Is denial standing in your way of finding peace?

I recently posted about when your child has mental illness and addiction, you may need to grieve the loss of who they were and how life was before illness.  Not doing so can prevent you from finding peace. 

One thing that may stand in your way of grieving is denial.  Denial is refusal to believe or accept something as truth; fooling yourself about the reality of your situation. 

Denial may not be purposeful, in fact it’s probably something you do subconsciously as a protective mechanism.  

Denial may seem to protect you from painful feelings but it doesn’t really because when denial causes you to temporarily not feel the grief, the reality of life is still happening and your feelings are still there, they are just buried and will resurface at any time. 

The only way out of your difficult feelings is through them.  Become aware of any denial.  Allow your feelings.  It doesn’t mean you have to stay in your feelings, but you don’t want to deny your feelings or deny the reality of what is happening. 

Sending love and light,

Debbie