A Thanksgiving Reflection on Healing, Belief, and Becoming Who You Really Are
- Trish Heitz
- 18 hours ago
- 4 min read
There are moments in healing when something so subtle shifts inside you that you don’t even see it at first. But then one day, life hands you a situation that would have broken the old version of you…and you respond with calm, certainty, and grounded confidence.
That happened to me recently, and it was a huge AHA moment.
A few negative situations showed up back-to-back. In the past, I would have spiraled into fear, worry, overthinking, or begging God to fix things, creating constant stress. But this time, something different rose up inside me.
I knew I would be okay. I knew the solution would present itself. I knew I had the gifts, strength, and wisdom to handle whatever was in front of me.
Not because I hoped I could. Not because I forced myself to think positively.But because something deeper had finally taken root:
I had learned how to love myself.
My Journey Didn’t Start With Love; It Started With Disease
When I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, I was forced into a truth I had been blind to my entire life:
My own negative beliefs had been contributing to disease in my body.
For years, I lived in a constant loop of:
feeling unworthy
people-pleasing
self-judgment
attracting negative relationships
sabotaging success
earning money then crashing back down
staying in survival mode because it was all I knew
I allowed people to use me. I allowed myself to stay small. I lived from fear, not love, because deep down, I didn’t believe I deserved anything good.
So when cancer entered my life, I had to make a decision: "This is too much; what is going on? I had learned how to overcome so much, but this disease is threatening my LIFE."
When someone gave me a book about beliefs and disease, and I read that my negative beliefs could actually contribute to disease, my head almost exploded!
I thought: If my toxic beliefs could contribute to disease…what would happen if I learned how to love myself?
That question changed my entire life.
The First Sign My Healing Was Working
After working on healing myself for many years, I noticed how less stressed some things felt, I noticed an unfamiliar relaxation on giving myself permission to enjoy things, and then I noticed something strange to me…
I started calling people “love.”
At the grocery store. On the phone. Random people I’d never met before.
“I’ll be right back, love.”“It’s okay, love.”“Thank you, love.”
It came out naturally, effortlessly.
And I remember thinking, Where is this coming from? I’ve never been this way.
Because the old me? The old me was guarded, tense, defensive, and always waiting for the next emotional blow.
But this version of me, the one calling strangers “love”?
She had finally learned how to love herself.
And when you learn how to love yourself, you see everything differently. You soften toward the world. You become love toward others, because love finally exists inside you.
The Freedom I Never Knew I Could Have
Here is the greatest miracle of my healing:
I no longer see myself through other people’s eyes.
For most of my life, everything I did was filtered through:
Will they approve of me?
Do I look good enough?
Do they think I belong here?
What will they think if I fail?
I didn’t even know who I was. I only knew who I was trying to be.
But now? I live from my authentic gifts, talents, and strengths. I make decisions from worthiness, not fear. I laugh at myself instead of criticizing. I don’t collapse when challenges appear. I don’t abandon myself to keep others comfortable.
Self-love didn’t make me soft. It made me unshakeable.
Thanksgiving Reflection:
As this Thanksgiving approaches, I find myself grateful in a deeper way than ever before; not because life is perfect, but because I finally know how to love myself through it.
What I want you to know:
You do not need to wait for a cancer diagnosis. You do not need a crisis, a rock bottom, or a breakdown to finally choose yourself.
Every single person carries unconscious beliefs formed in childhood; beliefs we don’t even realize are directing our adult lives.
Beliefs like:
“I’m not enough.”
“I don’t deserve good things.”
“Love has to be earned.”
“I should struggle — that’s what I know.”
“I can’t trust good people; they’ll leave.”
These beliefs shape our relationships, health, money, career, confidence, and self-worth.
And until they are discovered, assessed, recreated, and expanded with new patterns, they run your life.
I lived decades trapped in them. You don’t have to.
What Happens When You Finally Love Yourself
When you learn to love yourself — truly, deeply, wholeheartedly — everything expands:
✓ Love expands.✓ Opportunities expand.✓ Health expands.✓ Prosperity expands.✓ Confidence expands.✓ Peace expands.✓ The quality of the people in your life expands.✓ Your future expands.
Because you are no longer living small, scared, or silent.You become who you were always meant to be.
Self-love is not a feeling. Self-love is a Belief. Self-love is freedom.
My hope is that you find what I have found, and if it takes just the rest of this year, or even into next year, that you can say you've discovered self-love, not by accident, but by choosing to look within and say to yourself: “This was the year I learned to love me.”
There is no greater transformation.
You deserve that gift more than you know.
If you find yourself struggling to find joy, thankfulness, and self-love this holiday season, I've created an easy short book to bring you back to what matters most: joy and love.
And if you want to get started on this now, Schedule a FREE Consultation: