We all carry both psychological and spiritual wounds that affect our motives, our reactions to other people’s behavior, and the deeper reasons we fear or avoid certain things. When I was in junior high, I dabbled in the occult. My parents had warned me before I ever laid eyes on a Ouija board that they were bad news. But I found myself at a friend’s house for a slumber party, and everyone else was playing the Ouija board.
After it was my turn, strange phenomena happened to me and my family. I was terrified in a way I’d never known before, and guilt crept in. I knew what I had done was wrong, so I told my parents, who then took me straight to confession.
For years, I believed my confession was enough to vanquish the residual effects of what I had done, but I was still plagued by an unseen heaviness and crippling fear of life. Recently, I learned that healing is a deeply involved process that sometimes takes decades or even a lifetime.
Based on my own journey toward healing, here are five steps that have helped me find true interior freedom and peace.
