…at the deepest level we are healing from the moment we enter life on this planet, and perhaps, long before that.
What is healing?
Recently a good friend of mine recommended a new book to me. It was a timely recommendation not only because I was about to travel around the world once more but also because of the topic: healing.
The book, Cured, is written by Jeffrey Rediger, a medical doctor who studies “spontaneous healing” and shows “how to create an environment that sets the stage for healing.”
I’m not too far into the book but it’s a great read so far. I sat down to read for a bit and a nagging question popped in my mind…one I think I’ve contemplated at least a time or two: what, exactly, is healing?
When I first embarked on the journey to heal my body from cancer, I did so rather arbitrarily. I mean, at one point, I had simply resolved that life wasn’t something I was too thrilled to continue being a part of and I decided to let cancer run its course. I’ve mentioned this in other writings and in discussions on our podcast.
I suppose that in a single word, I can sum up what I’ve found healing to be: Love.
Love is a topic that is difficult to define, or rather, find and actually live by.
Though, isn’t it the very thing we are all trying to do in one way or another? Volumes of books are written about it…countless films…music…all centered around a single word. We long to fall in love and feel hopeless when we feel as if we’ve fallen out of it. Love becomes this sort of destination which exists like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If I could only…
Without true love, we’re destined to fall into the trap of wishing for this amazing life to end. I’m not talking about the love we see dramatized in books and films. That’s not to say I don’t believe in love manifesting in those ways. I know it certainly can and should. What I mean is that at our core, we all are love. Every teacher, avatar, guru, and savior in history has preached this very truth. It’s why we strive for it.
By being born into this human existence, we’ve fallen to amnesia and must go through the journey of this life to remember. Sadly, many people never do—they miss the mark. We strive for love in all the wrong places, we look for life outside of who and what we truly are. The result: “people who have made a hell out of themselves want to go to heaven. People who have made heaven out of themselves, wherever the hell they go, they are fine.” (Sadhguru)
Reflecting back on my life and my desire to write a book about it, I can see that all I’m simply trying to accomplish is offer just a spark of hope for a single person. Too often we get so caught up in the technicalities, logistics and dogmas of life that it becomes far too easy to be snatched up by it all. Before we know it, we’re wrestling with our own mortality and wishing for nothing less than heaven. All sorts of discomfort and disease come from making yourself into this type of hell.
I’ve been there.
I’m interested to see how this book called Cured turns out. I have a hunch the author will suggest that we don’t necessarily have to travel to far off places or say certain prayers or mantras or do much of anything other than to simply learn to be still. For stillness and silence allow the yellow brick road to our true nature of love to illuminate. From there, it doesn’t matter where we are or where we go…we’ve found the Kingdom of Heaven within. We’ve found love. We’ve found healing.