Try starting like this: Get yourself 2 journals that you will write in for 5 minutes each day. In the first, treat it like a regular recovery journal. Write down all the painful stuff from your past that is most affecting you that day -- write for 5 minutes only. Make sure you connect the past with the present, like how you relate feeling detached from your kids even when you are with them. Next, take out the second journal. This one will be called your "Good Stuff Only" book. For five minutes, write down all the good stuff you experienced that day. Even the little stuff, like a joke you heard, something nice someone said, a smile you got a cash register, something funny one of your kids did or something he or she discovered for the first time.

This simple exercise each day will help you see your life in better balance, and force you to focus on the hope of the present at least as much as you focus on the past. This is how we can heal from the past while at the same time embracing the present.

This is a very simple exercise and may appear too simple to work. But it can work if you let it shift your emotions into a better balance. It will keep you from denying your past and your present simultaneously -- which is what we do when we numb out.

You have been courageous to open yourself up here. (This compliment can be put in your good stuff only book today.)

be well,

mtd