Why Doing the Work Isn’t Always Working
- Jan 3
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 5
Lewis Powell is a teacher, spiritual mentor, and public speaker. He founded the Kambo Practitioner Alliance and directs Inner Guru CIC. His work blends psychology with spiritual growth, helping people break old patterns, reconnect to purpose, and step into purpose-driven self-actualisation.
Personal growth and healing have never been more popular. More people than ever are looking for ways to improve their lives, understand themselves better, and feel more at ease in their own skin. Therapy is mainstream. Trauma is openly discussed. Childhood experiences are no longer brushed aside. Many people are genuinely trying to heal old wounds rather than simply push through life on autopilot.
Alongside traditional therapy, modern healing tools have become widely explored. Breathwork, body-based practices, and plant medicine experiences are now part of the landscape. For many, experiences with things like Kambo or Ayahuasca have offered powerful insight, emotional release, or a sense of connection that felt missing before.
And in many cases, these approaches genuinely help. They can bring clarity. They can reduce shame. They can open awareness in ways that feel meaningful and real. And yet, a quiet frustration often follows.
After the sessions, the ceremonies, the insights, and the emotional releases, many people notice something uncomfortable. Life looks different on the surface, but underneath, familiar struggles remain. The same emotional reactions return. The same relationship dynamics repeat. The same internal tension resurfaces.
This is often when people start questioning themselves. Why is this still happening? Why does this keep coming back? Why am I not getting better?
Why people feel stuck after doing the work
When progress stalls, many people assume they haven’t gone deep enough. That there must be another wound to uncover. Another layer to process. Another experience that will finally make it stick.
So they keep going. More work. More healing. More effort. But often, the issue isn’t a lack of commitment or courage. It’s a misunderstanding of what actually creates lasting change.
When healing becomes focused on insight and release
A lot of modern healing centres on two things. Understanding and release. Understanding our past can be deeply relieving. Seeing how childhood experiences shaped our beliefs, behaviours, and relationships often brings compassion and perspective.
Release, through emotional expression or cathartic experiences, can feel powerful. Letting things move can create a genuine sense of relief. And these moments matter. But insight and release are not the same as integration.
They can open awareness, but they don’t always change how the nervous system responds once everyday life resumes. A person can have a profound experience and still react in the same way under stress. Not because the experience didn’t work, but because the system hasn’t learned how to stay regulated in real conditions.
What “getting better” is often misunderstood to mean
Many people carry an unspoken belief that healing means old reactions should disappear. No triggers. No anxiety. No familiar emotional loops. So when something returns, it’s taken as a sign of failure. But healing doesn’t remove the human response system. It changes our relationship to it. For most people, progress looks quieter than expected. Noticing reactions sooner. Recovering faster. Having more choice before responding. If perfection is the measure, healing will always feel incomplete.
What are patterns?
One of the biggest misunderstandings in healing is why situations keep on repeating? Patterns are automatic responses shaped by repetition and familiarity. They show up as sensation, impulse, emotion, and reaction, often before conscious thought has time to intervene.
This is why someone can understand a pattern completely and still feel pulled into it. The body responds to what feels familiar long before the mind can catch up, this is known as repetition compulsion in psychology.
Why intense healing experiences don’t always lead to lasting change
Intense experiences can reveal deep emotional material. They can uncover unconscious patterns and offer moments of clarity. But without integration, the nervous system often returns to its baseline.
Daily life brings pressure, responsibility, relationships, and stress. If the system hasn’t learned how to regulate within those conditions, old patterns reappear. This doesn’t mean the experience failed. It means the work wasn’t complete.
Lasting change doesn’t come from intensity alone. It comes from repetition, safety, and the ability to stay present when familiar triggers arise.
Common pitfalls on the healing journey
Most people don’t get stuck because they’re doing something wrong. They get stuck because certain traps quietly appear along the way.
Confusing insight with integration: Understanding a pattern does not mean it has been integrated. If reactions still take over in real situations, the work needs to move beyond explanation and into lived experience.
Chasing release without stability: Emotional release can feel productive, but without regulation, the nervous system often resets to familiar patterns. Stability is what allows change to last.
Turning healing into a constant project: When healing becomes an identity, there is always another layer to work on. Integration often requires periods of rest, normal life, and not analysing yourself at all.
Explaining feelings instead of feeling them: Quickly reframing emotions can prevent them from completing in the body. Feelings often need space before they need meaning.
Ignoring the role of everyday life: Healing does not happen outside of real environments and relationships. Avoiding everyday situations can create disconnect and instability in the long run.
Expecting healing to remove discomfort entirely: Healing increases capacity, not immunity. Progress shows up as faster recovery and more choice, not the absence of challenge.
How to navigate these pitfalls more effectively
For many people, things begin to shift when the focus changes. From intensity to stability. From fixing to settling. From explanation to embodiment. This often looks like paying more attention to sensation than story, choosing environments that support regulation, and allowing change to be subtle rather than dramatic. These shifts don’t feel like breakthroughs. They feel quieter. But they last.
A final reflection
If you’re doing “the work” and still feel stuck at times, it doesn’t mean you’re broken or resistant. Often, it means the work is asking to change shape. Healing doesn’t always move forward through more insight or more effort. Sometimes it moves forward when the nervous system feels safe enough to settle, when daily life begins to reflect what’s been uncovered, and when integration is given time. Progress is usually quieter than expected. More ordinary. More human. When healing is no longer something to chase, but something to live, that’s often when it starts to work in a way that lasts.
Read more from Lewis Powell
Lewis Powell, Wellness CEO, Spiritual Leader & Teacher
Lewis Powell teaches and speaks on real psychological and spiritual change. He founded the Kambo Practitioner Alliance and leads community wellbeing work through Inner Guru CIC. He created NEOSH to train space holders in pattern-breaking and awareness-led healing techniques. His work blends psychology and spiritual growth, pushing people toward self-actualisation and purpose that’s actually lived, not performed. He writes about why we aren't getting better, culture, and indigenous communities. Have you ever wanted to change your life but felt the pull to stay the same was stronger? That’s exactly the space he talks into.
