HEALING 101
The collective is made of billions of individuals, all in various stages of self-actualization, or lack of, and it is in that gap that our greatest work is done. So we say yes, we want to heal, we want to be self-aware. But as we begin it gets quite messy. There are many methods and mechanisms for healing; Go within, meditate, confront the false projections of self. Shadow work, inner child healing, deep into the wounds that we seek to heal. Uncovering patterns, self-care, daily practices of mantras and affirmations. What does all this sum up to? The hard part of healing.
So often it is these more uncomfortable processes which exclude so many of us from making a break through in our own lives. We don't like to be uncomfortable, we have a natural instinct to avoid pain. While each of the aforementioned aspects are important pieces in the healing journey, they are not the whole of it. What if I told you all healing is not all tedious and filled with self-reflective mayhem? It's true, this is something I have discovered after nearly two decades of deep dive research into the mechanisms of healing in wholeness.
LIFE SCRIPT
The first understanding to master is recognizing that we are the architect, the author of our life: through internal narratives (the "stories we tell ourselves"), through emotional reactions, through projections and energy patterns - we write the script of what we now experience, or at least, how we perceive our experience of it. Our perception is where the memories of the past and visions of the future merge into the tidal moment of the here and now. How do we gain full access to the power of the present?
To master anything, you must first become aware of it. In this case that means becoming aware of both your power and responsibility to yourself in your now moment. If you are not willing to take ownership of your script, then this work cannot help you. But if you can start with curiosity, and move into "courage, connection and compassion" (as Brene' Brown would say) you can begin to not only heal your life, but make your life one you actually enjoy. You can move from survival and recovery into thriving and self-discovery.
Here we will briefly explore how to move from the darker stages of healing back into the Light.
When you look back on your life, what do you want to see? Hard work? Punishment of self? Shame and guilt? Or many purposeful moments of joy and fulfillment. I realized after many years of working on healing, digging deeper and deeper into my own pain patterns, that it felt like: the more work I do, the less healed I feel. That is the paradox isn't it? The more we focus on our suffering, and healing the root of that suffering, the more we experience its reflections. It can lead us to believe we are making no progress, it can give us a sense that we are still not "ready". But who chooses when we are ready to be happy again? We do.
That initial work cannot be bypassed, or the issues will continue to present themselves, but: once we have done our work, a work that we know is never fully finished, we come to a choice point. Healing is ultimately about recovering your joy - the things that make you happy. Happiness, itself, is healing. And happiness is something we can choose.
THE ECSTATIC EXPERIENCE
What is an ecstatic experience and how can that bring happiness?
Have you ever sat in a church, or went to a concert, or stood on a mountain top, or had a moment of clarity during meditation in which, all of a sudden, it came to you - you are alive! Your life and all that occurred along the way - the good and the bad - was only leading you into this moment, this one blissful moment swelling up with power, purpose and grace. This moment of total presence in which you are simultaneously there with yourself, while observing your life in totality, as if from birds point of view. These moments have the potential for the most transformative potency of healing, if we would grasp them for all that they are.
Ecstatic experiences are embedded in the roots of all the worlds religions, they are at the bedrock of spontaneous miraculous healing, they are connected to life-changing events, they are fundamentally connected to the awareness of the deeper spiritual concepts. They can come from tragedies as much as from moments of triumph. The reason they are so powerful is because of their ability to alter, or modify, perception. There is a direct relationship between our awareness and our reality. There is a prorated expansion of our access to information, and quality of life experiences, as your own awareness expands.
What we need is access to such ecstatic states of being in our everyday life. All these are, when the splendor and intensity is stripped away, is really just connected states of awareness. That is where healing, transformation, and rebirth can all occur. These experiences act as the catalyst - and all it requires a deep belief in the power of moment you are in.
We cannot heal in the same environment that made us unwell, to find healing we have to be willing to walk into the moment we are in, from a new point of view. Ecstatic experiences are unique to each individual, they can come from many sources; spirit quests, temples, healing retreats, higher states of consciousness, or simply spending time in nature. We can become adept at spontaneously creating space for these experiences in our own lives. Through this we can rediscover a deeper sense of inspiration, insight, and clarity; to create peace, to recover our joy, and to listen the deep wisdom already within our heart.
Jason Silva, award winning speaker and filmmaker, said,
Creativity and insight almost always involve an experience of acute pattern recognition: the eureka moment in which we perceive the interconnection between disparate concepts or ideas to reveal something new... Once we realize the extraordinary power we have to compose our lives, we’ll move from passive, conditioned thinking to being co-creators of our fate.
We are co-creators of our lives, this means we have a hand in how it plays out. We have a choice to heal and do what makes us happy.
Awe is an essential component of any ecstatic experience. It has the ability to unmask us, to reveal us to ourselves, and to rekindle an awareness of the greater universe we are connected to. Awe can come from new experiences. Awe can arise organically from witnessing beauty; the majesty of nature, the creative vision of art, the emotions evoked through music, the epiphany surrounding a great thought. What is happening to us as we have these awe-inspiring experiences is: we are fully present with the trans-figurative power of the moment. We are accessing the infinite elastic and healing now.
The magic is that ecstatic experiences, and moments of awe, are attainable for anyone. We can simply choose to seek them and to heal through the shifts that occur. These internal shifts create lasting changes that can impact the quality of our life and the way that we see it.
The journey of healing does not have to be all work and no play. Play is as essential as the work we do. What awe and ecstatic experiences teach is that: healing comes from doing what makes us happy, and happiness can be found by creating new experiences.
~Lisa Falcon G
For More on the Journey of Healing and Self-Actualization,
grab a copy of The Self Beyond, a field guide for personal activation.