Open Letter
To whom it may represent,
One of the hardest moments of my new journey is living what I learned and teaching people what I know. What I know and what I learned have been living two different lives, yet they experience the same narrative. Have you ever felt like you had to love people with a filter? I have been very unconditional with circumstantial people, and it has affected my emotional wellness. I am now in the position to teach and live in a way that sustains itself in this journey of life. I have also learned that even in healing, you can burn out trying to grow.
I found that even in my healing path, I was burning out, and did not even consider why I would experience this. But what I tell my clients is that we start with learning about our mental illness, and as time progresses, we learn about emotional wellness. That is the secret to Washington Wellness Institute, and I found a way to unlock that. Have you been living with mental illness? Have you heard about the responsibility of emotional wellness? There is always a cost to change, and many times in healing, the greatest cost is familiarity or false representation.
I would hold the shame of how in my growth, there have been victims. We all have made victims of our growth and healing. We have made relationships that were not fruitful, and we fulfilled roles that were not true. These moments in our life shaped identities that were unhealthy, and we lived behind the comfort of our shadows. I can honestly say that I can not hold the weight like I once did. I learned beyond my pain and found the weight of my gifts. What pain do you hold that gatekeeps you from the gifts you’ve always dreamed of living?
I hope this letter gives you a direction through your own pain and allows the gifts you enjoy to be a lighthouse for your journey. It is okay to take a break from healing. As the RESET deck cards say, “Ego is good for the sprint, not for the marathon.”
Heal All Ways,
– Dr. Will
