Healing Begins From Within
In my early twenties I dove head first into doing my part to "heal the world" by studying cultural anthropology, sociology, then psychology, working in impoverished, oppressed and at-risk communities at home and abroad, becoming a counsellor… I focused all my energy on offering my ear and my skills to help lessen or end pain and suffering for others. It was exhausting and sometimes even unfulfilling. I often felt that there was never enough I could accomplish or offer. Regularly, I experienced that the communities I was committed to holding hands with in allyship, swung the pendulum between loving my support and hating me for being in a position to offer it. I never felt enough. I was miserable, trying to fill oceans of pain from an empty cup.
It took me nearly a decade to fully awaken to a new truth: that healing must start from within. I understood that the perspective of 'helping' I was clinging to came from misguided and misunderstood paradigms of energy. I came to understand that if I am to offer anything to the healing of other individuals, communities, countries, then I must be working from a clear inner space. Like a pebble landing in a body of water, healing must begin with myself and ripple outward. I had to get quiet and listen to my own pains (which were mainly rooted in my perceived short-comings, and immense guilt for my privileged life). I started the important work of healing myself, and trusted that the next steps to positive, meaningful contribution to others would feel aligned and clear, to the same extent that I became aligned and clear within myself.
“Like a pebble landing in a body of water, my healing must begin with myself and ripple outward.”
I love self-study (what in the 8 limbs of yoga philosophy would be called Svadyaya - one of five niyamas or principles of self-conduct) but navel-gazing without a connection to the wider picture is not, in my opinion, true inward development. Walking the labyrinth of the Self can be a beautiful experience, as long as we don't get lost in there.
This blog aims to spark curiousities about our individual, systemic and global healing journeys. Follow along with me on the blog as we explore what it means to give ourselves room to heal, and how that healing can ripple out with high vibrations to contribute to the healing of our greater family and our planet.
