Feeling like you want to run away from your past, especially in recovery, is common. The memories of people you may have hurt, how you might have hurt yourself, and all the other moments you want to forget can be overwhelming. But embracing your future requires facing what’s behind you, too. You don’t have to relive every misstep, but coming to terms with the past can help you step forward with confidence and clarity.
This blog will help you understand what making peace with your past can look like in recovery and give you tips for achieving it.
How St. Joseph Institute Helps You Accept Your Past
At St. Joseph Institute, we understand how heavy your past can feel, and we’re here to help lighten that load.
- Our Intensive Outpatient Program in Wexford, PA, gives you a structured space to grow while learning to manage life outside inpatient treatment. The IOP offers a mix of individual therapy, group sessions, and family involvement designed to build fundamental skills that support long-term recovery.
- Our Continuing Care program supports you after the early days of healing have passed. We can help you plan for life’s challenges and give you the tools to prevent relapse, reconnect with purpose, and keep building momentum.
- And if you’ve worked with St. Joseph already, our Alumni Services keep you plugged into your peers who can help you network and attend support events that remind you you’re never alone on this path.
What Does It Mean to Let Go of Your Past?
According to one health care expert, holding onto past regrets can rob you of the present, but letting go of your past isn’t simply pretending that it didn’t happen, but rather seeing it for what it was: a part of your life’s story, not the entire book.
Substances may have once been the only escape or a way to cope with traumatic experiences. But now, they’re part of a life you’ve decided to leave behind.
Here’s what letting go can mean:
- Allowing yourself to feel and think differently. You don’t have to carry every regret into your future. You can permit yourself to live in the present without the weight that guilt or shame can carry.
- Seeing yourself as a person who is healing in a new way rather than someone who is broken.
- Choosing not to entertain beliefs of what no longer serves you and making space for a future that does.
Tips For Letting Go of Your Past
The first step in letting go is accepting whatever you may have done or said, which can be challenging. But acceptance, and the steps that follow, can liberate you. Letting go also echoes the work done in the 12 Steps of recovery, like making amends, seeking spiritual connection, and taking a moral inventory. As you explore these steps, remember that they’re not perfecting yourself. They’re about transforming yourself.
- Practice forgiveness. After acceptance comes forgiveness for yourself and others. Whether or not you feel deserving of forgiveness, you should practice releasing shame and guilt. Releasing those heavy, negative emotions can open up space in your heart to create new feelings and emotional experiences.
- Stay focused on the present. You made it out of your past, so stay focused on your present. Mindfulness techniques like meditation, deep breathing, or journaling could help bring you back to the present if you feel like you’re spiraling back to your past. Entering therapy indefinitely could also help you balance emotions of the past with your recovery logic.
- Embrace the changes that scare you. Our brains crave routine, even when that routine isn’t helping us. That’s why change can be scary, even good change. But growth doesn’t happen without change, so try to welcome anything that helps you break from patterns that used to keep you stuck.
- Lean on your community in Pennsylvania. You never have to do this alone. Keep supportive people around you, whether it’s a support group, a sponsor, a therapist, or a friend.
Find Your Future in Port Matilda, PA
Making peace with your past might not happen all at once, but it doesn’t have to, and you don’t have to figure it out on your own. When you’re ready to let go, or even if you’re still working on it, St. Joseph Institute is here to be a guide and a support system. Our programs, support groups, and compassionate care can help all of our clients build a life that feels worth living. Contact us today to start letting go of your past and dive into your future.
