Healing Isn't Linear. It's Compost.
(and honestly… the plants were easier)
There’s this idea people have about recovery.
That it’s like riding an elevator.
You step inside broken.
Press a button labeled “healing.”
And a few inspirational quotes later, the doors open and suddenly you’re a glowing, hydrated, yoga-doing human who drinks green juice and journals about gratitude.
Yeah.
No.
Recovery is not an elevator.
Recovery is gardening.
And gardening is basically controlled chaos with dirt under your nails and hope buried in the ground.
Nature Is Not Linear. Recovery Isn’t Either.
The first thing gardening teaches you is something most self help books conveniently forget.
Nature is messy.
Seeds don’t grow in straight lines.
Roots go wherever they want.
Plants die.
Compost smells weird.
Sometimes a raccoon eats the entire tomato crop and leaves you emotionally devastated at 7 AM.
And yet somehow…
the ecosystem keeps going.
Recovery works the same way.
Our nervous systems were originally built to protect us.
But sometimes the soil gets damaged.
Trauma.
Addiction.
Loss.
Life happening like a drunk bulldozer through your garden beds.
The soil collapses.
But here’s the part nobody told me when I first got sober.
Broken soil still holds potential.. so do broken people.
You just have to rebuild it.
Slowly.
Messily.
Sometimes while crying in the driveway holding a shovel.
My Extremely Unhinged 7-Step Regenerative Recovery Process
Before we start, yes; the number seven is intentional.
I didn’t just throw darts at a whiteboard while my husky judged me from the couch. (Even though that's typical).
In Wiccan traditions, seven is a sacred cycle number.
Seven directions, seven layers of transformation.
Seven stages between breakdown and rebirth.
Nature weirdly does the same thing.
Permaculture systems move through stages too: seed, growth, pruning, decomposition, soil rebuilding, ecosystem support, and harvest.
Basically the forest has been running a seven step recovery program long before humans started arguing about self help books.
So when I mapped out how I rebuilt my life, the number kept showing up like the universe whispering, “Relax, babe. The compost phase is part of the design.”
Turns out healing isn’t a straight line ... it’s a cycle.
And seven is where the cycle finally turns back into life again.
Scientists may disagree with this method.
But the plants and I have reached an understanding.
1. Sprout
You wake up.
Barely.
Your brain is like a tiny seed cracking open underground wondering:
“Are we doing life again today??”
Growth begins when you simply decide not to die today.
Congratulations.
You are now a seed.
2. Prune the Bullshit
Every healthy plant gets pruned.
You remove the dead branches.
In recovery this translates to:
• toxic people
• old coping habits
• the voice in your head that says you’re worthless
• occasionally your entire social circle
Is it dramatic?
Yes.
But have you ever seen what happens when you don’t prune a plant?
It turns into a chaotic shrub monster.
We're avoiding shrub monster status.
3. Compost Your Pain
In gardening nothing is wasted.
Dead leaves.
Rotten vegetables.
Old plant cuttings.
It all becomes compost.
Recovery is realizing that the worst parts of your life are not garbage.
They are future soil.
Your pain becomes the nutrients that grow your next life.
Which is honestly rude but also very efficient.
4. Mulch Rings (aka Self-Care)
Mulch protects the soil.
It holds moisture.
Stabilizes temperature.
Keeps the ecosystem alive.
Human mulch rings include things like:
• boundaries
• sleep
• food
• therapy
• dogs laying on your legs while you cry
Self-care isn’t luxury.
It’s soil protection.
5. Root Growth
Before plants grow upward…
they grow downward.
Roots expand quietly underground building the foundation.
Recovery does the same thing.
It’s the invisible work:
• learning emotional regulation
• rebuilding your nervous system
• trusting yourself again
• choosing not to burn your entire life down when things get uncomfortable
Nobody sees root growth.
But it’s everything.
6. Community Bloom
Healthy ecosystems never grow alone.
They grow in communities.
Plants support each other.
Share nutrients.
Protect soil.
Recovery communities work the same way.
Meetings.
Friends.
People who understand.
Turns out humans were never meant to survive alone.
Who knew.
7. Harvest
One day you wake up…
and something weird happens.
You’re not just surviving anymore.
You’re actually living.
The garden blooms.
You laugh again.
You start helping other people rebuild their soil.
And suddenly your story isn’t just pain anymore.
It becomes soil for someone else's survival.
Healthy Ecosystems Thrive Together
Permaculture teaches three principles:
Care for the Earth.
Care for People.
Share the Surplus.
Recovery quietly follows the same rules.
Care for your roots.
Care for yourself and others.
Share what you learned with the next person trying to survive.
Because someone out there right now is standing in the wreckage of their life thinking the soil is ruined.
And it’s not.
It just needs rebuilding.
Slowly.
Messily.
One seed at a time.
And if you’re wondering…
Yes.
Sometimes the raccoon still eats the tomatoes.
But the garden grows anyway.
And honestly?
So do we.
- brittny
still rebuilding the soil.
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