My psychological healing is not simply letting go of the past mental and physical trauma in my life, as if it never happened. Before I can let go of my biopsychosocial[1] torments, I have to feel the strength of willingness to face and then accept the unresolved painful experiences with a non-judgmental understanding of the sources of my suffering. This healing process all begins with awakening the courage to open my heart: to be vulnerable and innocent again—while reliving the painful experiences, in my mind and heart, or by what is happening around me, in the present moment.

The pain and suffering from my past arise as thoughts and emotions when triggered by experiences and reminders happening now. When those hardwired feelings and emotional neuron patterns start firing again, they trigger alerts that come from within my self-ego mind and body, which defines who I think I am in this illusory world. These are urgent signals that my wounds from the past need more attention to continue their healing process. If I awaken the courage to open my heart and embrace my past with selfless understanding, I can allow compassionate healing of my emotional wounds to restore my original sense of spiritual innocence—to feel complete, whole, and connected with the world I am creating around me—now.

Courage is the gateway to meeting all these recreated energies-in-motion as they arise in the present moment, with the spontaneous willingness to open my heart and embrace the compassion of truth.[1] The willingness to greet the pain again, and accept those emotions as being only a temporary reminder of past suffering; then, without prejudice, to understand the reasons for those dysfunctions, is having true compassion: to peacefully sit with the truth, until they dissolve in the stream of creative Love energy flowing through my heart. That is the definition of healing, which is always a continuing process, because I can’t simply cure, let go, or remove the past, hardwired neuron patterns, but I can quiet the past with true Self-Love whenever it arises.

This healing process is the dawning of true Self-awareness. The strength to stay aware, realizing the meditative state of pure consciousness alone, and intelligently respond with the wisdom to do what is required in the present moment. To transcend from the negative consciousness energy levels of the conditioned self-ego identity to the positive level of I am, the true Self-willingness to face and accept the past with compassionate understanding, to dissolve my mental suffering with self-love, until all that remains is Love. Then, my true—selfless—Nature of peace, Love, and joy is uncovered as my original innocence, which never changes.

This process may sound much too simple compared to the real-life scenarios many of us have to endure to reach the point of true Self-awakening. Most of us had to experience a shattering emotional event to hit rock bottom, where we had no choice but to surrender our self-ego identity. For many of us, it took a devastating life-changing event, such as the death of a loved one, an illness, disease, or loss of our physical capabilities, the end of our livelihood and self-expression, or total lack of self-control in addiction, to awaken the courage of willingness to surrender, and accept with understanding the source of our suffering, with the compassion of truth, for true Self-awakening to happen.

So, healing my past starts with awakening the courage to face the temporary suffering from my past every time it arises, and accept the truth with the compassionate understanding of true Self-love, knowing the painful source of what I didn’t understand then, I understand now, which dissolves the mental suffering, and creates the new truth of healing in the present moment.

[1] Gabor Maté, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture, Avery, Penguin House, New York, 2022, p. 53.

[2] Gabor Maté, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture, Avery, Penguin House, New York, 2022, p. 387.

VAB  08-06-25

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