Why Healing Matters
We are on the cusp of a new age in human history, and it’s only beginning. Even if we only consider this from the lens of the Novel Coronavirus, COVID-19, we have some collective understanding that everything is different. Add this the closest alignment of Jupiter and Saturn since 1623, and you have the signal of some new chapter in planetary time. Add this to the massive cumulation of division, change, and fundamental shifts in our life practices — something new is happening. To be clear, this is not an effort to argue for or against any of the shifts that we are witnessing. I want only to notice them. The response, I believe, is up to us. How we approach this new season is essential. I think that it will require our best selves. And, I really believe, we can uncover those people.
I’ve spent a large portion of my life going to church. In fact, in a recent bio-tech “wearable” calculation, 2020 marked over 150 hours that my family was not in the church building. All of that to say, I have a bias — both in the way that I see the world and in the way that I practice life. I want to state that here, but I also want to say that church does not always catalyze healing. Like a nutrient dense food or like an exercise routine, it can be part of the larger story, but alone, it often does not heal us (there are definite and real exceptions to this statement). So rather than spend time here talking about what good church does or does not do, I want to talk about healing. I am more and more convinced that it is absolutely necessary to move forward in any positive way. And it really is possible.
One of the simple truths that I claim about the world is that it is ultimately good. This doesn’t mean that evil doesn’t exist. This doesn’t mean that humans are inherently good. This doesn’t mean that all things work together for our good. This doesn’t even mean that each being that comes to live on this planet will experience good. It means that there is an ultimate intention that is before all things, and that ultimate intention is good.
During a very challenging time in my life, I found a mental health practitioner that used a form of therapy called EMDR. The operating assumption behind EMDR is that if the pathways in the brain can get unstuck, then old trauma loops can be re-routed. Our thinking is no longer stuck by consistently triggering old feelings, old traumas, and old responses. When these pathways become unstuck, something new is possible. We might face the same challenges and arrive at new solutions. We might face deeper challenges and not descend into depression. We might face our lives without the same level of anxiety because we have found a way to forge through the trauma of our past into a new future. Going through EMDR is brutal. It feels like treading on landmines. But the practitioners that lead us through this healing process allow us to gain a new lease on life when we are finally able to open that which was stuck. In other words, when the body has support to process its trauma, a better arrangement of homeostasis emerges. Healing is possible.
During my time in EMDR, I thought that once I came through the process, it would be good because it would be “all over.” I could not have been more wrong. What happened instead is that it felt like someone handed me a map of healing and asked me if I wanted to join the journey. It would be lifelong. It would press into every corner and crevice of my life. It would demand my utter examination of how I moved through the world. But it was a gentle invitation because I could go at my own pace. Without fully understanding it, I signed up.
And here is what I mean — I began trusting that the intention of goodness behind and around the universe had a physical reality. It wasn’t just in my thinking or in my beliefs. It was real. I could actually touch it, taste it, see it. The tradition of my faith lines up with this discovery, but the challenge is that I didn’t formerly understand is that you have to actually do it. To speak to those who follow a faith tradition, our practices of worship teach us about our faith. But it is up to us as to whether or not we do it. Church is not faith. Nor is meditation transcendence. Our worship practices put us in the coaching circle, but no one can actually move through the world on your behalf. You have to do that. Or, put another way, you get to do that. And that is why I believe healing matters, now more than ever.
Our ancestors have given us so much. Some trauma, some bravery, and a wealth of information to draw from. But for the last generation, life has been somewhat easy. The general consensus was don’t rock the boat — and for good reason. But now the boat has been rocked, and we need to respond. If you’ve ever lost control because of the loss of equilibrium, you know that response is necessary, but how you compensate is the key to restoring balance.
So, how does it begin? In my experience, healing begins either through our wounds or our questions (which are another source of our wounds). The trick is, so many of us have learned how to become numb to our wounds. So perhaps the beginning is letting yourself feel again. What hurts? What aches? What are your questions? Write them down. Are they physical, emotional, spiritual? Find a healer who can walk you through them. They are out there. Need help? Send me a message @salvehealing on IG. Healers are out there. It’s a journey with many stops and starts, and a whole constellation of frustrations. But at this point, it is no longer just about you. As a fellow human, we all need to become our best selves. Let’s do it.
