“It’s impossible to travel through life and not collect emotional souvenirs. We are either carrying healthy perspectives or files of proof from our past. . . . When we choose to walk down the path of correcting the dots, we aren’t changing where we’ve been, but we’re sorting through our souvenirs to determine what says with us from here: unhelpful proof of healthier perspectives.”- Lysa TerKeurst
As Lysa TerKeurst moves on in Chapter 7 of Forgiving What You Can’t Forget, she observes what occurs when we see something. Based on our experiences, our brains often fill in subconscious details. Thus, the process involves more than physical sight. In addition, what we perceive determines how we define our current reality. And this includes emotional perceptions as well.
Therefore, when you’ve sniffed out something toxic, it’s time to take on of the most important steps of all: correcting the dots. However, Lysa underscores, processing through all of this takes time. Much time. So, Lysa shares her threefold secret to this processing:
- Pain – express everything that happened and how it makes you feel. That’s collecting the dots.
- Acceptance – acknowledge the dried permanent ink on the pages of your story. Because you cannot change what happened. So in this process, you connect the dots.
- Perspective – helps you correct some of the dots. Again, Lysa reiterates, you can’t change what happened. But you certainly possess the option to choose what you now believe and how what happened changes you. For better or for worse.
Consequently, it’s crucial to acknowledge your deep, deep pain in all its forms – with specific examples. Lysa concludes:
“It was important for me to reconsider perceptions of what I’ve walked through and what I now believe to be true about all those involved. But even more importantly, asking . . . questions about my beliefs helped me see what needed to be corrected so, as I move forward, I have healthier interpretations of what I saw.”
Today’s question: What emotional souvenirs have you collected during your travels through life? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Emotional healing – choose new way of thinking”
