One evening while preparing a workshop I used to offer entitled "Creating Healthy Boundaries", it occurred to me that I could look at "recovery" in a new way. In my own journey of healing and (actual) transformation, at some point I had made a conceptual shift from an orientation wherein I was recovering from some wounding and dysfunction, to a new paradigm in which I was actually recovering something I had lost. In doing so, I was returning to a place I had been before and became that original person in a new, more evolved way.

The current model of recovering from substance abuse, codependency, addictions, etc. offers a powerful beginning for many who need to take stock of their self-destructive habits, behaviors and thoughts and make movement on the journey of healing. However, the trick is to not get stuck in relation to that which one is attempting to recover from. To cast my identity as one who is recovering from something which I deem harmful is somewhat like the opposite of an affirmation. It would be counterproductive for a gymnast to repeatedly affirm the statement "I don't fall down" because the mind first has to make a picture of falling down and then cancel it, possibly without a clear replacement visual. Likewise, there is the potential danger of permanently identifying myself as a recovering codependent or adult child of an alcoholic, etc. Furthermore, without an image of who I am beyond this process, the subconscious can easily imagine that this will go on forever - because this is who "I am". I have forgotten that everything changes, no one is "stuck," and that full and complete healing is well within the power of love and of God...