Healing

Concepts for Thriving
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Healing

Healing is a natural, ongoing process that restores balance and well-being to our body, our mind, and within our physical and emotional world.

  • Understanding that healing is a process rather than a goal (healed) helps us to discern when we’re out of balance and make a shift.
  • We learn to notice when we’re far away from well-being and craft a healing journey back to wellness following our body guidance.
  • Co-Regulation and Holding Space promote healing for ourselves and others.

The Healing Journey

We’re called to take a healing journey when we find ourselves far from well-being.

We can end up quite sick and messy if we have trauma. Sometimes, in order just to survive, we make choices to eat, drug, ignore, or endure at the expense of our long-term well-being. It happens. We’re human.

While this may stoke our fears and make us believe we’re in a healing crisis… our concept for thriving is that a healing journey is called for. Journeys often call for some preparation, gathering resources, setting intentions, and getting help.

Getting Help?!? Often, in survival culture, people are expected to go it alone. In thriving culture, we recognize that healing — like any journey — benefits from cooperative support. Help can arise from teachers who can help us develop new skills and practices. Skilled practitioners who excel in holding a healing space can help us co-regulate and attune our body, nervous system, and thoughts toward restoration and replenishment.

The healing journey is yours to craft and to take each baby step along the way. Your choices, your freedom, and your body guidance are what always matter most! But that does not mean you need to do it alone (or that going it alone is a “higher” achievement).

Healing Every Hour

We’re naturally healing all the time. Cells are being repaired and replaced. Emotional upsets are processed (or shoved away for later). Sleep gives a chance for the brain and body time to process and unwind stresses. Food and water comfort and replenish us.

So much healing occurs without even thinking about it!

That said, so much damage and stress also occur without even thinking about it.

Imagine at the top of the hour you checked in with your heart. How’s it feeling? Any distresses that are calling to be unwound?

How about your gut? How is it feeling about the relationships around you and the environment you’re in right now?

Is your body asking for some nourishment? Shift in position or location?

Don’t feel bad if you’ve yet to develop the skill of listening to your body guidance so that healing happens regularly throughout the day — rather than deferred for “later” (tomorrow? next week? next year?).

For thriving, it helps to be aware that healing is designed to be in the now. An emotional trauma that gets healing attention right after it happens might unwind in 30 minutes. Wait a decade and it may take… much longer.

Tending to our healing regularly throughout the day means we’re much less likely to require a challenging healing journey later.

Useful Questions

  • What am I noticing? How is my body asking for healing right now to restore balance and well-being?
  • In my emotional world, what feels toxic or tense and could use cleansing and unwinding?
  • As I move through my week, do I feel like there’s natural healing happening? It’s okay to get tense if it’s followed by release. Tension followed by even more tension leads to dis-ease.
  • What practices promote my own healing? Am I doing those practices or deferring them?
  • Who is in my support circle? Do I cultivate those relationships and keep them fresh and alive?
  • What do I face alone that would benefit from hearty help?

Resources

Related Concepts

Body Guidance, Choices, Circling, Comfort, Co-Regulation, Grounding, Holding Space, Lifestyle Design, Powerful Pause, Self-Care, Unwinding, Vitality, Resilience, Trauma Informed

Links

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