Healing: Narrowing the Gap
As many of you know, I dove into the world of energy work and healing as kind of a knee-jerk reaction to some physical issues I was having. When it became clear that western medicine wasn’t going to help with what I had going on, I plunged into the alternative health world with both feet and never came out.
I love it all. All the different methods and modalities, all the ways in through the psyche to heal the body, all the ways the body holds the map of our stories and wounds and those of our ancestors. From healing with Traditional Chinese Medicine, to Reiki, to modes based on quantum physics or epigenetics, healing through earth-based shamanic traditions and through sound and geometry - it’s all fascinating and miraculous to me.
I just geek out on all of it. I have a toy box filled with these tools to work with others, and an even bigger one to experiment on myself. It’s all great. It’s magic, delightful, powerful. And it works.
What I’ve learned after years of “working on myself” however is that healing can be a rabbit hole when we haven’t quite discerned our objective. We can fuss and futz forever trying to perfect ourselves, but this notion stems from the trance of scarcity and duality that we’re all attenuated to. This idea that we’re not good enough if we have unhealed parts.
But this is a misconception based on the idea that someone is going to punish us for being less than ideal. It’s a holdover from our culture and from our ancestral heritage that hooks us into thinking that we’re less than we are. That we’re somehow less divine because we have issues. Not possible. This kind of thinking (and believe me, I’ve spent years here) is not going to get us where we want to go. There’s no finish line to the healing process, no check-list.
My definition of healing? When it comes to the mind-body interface: Healing is closing the gap between the small self and the Greater/Essential/True/Divine Self enough so that we can step over it more easily. So we can live our lives from a place of authenticity and inner guidance. So we can do what we came here to do, be who we came here to be.
Now, I don't mean that this has to be your goal, per se in order to reap these benefits. Some people with acute PTSD are just trying to be able to go out of the house, do a little shopping, come home and put it away without spinning out.
Some folks are trying to get relief from discomfort. From debilitating illness, or a painful relationship, or financial need. Others are trying to heal the wounds that prevent patterns of addiction and self-sabotage.
Ultimately, we want to be happier, more functional, have fewer problems, and healing the nervous system and the psyche can bring us these things. Absolutely.
Healing need not be undertaken with the intention of some kind of spiritual resolution in order for it to have a spiritual effect. It’s still bringing us closer to our Real Self, whether we intend it to or not, because it allows us to be more present in the moment we’re in, less stuck in the dramas of the past.
And isn’t that where all our power is? In this moment, right here, right now? To my mind, being healed is simply being present. And we can practice that no matter where we are on our journey.
We start with our breath. We start with our feet on the ground, noticing.
For most of us this state comes and goes. Honestly, most of us need to consciously practice getting there, but with time and effort we can begin to hold it. And when we’re present, we’re in our Truth, we’re Who We Really Are, because the trauma and stress and woundedness is absent when we’re present. In that moment we are healed. When we do get here and now, fully present, accepting the moment as it is, we’re awake. Enlightened. Already home.
What healing actually does is eliminate some of the mental distraction points that keep us in the past or the future. This allows us to close the chasm between our traumatized, monkey-mind, human side and our Essence so that we can step across more easily. It allows us to experience more of Who We Really Are. If we stick with it long enough, it gives us the ability to choose which Self we’re being, and how we perceive our circumstances.
Which isn’t always an available option at certain points in the process, I get it. My nervous system gets hijacked, too. The gap between Who We Really Are and the crunchier parts of ourselves gets wider when we’re in fight-or-flight, but that’s when we reach for help to build a bridge to the other side while the parts in between come together again.
We can heal the nervous system in various ways. We can heal emotional trauma, beliefs, patterns that don’t serve us, let go of the past through countless means, both conventional and esoteric. But once we get enough clarity to see the other side, to see our own shining self standing on the other shore, it gets easier to leave the healing process and just step over. We can more easily just be our healed self more of the time.
And the more time we spend here, the more our lives will reflect it. Our bodies will reflect it, and our circumstances. We grow more accepting of what is, and allow more of what resonates with our truth to show up.
We can continue to receive healing for as long as it serves us. We can narrow the divide forever, if we like. But the more we experience stepping into our Whole Self, the less the small self’s chaotic patterns are cause for alarm. The easier it becomes for the nervous system to let our True Self lead, and the more we accept things as they are whether they’re comfortable or not.
And the more present we become, the more we’ll find ourselves experiencing life in its fullness and beauty, and the more we shine our light for all the world to see.
