Joanne Smith says recovery doesn't require the grueling effort people think. For those stuck in chronic patterns for months or years, moving forward is actually low-effort: it creates mental space, reduces clutter, and improves sleep. Recovery can feel like a luxury, not a burden.
So yeah, I just want to reassure you that actually, if you hear the expression doing the work, don't get put off. The work does not feel like work, it feels like luxury compared to if you've been stuck for quite a while. If you're classed as chronic, then you've been stuck for at least 3 months or more, and for many people it might even be 3— it might even be into the tens, twenties, and thirties, and whatever, 40 years. It doesn't matter about time. It doesn't matter, there's still nothing to fix, and the process is still less work than you might think if you're hearing a message of do the work. Yeah, we're not going to be all about trying to fight, fix, putting in more effort, it's not all about that, it's not all about Uh, uh, it's not all about like having to be in control about everything and all this stuff because it's all stuff that's gonna be unhelpful. It's actually doing a lot less of all of that stuff, which really frees you up, frees up your mind, it frees up space, it frees up a lot of things. It, yeah, it's easier to sleep at night, let's put it that way.
