Has it ever felt as though you’re walking through a giant maze in your mind? Where it seems like one metaphorical wall after another rises to meet you as you invest your energies in growing forward?
This can be particularly true for those of us who are coming out of an addiction and starting to “live life on life’s terms”. We’re facing ourselves honestly now, perhaps for the very first time.
The years of ignoring ourselves on the inside have “come home to roost” so to speak. There’s one painful thing after another calling out for our attention to deal with now.
The effects of the traumas we’ve endured over the years are woven into the very fabric of these same painful events.
We invest our time and energy into healing the pain only to find there’s yet another something to address. It’s all so exhausting. So discouraging.
Awakening to our pain, working hard to heal it, yet running into what feels like one obstacle after another is what I call The Maze. Where one stark metaphorical wall leads to another dimly lit hallway, which leads to another wall, that leads to another hallway even longer than the last.
It all amounts to more frustration and the inevitable thought of giving up hope of ever escaping what feels like a very confusing psychological reality.
Frankly, it’s the confusion that can feel so debilitating.
Our mind is jumbled, unclear of itself.
The intention and desire to grow are there, but there’s no clarity around what to do next.
So we bang into one wall after the next, get lost in dark hallways. All met along the way to escaping The Maze and knowing a whole new way of experiencing our self.
One way of thinking about where The Maze comes from is touched on briefly above. The compounded issues over time get ignored and repressed for one reason or another and as a result relegated to the basement of the unconscious mind.
Once we start to become aware of our pain, persevere at our own pace to heal it, there’s real hope of escape.
I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad to say I’ve had this experience of living in The Maze.
It felt like for a very long time I was trapped in a dark and very confusing world, with little hope of finding a way out.
The more I applied my heart and mind to finding a way out, the more I was met with yet another wall, yet another obstacle. The experience felt unrelenting for a long long time.
I’m both relieved and grateful now it’s a thing of the past.
What does your healing experience feel like to you? Does it feel like you’re walking through a giant maze? What’s it like? How does it feel? Do share your thoughts below. I’m interested to know what you’re going through.
In an upcoming edition of ‘In the Flow’, we’ll talk about what you can do if you’re one of those rare people who want to escape The Maze.
