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Healing
Your Spirit
by Rachel Harris, Ph.D. |
We all need to be healed, to feel more whole. Deep
down inside ourselves, we know there's more to life,
more that we can be. We dream of transformation,
like a caterpillar dreams of becoming a butterfly.
However, no matter what we do to seek or encourage it,
the process of healing proceeds according to its own
timetable for each of us. Rarely can we see or
guess what the next step of healing will be. There
is always an element of mystery to it, far beyond
logical comprehension.
It is this elusive component
that makes all healing sacred healing. More is
happening at the different levels of healing--physical,
emotional, and spiritual--than we can know or
imagine. Sometimes we can help this process of
healing, and other times we need to just allow it to
follow its own course. One paradoxical aspect of
healing is that someone can be healed during their
illness and yet still die. Inner healing, spiritual
healing, is not the same as remission of physical or
emotional symptoms or cure. Healing is related to
our capacity to experience and embrace life as it
is. Often this means accepting the unacceptable, making
peace with disintegration, and loving whatever we
face. These are the signs of healing. They
illustrate how healing transforms our relationship to
life.
Healing, then, is part of our
life's path, and as Stephen Levine, a Buddhist teacher
who works with the dying, says, healing is what we were
born for. What did we come into this world to
heal, and what do we need, within ourselves, to be
healed? What can we give and what can we
receive? The amazing thing is that sometimes the
healing we need can only come from the experience of
giving to others. For example, when I am totally
stuck with a psychotherapy client, I will suggest he or
she try doing volunteer work, something that puts them
in direct contact with those needing care, like being a
hospice volunteer or Big Brother. One man I
counseled, an engineer, took up rocking cocaine-addicted
babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. The
babies gained weight, allowing them to go home earlier,
and the engineer learned exactly what he needed to about
giving and receiving love.
The potential for healing is
always present, whether in the healing of our
relationships, the healing of ourselves, or the healing
of others. We must realize that healing is a
spontaneous and essential part of our spiritual
journey. The more we are able to heal ourselves
and others, the more whole we become--we are transformed
again and again.
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"Golden
Light" 20-Minute Retreat
Many subtle
energy systems, which heal through the laying on of
hands, use the visualization of filling up your physical
body with light to enhance healing. A variety of
colors can be used, from blue-white to a pure white to a
pale green. As recommended in Structural
Awareness, a system of body exercises and visualization,
I usually envision golden sparks of light. In my
mind, they are similar to those gold-colored handheld
Fourth of July sparklers we used to play with as
children.
Step 1:
Entering into Retreat
Use the first three minutes to get seated
comfortably, with back support if you need it.
Close your eyes. Let your breathing become gentle
and easy.
Step 2:
For the next fifteen minutes, imagine you can
breathe in golden particles of dancing light. Let
the entire inside space of your body fill up with these
particles of golden light. As you exhale, let go
of any negativity.
Once your inside
space is totally filled with golden light, let the light
permeate through your body into the space around you,
like the glow of a candle. Continue this process
of filling up and glowing with golden light for the full
fifteen minutes.
Step 3:
Returning to the World:
For the final two minutes, simply let your breathing
return to normal. Be aware of your physical contact
with the floor or your chair. Open your eyes and
glance softly around the room. Move gently as you
stand up. |
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"Shekhina" 20-Minute Retreat
This
retreat is adapted from Rabbi Shoni Labowitz's book, Miraculous
Living. She is a student of the Kabbalah, an
ancient tradition of Jewish mysticism. In Miraculous
Living she describes the Shekhina, the Hebrew
goddess, as having wings to lift us into an altered
state of consciousness so we will be more open and receptive
to our healing. Images of wings have always
transported us to other worlds, from the wings of angels
in the Bible to those of the mythological winged horse,
Pegasus. Prayer shawls, used traditionally in
Judaism, are symbolic reminders of wings in that they
draw awareness into the body at the same place where
wings sprout: the heart center at the back. This
retreat uses the imagery of wings to convey a loving,
even maternal, embrace.
Step 1:
Entering into Retreat
Sit comfortably with back support. Close your
eyes. You can use a scarf or shawl around your
upper back and shoulders to give your body a kinesthetic
sense of wings. Give yourself three minutes to let
your breath become easy and light.
Step 2:
For the next fifteen minutes, imagine that pure
white feathery wings are encircling you. This is a
mystical embrace of love and light. You are fully
surrounded. You can rest easy in these wings,
allowing them to support, protect, and sustain
you. Feel yourself being enveloped and cared
for. Allow this loving embrace to soak through
you, down into your bones. Let your face become as
radiant as an angel's.
Step 3:
Returning to the World:
For the final two minutes, gently allow your eyes to
open. See if you can catch a glimpse of the
shimmering light quality of the other world coexisting
in this present world. |
Copyright © 2000 Rachel Harris, Ph.D. and The Philip
Lief Group. All Rights Reserved. Excerpted from
"20 Minute Retreats: Revive Your Spirits in
Just Minutes a Day with Simple Self-Led Exercises,"
Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Not to be used without
permission.
Rachel
Harris, Ph.D. is a psychologist who has led a private
practice in Princeton, New Jersey, and has led national
and international workshops for thirty years. She is
author of "20 Minute Retreats: Revive Your Spirits in
Just Minutes a Day with Simple Self-Led Exercises"
and the co-author of the bestselling "Children Learn
What They Live."
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