Doing Healing Work

Healing requires that we examine all the different aspects of our lives. Socrates was to have said, “A life unexamined is not worth living”.

This statement, while harsh, is the key to living a self-actualized life.

As human beings we are “hard wired” to be loved and to be acknowledged. Our greatest subtle fear is that somehow we are unacceptable to those who we want to love us. The irony of this is that much of what we identify to be us, was created by what others thought of us and what they thought of themselves. Our brain wires information, much like the imputing of data into a file. Initially the brain was not capable of distinguishing accurate data or information from inaccurate information. This data or information impacts the entire Central Nervous System. It is only as we grow and develop that we come to access the data and its impact on us. As the mind is developed, it primarily functions as a regulator of the data or information. Somewhere along the developmental process we become aware that we are aware and that we can evaluate the information that has been recorded in our brain.

My grandfather used to say that a lie was as good as the truth if no one knew the difference. It seems that within us there lies an entity that lets us know truth if our sense of self has not been so badly damaged with violence and ignorance. Within each child that comes into the world there is a light, a uniqueness that defines only them. Each light is precious and changes the world on its arrival. When the child is unacknowledged and neglected, that data is recorded within the brain and has serious consequences because it is often misinterpreted by ego or false self.

Nature created within us the ability for emotions and it is our emotion that defines our relationship to our environment. If our environment is unsafe, we feel fear; if offensive, we feel anger. If we lose something, we feel depressed; if unacknowledged we feel resentment or sadness, or fear or anger or some combination of those.

As human beings we not only have an external environment, we have and are aware of our internal environment. Factually we never experience anything “out there”, we only experience “things” within the confines of our Central Nervous System. This experience is often defined as the self, in part because we are aware that we are having an experience and that experience is within us. What we don’t always realize is that we often create our own inner experience. Sometimes pleasant, but often times very unpleasant. When we come to understand that we can, by choosing attitudes and beliefs, impact our inner experience to the degree that we find peace and joy, then we are on the path of self-actualization and healing.

As stated earlier we need to be loved and acknowledged. This is not only true for infants, but a need throughout our mortality. This is most true as we come to realize that self-love is the foundation for allowing others to love us. It requires an acceptance of our vulnerability. This is a risk well worth taking.

Blessings to all!