Health is an end result, healing is a process.
Health is, according to the World Health Organisation (1948), a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. It’s quite an ideal to live up to!!
Healing is a process of repair, regeneration and restoration back towards homeostasis. The word itself has a literal meaning – to make whole.
But you don’t need to heal in order to be healthy.
You can have all sorts of healthy habits, but this doesn’t determine if you will heal.
Someone who considers themselves healthy already and wants to explore more ways of health – doesn’t focus on the need to heal. They may experience healing, but from a different point of view – one of innocence and exploration, rather than survival.
And it’s this survival mechanism that leads people astray.
Desperation, needing to fix, wanting to be free from chains that bind them.
None of these behaviours or attitudes lead to a conducive healing environment.
Presence, willingness, commitment to do what it takes – these are what’s really going to make a difference.
Many want the quick-fix and the miracle cure. They want relief from that which ails them, which is a completely different focus to wanting to support yourself.
And sometimes, healing can seem like a miracle – but that’s because the healing process is intangible and people in general don’t tap into the underlying energy. They only see and want surface results. They don’t see their own sabotage of the process.
The key elements
These are what I consider the key elements to healing:
· A willingness to heal
· To determine the root cause/s and take functional action
· Follow through to a state of being healthy.
I’ll discuss each one in detail over a 3-part blog series.
Part 1 – Be willing to heal
This is a biggie!
It seems the easiest, but this can be deceptive.
Because, ultimately, what does healing mean? Change. Transformation.
And most people resist the unknown unconsciously.
But… if you ask people if they are willing and want it, they will say, “Of course!”
What they don’t realise, is that they want healing only under certain conditions:
· I want my back to get better, but I don’t want to deal with my emotions
· I want to feel better, but I don’t want to let go of control
· I want to find out what’s going on… but later
· I want to, when I have the money
· I want to have more energy, but I don’t want to change my habits or routine
…and the list goes on.
I’ve heard all sorts of reasoning, and I’ve made all sorts of reasoning myself.
Another way it plays out is in self-identity and definition:
· I am a hopeless case
· I am incurably sick
· There are so many layers
· Everyone else is better off than me
· Others are trying to control and fix me
· I can’t trust… (the medical system) (natural healers) (authority)
…and the list goes on again.
It’s not so much the self-definition that is the problem, but the absolute unconscious belief that it is truth, that creates a reality to reinforce the belief.
For example, if you are incurably sick – are you really going to go see a healer and create the space to truly heal? You are incurable, after all. You may see one, but only those that won’t go deep to push the boundary of this issue. Or you may choose modalities that have nothing to do with your root cause. Or, you may see a healer and then move on to the next before they get deep enough with your healing.
Part of the healing process is navigating through and around these defence mechanisms. The only thing that’s really being defended is their illness.
When I work as a healer, I see many different types of clients.
I notice, as purely an interesting observation, the different levels of will and willingness in clients.
People get caught up in the idea that it’s the modality or the healer that determines the quality of healing. But, they don’t realise their own influence and power in the process. Their own unconscious sabotage. And while many are repulsed by the idea of sabotaging their healing, they are in essence also repulsed by the idea of their own creatorship and power. The power to influence their reality, both negatively and positively.
Some clients are straightforward – they go directly for what they want, their health. They are willing to try all sorts of things, guided somehow by an unseeable inner knowing or compass. They have commitment, they show up, they minimise drama but also minimise their need to control the process. They take self-responsibility. I’ve seen some clients overcome the most unlikely to heal illness and symptoms.
But no client is perfect – and no one has it completely figured out. But those that have willingness go far beyond on the journey of impossibility.
They are willing… to receive, to heal, to change and transform.
They are willing to see that it’s possible for them.
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF - really give yourself the space to sit with these questions and be honest with yourself:
- Is there any part of me unwilling to heal?
- Is there anything I am unwilling to do, even if that would mean getting better?