The polarities of self-healing
by Cassandra Whitfield —
One of the immutable laws of the universe is the law of polarity. It says that everything has an identical opposite or pole — good and bad, hot and cold, north and south. Though there are two sides to everything, when things seem to be complete opposites, they are really just varying degrees of the same thing. Is the water hot or is it less cold? Is the glass half empty or half full?
I believe that our humanness and our “beingness” observe this law, too. Each is as necessary as the other. They are the degrees to which our experiences are defined.
Our humanness engages our ego. There is a common misconception that our ego is bad, but ego is neither good nor bad. It speaks from our human experience. It tells us not to touch the stove again, even if we do not remember burning our finger as a child. This voice is necessary for our survival — it tries to protect us from getting burned again. In many ways, it is the voice of our wounds.
The opposing pole to our humanness is our beingness. This voice uses words of love and compassion. It suggests that we have always been where we needed to be. It encourages that we never fail but, instead, that we learn. It is the kiss for our “boo-boos.” It is the voice of our healing.
The first step in self-healing is learning to recognize both voices. Listen carefully to the language you use when you retell your experiences. What was happening when you burned your finger? Were you a victim of the stove’s malice or was someone else’s negligence responsible for your burn? Do you always get burned? Is that why you are still afraid of stoves? How many times were you burned?
Is it the voice of humanness or the voice of beingness that you hear most often? If your human voice is loudly recounting a painful story — acknowledge it. Dissect it and seek to understand the how, when and why you tell the story as you do. Accept that it has become your emotional familiarity through repetition. Appreciate that the painful emotions are not haunting you, but rather you are haunting them.
Change the story that serves no purpose for you, other than to make you feel bad about your experience. Revise it. Let your beingness tell the story instead. Be grateful that you did not need to get burned by an iron, a match or steam before you figured out that it was about temperature, not just the stove. Reinforce a version where you are the hero who learned to use the stove without getting burned again.
Celebrate your healing — one decibel at a time.
Cassandra Whitfield is a registered nurse and Reike practitioner who currently lives in Canada. She is the author of I Remember: A Story of Self-Healing. cassandrawhitfieldiremember.com.
Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 34, Number 1, February/March 2015.
March 18, 2015
February/March 2015 Issue, Healing, Self-improvement