Healing the Five Wounds of the Heart: Free Yourself From the Bonds of the Past

Do you avoid people? Do you give too much? Do you build walls against intimacy?

Denial: You keep getting involved with people and institutions who require you to bury your true self and put up a false front. No matter how firmly you resolve to be yourself, you end up developing a new persona to please others. Alternatively, important people in your life have told you that they can't be their true selves around

Left untreated, the five wounds of the heart lead to repetition compulsion, also known as trauma reenactment—the mysterious effect by which humans seek out the very same situations that hurt them in the past.

Repetition compulsion is life's way of giving us opportunities to heal. Although we cannot time travel to the past and change things, we can heal the past by responding to our present situation in new ways.

Left untreated, the five wounds of the heart lead to repetition compulsion, also known as trauma reenactment—the mysterious effect by which humans seek out the very same situations that hurt them in the past.

Denial: You keep getting involved with people and institutions who require you to bury your true self and put up a false front. No matter how firmly you resolve to be yourself, you end up developing a new persona to please others. Alternatively, important people in your life have told you that they can't be their true selves around

Judgment: You keep getting involved with people and institutions who criticize and shame you, and your response to life's stressors is to criticize and shame yourself. No matter how hard you try to seek out supportive partners and friends, you end up with people who put you down. Alternatively, important people in your life have told you that your

You avoid commitment.

You have a desperate need to please