At one time, I thought that if I just worked on particular issue A, B and C, that I would be fully healed from baggage of my past.  It seemed like, all I had to do was go to counseling, work on it, become aware of it and that’s it.  I would be healed.  While I would love to believe this, along with millions of other folks on this earth, healing really doesn’t work this way.

For you see, once you begin to work on things, then you stand before a new world that opens up and unfolds itself.  Imagine never being able to see and then all of the sudden you get your eye sight.  Everything that before was unknown to you, is now vividly before your eyes.  Imagine how that might look.  You’re still standing in the same world you have always known but now your awareness of what is around you has unfolded many times over.

Healing works much the same way.  As we begin to take back those areas of our lives that were damaged or stretched out of proportion, life begins to look differently.  We discover new things about all that is around us as well as ourselves.  We begin to become more aware of all that there is instead of all that we currently know.

With each new awareness and each new level of awareness, there also comes other parts of our past issues that may not yet be resolved.  It does not mean we have not fully healed or that we just need to move on.  It means that we are growing, changing and coming up on opportunities to take our lives further.  Growing, changing and evolving make us more human and even though it may offer some rough moments in life, the rewards are full of possibility.

So often, we feel that we just want to move beyond things and not feel all of what may be coming up.  Sometimes we may need to do this momentarily to survive but if we continue this way, we are only robbing ourselves of all that can be.  Sure, it isn’t always easy but we can heal and we can grow if we allow ourselves to.  In all reality, the more we keep ourselves from feeling the uncomfortable stuff in our lives, the more we feed energy to these things.

Often, I have had people wonder why I continue to go into all that life has given to me and continue bringing these healing moments out.  Part of it is my determination to move beyond these things because I am intimately aware of how they affect all aspects of my life.  The other part is that I know there is a higher purpose to all that I’ve gone through and I am guided by this.  While I can not fully see the higher purpose for myself, deep down the prompts in life show me that it does exist and to keep going.  It does not make any of this easy nor do I enjoy spending the hard hours working on this.  In the end though, I know that I can either rest on my laurels or I can dive head first into the evil side of life that was thrust upon me and reclaim an awareness greater than I can currently comprehend.

I remember the words to the song that Garth Brooks sings, “The Dance”.  “I could have missed the pain but I’d of had to miss the dance”.  It is a beautiful concept because while there are rough moments in our lives, it is a dance.  The more we allow the bad and the good into our awareness, the more we can grow, prosper and claim all that is ours.  There is so much more in life than we are currently and often aware of.  However, all too often we just see the pain of it and we try to flee from it.  It is when we stop and embrace the pain that we fully “dance” in life.

As I said in the beginning of this, healing is not an end point.  It is a process.  If you are experiencing the pains in your life and the connections to past events, than most likely you are being given the opportunity to grow and discover yourself in new ways.  Yes, I realize it may be scary and difficult but give it all you have and discover the rewards that await.  Life does try to get our attention in one way or another and if we ignore it, we will see that it just tries harder.  May you listen to life as it tries to get your attention so that you become all you can be as a human and you continue to evolve and grow in awareness.  To do so, makes you truly human.


By Don Shetterly
March 8, 2010
www.donshetterly.com

Mind Body Thoughts

Reprinted by permission from the Mind Body Thoughts Blog


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