The Healing Spiral

Photo: Bolz Conservatory @ Olbrich Botanical Gardens

“Progress has not followed a straight ascending line,

but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression,

of evolution and dissolution.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I am reminded lately how the journey through life, especially the healing process, far less resembles a tidy, straight line than a squiggly, spiral, loopy, messy one. How at times, it feels like we have come so far, only to find ourselves stumbling backwards and seemingly right back to where we've been before - revisiting the same issues, setbacks and obstacles.

It can help me to reflect on how far I've come...how many times I've overcome and grown and found a way again and again to move ahead. And that I can do it again, no matter how long it takes or how confused or lost I may feel!

Here are some quotes to help remind us that ultimately we are not standing still, but are in constant motion and growth - making progress forward, ever spiraling upward. That each time we arrive at the "same place", we ourselves are not the same, but bring with us all that we have experienced and learned along our journey thus far. We can remind ourselves that we are traversing a higher turn of the spiral!

“The healing process is best described as a spiral. Survivors go through the stages once, sometimes many times; sometimes in one order, sometimes in another. Each time they hit a stage again, they move up the spiral: they can integrate new information and a broader range of feelings, utilize more resources, take better care of themselves, and make deeper changes.”

~ Laura Hough

"We are not going in circles, we are going upwards.

The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps."

~ Hermann Hesse

"This seems to be the law of progress in everything we do;

it moves along a spiral rather than a perpendicular;

we seem to be actually going out of the way,

and yet it turns out that we were really moving upward all the time."

~ Frances E. Willard

"Growth is a spiral process,

doubling back on itself,

reassessing and regrouping."

~ Julia Margaret Cameron

"The growth of understanding

follows an ascending spiral

rather than a straight line."

~ Marion Milner

"Energy moves in cycles, circles, spirals, vortexes,

whirls, pulsations, waves, and rhythms—

rarely if ever in simple straight lines."

~ Starhawk

"His way had therefore come full circle,

or rather had taken the form of an ellipse or a spiral,

following as ever no straight unbroken line,

for the rectilinear belongs only to Geometry

and not to Nature and Life."

~ Hermann Hesse

Photos: Bolz Conservatory @ Olbrich Botanical Gardens

#quotes #botanical #olbrichbotanicalgardens #transformation #depression #healing #resilience