Your Personal Journey to Healing
In the film "The Lion King" Rafiki, the baboon, visits Simba and as he reminices about Simba's father he whacks him over the head with a stick.
Simba: “Geez, what was that for?” Rafiki: “It doesn’t matter, it’s in the past” Simba: “Yeah, but it still hurts”
The past can hurt for sure. As undesirable and scary as the feelings can be; be they fear, betrayal or grief, your past is yours. It may not have been good, but only you can decide the power that it has over you as you go through your life. Adverse experiences in childhood have been linked to mental and physical conditions throughout adulthood from anxiety or depression to fibromyalgia, strokes and heart attacks. The link between our mental health and our physical wellbeing is becoming more and more clear and the research links between 'Adverse Childhood Experiences' and mental and physical difficulties in adult life are compelling. So Rafiki is half right. It is in the past, but it absolutely does matter. Acknowledging your past and understanding how it affects you in the present is essential on a journey of healing.
A counsellor can help you visit the museum in your mind, unpack all the boxes you’ve hidden in every corner of the building and safely explore their contents. The more you look at the artefacts, the less power they have over you. The past is something that happened to you. It is not who you are. Don’t allow it to define you.