The Healer Within

I'm not a healer. And neither are you. I once thought of myself as a healer but recently realized that is not true. I'm not a healer any more than anyone else is. I'm a seeker, I'm a student, and a nurse, but I’m not a healer because there are no 'healers' out there who heal us. Our body has the capability to heal itself. Our job is to get out of the way and let the divine that lives inside heal.

I’m currently on a healing journey and have stumbled upon some truths. Actually, I didn’t stumble upon them, I searched and asked and received. Truth is something that just is. Truth cannot be argued. I’ve been on a spiritual journey for 46 years. Whatever your age is, that’s how long you’ve been on a spiritual journey. We are all on a spiritual journey, but some people aren’t aware of this due to being caught on the physical plane, rather than realizing there is also a spiritual and mental plane. We are all a soul inhabiting a body. Since 2013 I’ve been on a holistic healing journey. It started with an interest in learning about yoga to manage my stress as a nurse. I’ve always focused on holistic health as a nurse and have used holistic modalities for my own healing as much as possible in my career. During my own healing journey, I’ve learned several truths about health and healing.

The truths about healing:

1. We all have the capability to heal ourselves by virtue of being. The body is always seeking to return to wholeness, this is called homeostasis. We can become whole by tuning into what our body is telling us it needs and then heeding its advice.

2. There’s no magic pill. We can pay someone else to heal us, but all they are doing is pointing us back to what we know deep within. Sometimes this monetary investment can be helpful as it helps give us the motivation needed to make changes. I’m more apt to take my healing seriously if I’ve invested in my healing.

3. We have to remove our ego in order to be able to listen to the still small voice, the truth that resides in us. The ego can block out the truth.

4. We heal through the mind, spirit, body. I list the body last because it is the last part of us that heals.

   1. Mind: positive thoughts, meditation

   2. Body: movement, breath, nourishment

   3. Spirit: prayer, meditation, connection, nature

We will delve deeply into all these modalities over the course of my writings. My work is not yet complete because I’m currently in the process of healing my body that is currently in a dis-eased state. But I’m on the right healing path even though I am not seeing physical results yet. The reason I know I’m healing because healing starts on the emotional, spiritual, energetic level. If we don’t heal the emotional level, we won’t heal on the physical level. When I didn’t address the resentment, anger, and emotional stress I was harboring, my body was not capable of maintaining homeostasis.

I know how to heal, and so do you. So why do we pay someone for this free knowledge? Because when we invest money into our healing, we are ready to take the advice we are given because it cost us something valuable. In my case, money. I paid a ‘healer’ a lot of money, over 2k last year. I don’t regret it at all. In fact, where I was at the time, I needed her. She didn’t give me a magic pill and there was no quick fix, but what she did was help me return to my body and recognize the steps I needed to heal, and a plan to heal that addressed my physical, mental, and spiritual body. It was a lot of work, money, and time. But at the time, I felt completely broken and couldn’t see myself anymore. In a sense it was the best money I ever spent. My physical body underwent a tremendous amount of healing. Then I went through 3 stressful events back-to-back (physical and emotional) and my body remembered all the trauma of the past that I hadn’t yet healed, and my body simply could not take another blow. Now I’m healing from the inside out and addressing the mental/emotional aspect while simultaneously addressing the spiritual and physical aspect.

So where do we begin to heal?

1. BREATH: We begin with how we began life. We begin to heal with the breath. That’s the first step to healing. Breath awareness. Breath quality. Quality breathwork helps shift our trauma dis-eased body back into a relaxed state that can receive divine healing. If like me, you are stuck in a sympathetic nervous system response after years and years of holding the breath tight due to stress, then it can be a lot of work to undo the years of damage of breathing incorrectly. But each time we breathe with awareness, we begin healing. This is where yoga is such a great tool for healing. Yoga helps us become aware of our breath and body. We will get to that later. But first suffice to know that the breath is the single most important thing we can do to heal. On a physical level the breath helps us nourish each cell of our body by delivering oxygen to our cells and removing waste. Quality breath helps us relax and go into a parasympathetic state (rest and digest), and I add that being in a PNS state helps us repair and restore. So the breath works on healing us on all 3 levels. 1) Physically by putting our body into a PNS state 2) mentally by bringing us back to awareness of the present moment 3) spiritually as God gave us our breath, and our breath connects us back to our creator. He breathed life into us. (I will have several articles, videos, classes on breathwork alone). Our breath is our constant from birth to our last breath. I have so much to say about the breath and cannot wait to get into depth about the importance of our breath.

2. NATURE: Connection with nature heals our mental/spiritual body. It brings us back to the slowness we are meant to live life. It helps us focus on the present moment and allows us to see God in His creation. Nature teaches us that we are all interconnected. The vibration of nature shows us how mother earth breathes. There are so many ways to incorporate nature into our daily life. Gardening is a great way to spend time in nature because we are connecting on such a deep level. We need time to get away from cities, concrete buildings, cell phones, internet, TV’s, social media and get back to the earth. Touch the dirt, stand in the grass, watch a sunset, watch a sun rise, watch the birds. Listen to the wind blowing through the leaves, watch the leaves fall. Smell the lovely smells of fall, spring, and even winter. Use all 5 senses in nature. God resides in nature. Yes, God resides everywhere, but in nature, there are no obstacles obstructing our connection to Him. I’ve never felt closer to God then when I am in the mountains. Mountains remind me of how small I am and how big God is. His voice is much louder in nature and my voice is much smaller.

3. NOURISHMENT: we nourish our physical body through the quality of food we eat. The quality of thoughts we think nourish our mental body. We nourish the soul through that which makes us feel alive. Food. Below are important concepts for our food. I will delve into each of these in other posts, but for now, just a list of what I’ve found to be helpful for my healing.

   1. alkaline versus acidic foods

   2. eating for healing

   3. ayurveda

   4. eating for the seasons

   5. fasting or not eating to excess at least

   6. light v heavy food: food has prana (life force energy). The closest you eat vegetables to being picked, the more prana you receive. Some foods make us feel light and energetic and others make us feel dull and heavy. Think about how you feel after eating a salad versus how you feel after eating a baked potato and steak.

   7. detoxification: our bodies detoxify through our digestive system, kidneys, lungs, and skin.

4. MOVEMENT: Dance, yoga, walking, running, hiking, swimming. Connects us with our bodies and spirit as one. Yoga: union. Dance is yoga, walking is yoga, all life is yoga when we are aware. Yoga, yoga, yoga. When I practice yoga, I feel so much better. What is it that makes your heart sing? Writing, painting, art, gardening, dancing, singing, playing, fishing, hiking? Make time for that every single day.

5. MUSIC: primordial sound, chanting, sound baths, worship music.

6. CLEAN AIR, WATER, FOOD: we live in such a toxic environment. Anytime we can breathe clean air, drink clean water, and eat clean food, we help our bodies heal.

There’s so much more. I can’t wait to delve deeper into the healing path. But my first tip would be this and this alone. Start small. What is one small act you can commit to today? For me, it is to do one yoga pose each day, one mindful breath, one prayer, and to drink more water. Simple, doable.

The answers aren’t in the latest health studies. These fads change over time. Even the science changes over time. I studied functional nutrition and became a certified functional nutrition counselor and learned there are thousands of fad diets that claim to be the ‘one true diet’. I got so confused on what to tell patients. Then I realized the answers are already within. If, however, you need guidance on where to start, go to the ancient texts of Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Bible, and any other holy text and you will find all you need to know how to eat correctly. You already know. It’s all within you, it’s simple. You just have to clear the muddy waters to see the reflection within.