re dealing with, you’re definitely not the only one who has struggled through it.
Whenever I’m feeling stuck, I often go back to some of the stories of people who succeeded in improving their health from the most dismal of states. If they can do it, so can we!
Great books for stories of healing are Wired for Healing by Annie Hopper, Cured: The Life-Changing Science of Spontaneous Healing by Dr. Jeffrey Rediger, and Toxic by Dr. Neil Nathan.
Podcasts are a great inspiration too — I like the Wellness Mama podcast and the mindbodygreen podcast for health-related info, stories, and interviews.
Know that this is only temporary
This may sound a bit radical, but what if you just… assumed it was all going to work out? Know that the final destination is still ahead of you, and you will reach it soon. Again, you’ve made it this far, haven’t you?
This is just one stop on your journey to complete wellness. The destination is there; it’s not a matter of if you’ll reach it, it’s a matter of when.
If you can make this mental shift, then you’re able to tap into the power of manifestation and positive healing energy. I know, it’s a little bit out there, but science backs the power of positive thinking. At the very least, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain, right?
To practice this kind of mindset, you can do guided meditations for a healthy body and mind, practice daily scripting where you write out your ideal future life as though it’s happening in the present, and simply get in the habit of speaking constructively to yourself, assuring yourself that you are going to achieve your health goals; it’s inevitable.
“Be happy in anticipation of what’s coming.”
— Abraham Hicks
What’s your personal next step?
Although it might feel like you’re stuck in your health journey, it just means you’re ready for the next phase.
What can you do today to move forward?
Maybe that looks like:
- starting a guided meditation practice
- researching alternative medicine practitioners
- scheduling an appointment with your current practitioner, if they’ve been helpful to you so far
- taking an honest look at your diet and changing it if necessary
- reading others’ health success stories
Don’t give up; we can do this!
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