Don’t focus on the colour of the walls in your house if you don’t have good foundations or you’ll be forever sorting out cracks rather than enjoying the delicate mocha.
All these messages are built from the science and understanding of what actually works to get people a long-term recovery in our clinic.
Just follow the yellow brick road and you’ll get home. If it was that easy then we wouldn’t have the timeless masterpiece that is the Wizard of Oz.
You see what seemed like an easily marked out path to freedom turned into an adventure that challenged Dorothy beyond what she imagined and required aspects of her she didn’t know existed to complete.
This has so much in common with a recovery from a long-standing issue.
Most of the challenges you encounter along the road to recovery aren’t visible from the outset, in fact Dorothy’s journey required the brains of the scarecrow, heart of tinman and courage of a lion to complete.
Freedom from a long-term issue comes from facing and dealing with all the uncertainty and often seemingly unrelated challenges along the road to recovery.
Trust is needed, much like Dorothy trusted the yellow brick road would take her home.
The yellow brick road started exactly where Dorothy was and had to be walked herself as there was no quicker way, this is much like a treatment plan, it has to be built around you, start where you are and have you actively doing most of it to work long-term.
Dorothy didn’t complete her journey alone, caring people helping and guiding you are essential.
A logical story of why you have the issue so you know where you are helps.
What is imperative is that we know where we are going, Dorothy knew clearly she wanted to get back to Kansas and never lost sight of this.
We need to plan clearly what you want to be doing when you have freedom from this issue so we can fix sights on it and keep our focus there rather than on where we don’t want to be.
Dorothy knew she didn’t want to stay in Munchkin land despite it being comfortable, it was just temporary relief not a solution.
Now we create a yellow brick road from where you are to where you want to be, simple right?
Now the real story in the Wizard of Oz isn’t her following a path, it’s all the challenges on the way and what she must find inside herself in order to overcome the barriers to getting back home.
A good story mimics real life, it’s one of the reasons it resonates with us and gets us emotionally invested.
Think of some of your favourite films, they have an internal story which is what they are really about. Jaws isn’t just about a rogue shark, it’s about a man scared of the water and how he overcomes it.
Now don’t for a second think that just because you have what sounds like a simple treatment plan in front of you that it’ll be easy because simple and easy can be completely different.
What I know, because I see it every day, is that the people that do find freedom from their long-standing issues put in more work than they thought they would, have more up’s and downs and are surprised by what changes they make on the way to getting where they want to go.
If I could do it all for you I would, but I can’t so I’m there to help as best I can and keep us focused on where we want to go. Remember there’s no place like home.
Waking up at home where everything has changed yet is still the same is what happens to Dorothy at the end.
After the recovery journey from living in long-standing pain it can feel like that when you realise you’re back in control but you’re stronger than you were and can face things with new found confidence.
Just follow the yellow brick road, simple right?
The Key Takeaway:
The yellow brick road started exactly where Dorothy was and had to be walked herself as there was no quicker way, this is much like a treatment plan it has to be built around you, start where you are and have you actively doing most of it to work long-term.
