To begin the healing journey, we must first detect and acknowledge the distress within us. Most of us have postponed our emotional healing by blaming another person or a circumstance for our distress, but when we take ownership of our feelings, we are engaging in a healing practice. We can then ask probing questions like, “What thought is giving me pain?” “What problematic perspective do I have?” “How can I see this differently, in a less painful way?”
If our only thought about our distress is to blame it on a series of people or circumstances, we can procrastinate our own healing for years or even decades. Taking ownership of our emotions – which is accepting responsibility for them instead of holding others responsible – is step #2 of emotional healing, with step #1 being to notice our feelings in the first place.
Physician, Get Healed 