Hi there!
This is for the moment when you feel like you've slipped.
When shame creeps in and it feels like your progress disappeared.
But this year isn't a place of judgement.
It's a place to come home to yourself.
Gently and honestly and with compassion.
So let's just first take a deep breath.
Let's just be here together.
There's no pressure to fix anything.
There's no need to explain.
You are certainly not a failure.
Relapse is not proof that you are broken.
It's proof that you are trying.
You really don't relapse until you have been really trying.
And that alone means something,
You know.
It means you care.
It means part of you wants something different.
So let's just bring that back into the room.
And bring your body back into the room.
Feel your seat beneath you.
Maybe let your shoulders drop a little bit.
And take a deep breath in through your nose.
And exhale out through your mouth with a soft sigh.
Do it again.
Let yourself land.
Be here.
Now place a hand over your heart.
Feel the warmth of your own palm.
And realize you are still you.
Even now and even here.
Especially here.
You allow to be you.
Uniquely you.
Relapse does not mean you've gone backwards.
In the felt-sense Polyvagal model,
We see these moments as messages from the body.
Something became too much.
Something needed soothing.
Something overwhelmed your capacity at this moment of time.
And your system,
Your nervous system,
Lovingly and instinctively reached directly for what it knew.
What it had learned to help you soothe in the past.
It doesn't make you weak.
It makes you human.
It's a normal reaction of the body.
It's what nervous systems do.
The nervous system doesn't care about logic or goals.
It cares about safety.
So let's offer it a new kind of safety,
Huh?
Right now,
In this moment.
Breathe again.
Say to yourself,
I am not broken.
I am still worthy.
This is a part of healing.
Now imagine your body is a house.
A beautiful old house with some cracks in the walls.
A big storm came and maybe you lost power for a while.
But the foundation,
That's still there.
You are still here.
It's still holding you.
You haven't lost your progress.
You've simply learned more about where the repairs are needed.
Maybe the storm was necessary to see where the repairs are needed.
There's no shame in that.
In fact,
It's sacred work.
To look honestly,
To return and to try again.
So let this be your reset moment.
Not the end of your story.
Just a breath between chapters.
You can begin again.
Now,
With compassion,
With support,
With love.
You're not alone.
And I'm so proud of your return.
