Deep Self-Healing: A Personal Story and Spiritual Guide

By Louise Armitage

In Deep Self-Healing, Louise Armitagea professional natural therapistdescribes her unexpected journey of mind/body/spirit healing and personal transformation through mindfulness meditation.

Her story explores how she faced healing the many faces of hard-personal circumstances and bitter emotional pain common to many peoplelike relationship breakdowns, grief, worthlessness, powerlessness and anxiety. As well as providing an in depth-account of her own self-healing process, woven through her story are thoughtful discussions of important spiritual-healing concepts such as the role of karma, past-lives and soul evolution.

Deep Self-Healing is therefore a unique blending of an intimate and honest personal story, with the important spiritual-healing principles underpinning it.

For both healers and all who seek personal growth, Deep Self-Healinga Personal Story and Spiritual Guide offers a rare and highly useful resource This is a book to be read, re-read, and well-studied.

Scott Mandelker Ph.D. Teacher, counsellor and author of From Elsewhere and Universal Vision.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Aug 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781504313872

Louise Armitage

With around twenty years experience as a professional homeopath and Bowen therapist, Louise Armitage has an extensive background in natural healing. Born in Adelaide (Australia) in 1960, her interest in natural health and spirituality started in her late teens, when she bought a copy of the I Ching. But it wasnt until 1995and after winding a career path through both education and marketing communicationsthat she left the mainstream working world to pursue her career as a natural healer. Her interest in mind/body/spirit healing was born out of her own personal work and the holistic healing principles she learned from homeopathic medicine. In her work, she brings together her healing, teaching and communications skills to help people with their health issues and take control of their own wellbeing. But her driving interest is to help people discover the vital connections between their physical wellbeing, emotional landscape and spiritual nature to help them discover how this rich interplay relates to their life experience. As a professional healer, Louise has devoted her efforts to helping people by working in private practice. This included a decade working in semi-remote South Australia, an experience presenting her with challenges quite different from those posed by a city-based practice. Louises qualifications include a Bachelor of Education, Advanced Diploma in Homeopathic Medicine and a Diploma of Bowen Therapy (Bowtech). Her other natural healing studies include Homeopathic Facial Analysis (HFA), Western herbal medicine and nutrition. In 2001, she was awarded the Warren Brauer Memorial Award for excellence in homeopathy and medical science, while in 2007 she was a contributing author to Linlee Jordans book Challenging Children-Success with Homeopathy. Louise currently works in regional South Australia. Website: www.louisearmitage.com

Book preview

DEEP

SELF HEALING

A PERSONAL STORY AND SPIRITUAL GUIDE

LOUISE ARMITAGE

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Copyright © 2018 Louise Armitage.

Photo credit: Jenni Mattner

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is to only offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for improving your well-being and for general self-interest and self-education. In the event you use any information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for your actions. The author does not assume any responsibility for the content, accuracy or any advice provided in third-party links or references referred to in this book.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-1377-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-1387-2 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 08/06/2018

For all those who seek the truth that lies within themselves.

Just as one would put out

a burning refuge

with water,

so does the enlightened one—

discerning,

skilful,

& wise—

blow away any arisen grief,

his own lamentation, longing, & sorrow,

like the wind, a bit of cotton fluff.

Seeking your own happiness,

you should pull out your own arrow.

Salla Sutta: The Arrow (Sn3.8)

Salla Sutta: The Arrow (Sn 3.8), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

www.dhammatalks.org/

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1     Healing–One Word, Many Meanings

Chapter 2     Reality in the Bathroom Mirror

Chapter 3     The Promise

Chapter 4     Mind-Body Dialogue Begins.

Chapter 5     My Healing Language.

Chapter 6     What I Didn’t Know About Me.

Chapter 7     So That’s Where I Come From!

Chapter 8     Do You Really Know Your Origins?

Chapter 9     Powerlessness.

Chapter 10   Fifty Shades of Grief

Chapter 11   The Heart Starter.

Chapter 12   It’s Starting to Get Dark.

Chapter 13   The Transformation Point.

Chapter 14   Clearing the Path.

Chapter 15   Soul Evolution 101.

Chapter 16   Benefits of Meditation and Self-Healing.

Chapter 17   Ourselves–the Biggest Healing Obstacle.

Chapter 18   Deep Healing or Quick Transformation?

Chapter 19   Developing an Effective Healing Practice

Chapter 20   That’s It–Well, Almost!

Chapter 21   Coda.

Summary of Key Points

Bibliography and other Resources.

About the Author

FOREWORD

"For both healers and all who seek personal growth, Deep Self Healing–a Personal Story and Spiritual Guide offers a rare and highly useful resource. This first title from Louise Armitage (a professional healer based in South Australia) is both academic and practical, metaphysical and personal, highly thoughtful yet never preachy. Experienced healers (of all orientations) will find theory they’ve never heard before; students of healing schools may find their understanding of the healing cycle much enhanced; and clients who regularly go for healing may discover many long-term questions answered as they keep reading.

In the first major portion of the book, Ms. Armitage presents some core healing concepts, as she narrates in detail her own personal journey. After that, the second half widens our view to include the even more subtle metaphysics of total mind-body-spirit healing — as the greater cosmic context within which individual growth occurs. Some of these advanced topics include: the karmic and free-will basis of healing & non-healing, the involvement of Higher Self and pre-incarnational planning, emotional psychology and the 7-chakras, and the complex symbology of body-mind mirroring. Thoughtful readers will find much inspiration on tap.

And so, I heartily recommend Deep Self Healing–a Personal Story and Spiritual Guide — and I commend and admire Ms. Armitage for her efforts and sacrifice. This is a book to be read, re-read, and well-studied"

— Scott Mandelker Ph.D.

Hualien, Taiwan — 4/4/2018

https://www.youtube.com/user/TWSMandelker/playlists

PREFACE

This book had a most innocent beginning.

Having reached a transformation point (after around two years of meditation and intense emotional catharsis), I was asked the question "How had I changed"? As so much had happened, I couldn’t answer that question adequately off the top of my head, so I went away and sat down to write a short summary.

Four-thousand rather effortless words later (so much for short!), I presented my written summary to the questioner. After reading it they said to me, You should write about this; I think it could help a lot of people.

I was taken aback by this idea but nonetheless thought about it seriously. I had no clue what to write about precisely–or for whom. Over the next month or so, I explored a few possibilities but nothing felt right. However, through a series of unexpected events, I was steered in the right direction and the answers as to how this writing might happen came to me.

For inspiration, I started going through the personal diaries I’d kept about my healing journey. That I kept diaries was quite out of character for me, but something told me when I started my deep-healing process that I might want to write about it one day. I’m glad that I listened to my inner voice and despite the intensity of that time, I only missed a few days of entries.

Out of over two-years’ worth of entries detailing my stormy and complex journey–written in language only I could decrypt–I gradually distilled a coherent essence of my experience that could form the heart of my story. But looking at my story, I decided that I wanted to do more than just recount the personal side. Integral to the process of what happened to me, were very important spiritual-healing concepts–and these needed explaining for my journey to be understood.

There were some other important reasons as to why I wanted to explain my story more formally as well.

My healing process challenged my own understanding of what constitutes deep-personal development and how this intertwines exquisitely with spiritual growth. While not being inexperienced in natural healing and self-development work, the doors of understanding that opened to me because of this deep work, gave me different insights to many commonly-held beliefs.

Along with this, with my own unanswered questions being answered more fully–and with more clarity about what deeper self-healing involved–I realised something. It occurred to me that at times, many people that I know who seriously pursue personal growth, asked a lot of the same questions that I did.

This insight prompted me to think even more thoroughly about who might read a book like this. I realised that apart from seekers of personal or spiritual development–and healers of course–there was another group of people I thought might be interested in a book of this kind. And this group I feel, has been rather forgotten in a sense.

Over the years, I have talked to many people who have expressed some interest in spirituality and spiritual development but simply can’t relate to either conventional religion or New-Age philosophy. They’ve made statements to me like, I suppose I’m a rational thinker, but I can kind of see what spirituality is about–and it’s interesting–but I’ve no time for religion and all that stuff about angels, energy and Reiki just leaves me cold. In other words, they might be interested in spirituality to some degree but feel there’s nothing out there that speaks to them.

I kept these people in mind as I wrote and I hope that I’ve been able to present some information about healing and spiritual development that might also speak to these people–or at least offer them some different perspectives. Whether I’ve succeeded in doing this is up to the individual reader to decide.

In a similar vein, after reflecting on the many questions that clients have asked me about the mind/body healing connection over the years, I had another idea. I thought that I could use my professional knowledge of homeopathic mind/body healing principles as a way of explaining this vital connection more clearly. This fundamental part of homeopathic medical philosophy is not often discussed, yet I feel is so very useful in furthering our understanding about how mind/body healing happens.

So, after much consideration–and many scrawled notes–I put together the foundation stones of this book. I decided that I’d offer my story (warts and all) as both an account of my personal journey and as a potentially purposeful tool for helping people understand some key metaphysical concepts relating to a self-healing process.

Thus, by writing my story, my intention was to build a bridge between describing a very personal healing experience with the principles of its deeper spiritual meaning. In this way, I wanted to provide interested seekers with both an intimate–and more thorough insight–as to what’s involved in a deep-personal healing process.

There’s something else I’d like to add about how this book developed.

It was important to me that readers understood that the metaphysical principles I’ve discussed weren’t perceived as me believing that I know it all. I don’t have a complete and absolute knowledge of anything (metaphysics included) and I think that it’s fair to say that if we’re very honest, neither does anyone else on this ever-changing earthly plane.

Metaphysical material may be drawn from numerous sources and by its very nature is open to multiple interpretations. Our own interpretations of concepts may also change over time as our understanding of them expands. However, I have taken great care to make sure that my explanation of concepts (from the sources I’ve drawn upon) are related as clearly as possible from my understanding of the source material. In other words, they’re not something I’ve conjured up to make new theories and I sincerely hope they may encourage readers to further explore what might interest them.

Taking that angle further, every one of us has different personal views about healing, spirituality and spiritual growth. Therefore, please think of this book as an open conversation–or a sharing of ideas–rather than a strict, how to manual.

All in all, Deep Self Healing grew from unintended and innocent beginnings, into both a personal story and my offering as a guide for spiritual healing. I thoroughly enjoyed writing it and I hope that whatever you take from my effort–no matter how small–may be valuable for understanding your own journey.

Louise Armitage

April 2018

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to all the players on the stage of my life so far. To my friends and family, my deepest gratitude for your love and kindness. Thank you to my clients, for you’re all great teachers. But within the bigger picture of life, my thanks also go to those who have brought me pain and misery, as your actions–whether acceptable or not–provided the hard catalysts for my healing and growth.

Thank you to all the healers who’ve supported me. Special thanks go to my long-suffering homeopath Grant Bentley, whose support during my healing process–and during the very tough times preceding it–has been invaluable. Without your help, I wouldn’t have made it.

Many thanks to my sister Marie for your love, understanding and support and to you, Gail and Mandy for helping with the editing process.

My very special thanks go to Scott Mandelker. Thank you for your professional support and for kindly reviewing my explanations of the key metaphysical concepts discussed in this book. Without your help and encouragement, this book wouldn’t have happened.

And finally, my eternal gratitude goes to the one who means the most. We often say the most when words remain unspoken, but our heart needs no words to say what may be unsaid. See you in the light.

Introduction

Like many aspects of my life, the seeds of this book were sown in my personal garden of experience long ago, taking many decades to bear fruit. While taking many years to unfold, a unique series of events led to a period between the start of 2015 to early 2018 that was for me, a profound period of self-healing and transformation.

After some gentle encouragement, I decided to lower the veil of my normally very private disposition and document my own story, in the hope that at least some of it may help others better understand their own life experience and personal path of healing.

My story here is of a deeply personal journey of mind/body/spirit healing, in which I’ll also explore the many faces of bitter emotional pain so common to many of us. These include feelings of grief, worthlessness, isolation, powerlessness, lovelessness, anxiety, guilt and self-doubt (among others).

Such emotional conditions were born of many sources–but include the usual suspects of family dysfunction, distorted views of myself and relationship breakdowns. All of this came up for examination, understanding, healing and release. But accompanying this were also powerful body-mind states, that I never realised were lying dormant within that eventually also made themselves known.

It is my sincere desire that by sharing my own process in working through such tough emotions, I can show others that there really are ways to heal them–and that by healing them you also heal yourself. Self-healing then opens many doors that lead to other parts of yourself that also need attention–and this process by its very nature is a gateway for soul evolution or soul evolution along your own life journey.

I’d also like to show that no matter how young or old you may be–as my own intense healing started at age 53–and whatever your personal circumstances may be, it’s never too late for deep self-healing.

My process also brought along many unexpected, fortuitous and wonderful changes, changes I never thought would–or even could–happen to me. And yet it was all achieved (along with deep reflection and self-acceptance) by consistent meditation practice–which is something readily available to everyone.

My journey took place even while I led what was a relatively normal lifestyle in contemporary Western society–i.e. following a regular work/home routine (albeit, punctuated by some rather challenging catharsis!). It was a far cry from the renunciation or solitude of the wilderness or living within the quiet walls of a monastic retreat. During all my process, I was never quite sheltered safely from the everyday ruckus of the outside world–yet I was still able to let my inner-self run freely.

Many people of course, have written inspiring accounts of their own unique journey of self-healing, arising because of unexpected circumstances such as severe illness, accident, or extreme survival challenges. Some have written accounts of their transformative self-healing through time alone in isolation, living with few outer resources in order to initiate a kind of complete self-confrontation. Others have gone through profound healing following near-death experiences (NDE). I believe we can all learn something relevant to our own unique path from each of these stories.

One common theme uniting these accounts, is that some type of extra-ordinary personal challenge–or set of circumstances–provided the catalyst or trigger for the healing journey. And this was true for me too.

I’ve worked in the natural-healing field for over two decades now and during that time I’ve answered countless questions from clients about their physical health and emotional states. In answering their questions, I’ve tried my best to educate too, so that they can take more control of their own health and healing.

Consequently, the teacher within called to me in the writing of this book. Through my own personal story interwoven with my professional-healing experience–plus a healthy dose of self-development work–I hope to elaborate some of the key principles of mind/body/spirit healing. In doing this, I seek to share some of my insights as to what the deeper work entails and give some practical advice on just how to navigate your own healing journey.

At present, I work principally as a traditionally-trained homeopath and Bowen therapist, but my studies and healing travels also include homeopathic facial analysis (HFA), herbal medicine, flower essences, nutrition, and a sprinkling of other bodywork and allied therapies.

My background gave me a solid grounding in science and the Western-scientific health model based on biochemistry and pathophysiology. Equally, I’ve had extensive experience with healing practices based on energetic and holistic healing, as well as more esoteric metaphysical principles. More or less, I consider myself quite fluent in all three healing languages and can converse between them quite freely.

Healing is More than Physical.

Despite the groundswell of interest in complementary medicine–and after around twenty years of clinical practice–I still find the predominant view of health and healing is firmly rooted in treating the physical body only. Therefore, I still use a health language based on standard anatomy and physiology with my clients at least 95% of the time. Of course, it’s understandable given that it’s the physical body we inhabit every day–and this body that we’re using as a vehicle for life-experience regularly feels pain and gets sick. So naturally, when we’re in pain we simply want the problem fixed.

The dominant paradigm of Western medicine drives our thinking to accept that treating a sick physical body is basically all that’s required. While I have deep concerns about many aspects of that system–especially the business model–I’m not totally anti-Western medicine per se.

Physical bodies do need a lot of care, they do present lots of complex problems and we do need many tools in our healing toolbox. I certainly believe in using the right tool for the job and in some areas, like emergency medicine, Western medicine is the most appropriate primary-care tool. Like all healing systems though, it too has its limitations even if that system fails to recognise them. And above all, I consider that viewing healing as merely a physical/chemical and biomechanical function to be one of its main limitations.

Over the years, I have seen the growth of many approaches that recognise mind/body connections in healing but in my own practice, I’ve found such understanding to be very limited.

Some people are aware of basic mind/body responses. For example, when a heterosexual male sees a woman he finds attractive, he may have an instant mind/body response. It may also happen when someone feels butterflies in the stomach before an exam, or when we say that we’re carrying stress in the lower back via feeling stiffness and pain. In the main however, most people go no further in trying to decode their mental dialogue in relation to body, or more deeply understand their persistent and unpleasant symptoms.

Spiritual Healing is Ignored.

Regarding the even bigger picture–namely, that of mind/body/spirit healing–the common understanding is even less. As I see it, this is the most ignored mode of healing even though it is the only approach that can heal us as a whole being and therefore, by its very nature, is also an essential part of the physical healing process. I suppose though, that what’s unknown is simply ignored. For many, the indivisible link between mind, body and spirit is just not in their world-view and yet, what is more important than healing the deepest levels of our own being?

To me, it’s interesting that many people invest a huge amount of time and effort into honing their bodies, searching for the latest quick fix, diet or miracle supplement, or physically training harder and faster to achieve their own personal best–yet take virtually no care of their greater mind state as part of their health and healing regime.

People don’t seem to care a great deal about their mind and emotional states until they reach a stage where they can’t function adequately, or their state of mind turns into yet another diagnosed disorder to be medicated. Many seem to be quite happy in carting around vast loads of emotional baggage that undermines their health and happiness and potentially the health and wellbeing of those around them. In addition, what people aren’t aware of, is that by not addressing their emotional baggage, it becomes a gift that keeps on giving.

As a product of my own background, the idea that our bodies are an integrated complex of mind/body/spirit is a given. Homeopathic healing philosophy is clear about this idea. However, as very useful as these foundations were, my personal experience over the last few years has revealed for me many more additional insights.

A complex, intricate and multi-layered process, healing of mind/body/spirit does have an order with its own governing principles. Each one of us will experience the process as we do our individual lives, that is, in our own unique way and tailored to our own unique circumstances.

My Spiritual Searching.

On reflection, I think that deep down my spiritual searching began quite unwittingly at a young age, when I bought a copy of the I-Ching in 1977. It was a few months short of my 17th birthday. Despite this small but significant step, my earnest search for healing and greater spiritual development came only much later in the mid 1990s.

Triggered by many years of poor health and dissatisfaction with what life had on offer, I explored a number of New-Age, traditional healing methodologies like Reiki and other spiritual approaches. I went to courses and read books from both modern and traditional sources. Essentially, I consumed whatever I could to broaden my understanding of the spiritual path and its relationship to personal development.

However, as I progressed I was left with a sense that the information was inadequate and in most healing and self-development courses, there seemed to be a lack of context in terms of where healing fitted into a bigger picture.

The words expressed by teachers and contemporary books often gave similar messages such as all our answers are within, everything happens for a reason, the Universe is abundant and will provide all if we only ask, send unconditional love and all will be well–yet what did it all mean? I’d frequently seen people with emotional catharsis as part of their healing experience (myself included), but its place within the context of their greater self-transformation wasn’t made clear.

Indeed, the big question for me became something like this: when we say we are on a healing journey, what exactly is being healed, and what’s the overall destination? Though I asked these questions to many sincere people (who all claimed to be on a spiritual path), I found no satisfying answers, or only vague ones at that. They simply couldn’t tell me and I myself at that stage couldn’t answer it either. So, just what were we all doing there and exactly what were we trying to achieve?

Meditation and Healing.

Back then, meditation was (and still is) consistently presented as a means for achieving self-understanding and few articles written about healing are complete without mentioning meditation’s virtues. No argument from me there! However, once again I found that these words didn’t describe just what healing via meditation was, nor what a direct experience of this was like.

Throughout most of the 1990s (and beyond) I meditated regularly. I felt relaxed, centred and sometimes received what seemed to be messages from some source. But compared to what I know now, meditation didn’t produce any great insight or obvious healing process. At the time I sincerely believed it did, but I know better now.

There’s certainly the possibility that I did experience deeper-healing responses but I was too ignorant and unaware of the process to recognise them. Additionally, I didn’t have the help of a suitable guide to help me understand whatever healing benefits the meditation may have produced.

In saying that, not only was I a naïve beginner in terms of spiritual searching. At that time where I lived in Australia, there was marked growth in the popularity of Reiki courses, as well as many other New-Age offerings. Psychic Fairs and New-Age shops sprung up like mushrooms after rain.

Looking back, I remember that many of the New-Age practices I found used meditation as a way for contacting spirit guides, channel energy, clean the chakras, and open the meditator to psychic experiences–as if this was the point of the game. In other words, meditation was viewed as necessary to help one become more spiritual but what the term spiritual meant was never adequately explained.

Since I was such an inexperienced spiritual seeker, peppered by enthusiasm and thinking that I knew far more than I did (a dangerous combination indeed!), I now see that I too was swayed by this perspective. Therefore, my meditation practice at that early time indeed had a mistaken focus, at least if I was seeking any kind of deep-inner healing.

Fast-forwarding through the years of a more mature spiritual enquiry–and then some big, hard kicks in my personal life–the beginning of my own intense healing only came at the start of 2015. Aside from the many personal changes it’s brought so far, I also came to really question just what it means to heal. I’d already done a considerable amount of personal-development work, and truly believed that I knew the concept well, but my experience of the last few years revealed just how much I didn’t know.

My Spiritual Colours.

Please understand, I don’t follow any religious belief system, nor do I belong to any spiritual group (and never have). My childhood wasn’t influenced by religion either. When I was younger, the idea of a Higher Power or God never sat comfortably with me, mainly because of its association with organised religions with their hierarchical, dogmatic and paternalistic structures.

I couldn’t reconcile the concept of an all-loving God with punishment for those who didn’t obey–or at death, sending people to a fiery hell if they hadn’t followed the rules of the club. I suppose that because of this, in my earlier years I deemed myself a rationalist, despite having a quiet interest in spiritual matters.

Throughout the years, I have been drawn to Buddhist philosophy with its wisdom, practicality and absence of deity worship and indeed during my intense healing process, I’ve found the Buddhist teachings (in Pali language suttas) a great source of wisdom. To be clear though, I don’t define myself as a Buddhist, I am not a member of a Buddhist community and I consider myself a mere beginner in understanding the vast richness that Buddhist teachings offer.

Metaphysics and Healing.

As you read on, you’ll find that the more metaphysical concepts of healing are interwoven with my personal and professional experiences. In fact, they’re an integral part. The concepts of karma and reincarnation sit comfortably with me and as I’ve progressed on my journey, these ideas were critical in giving my healing process a richer context.

I realise that some of these concepts–which I personally consider essential to understanding healing from a wider view–don’t sit comfortably with everyone and that’s okay. It is not the purpose of this book to argue a case for metaphysical concepts such as reincarnation; many fine books are available to play that role if you wish.

So, if you’re new or unsure about these metaphysical concepts, perhaps the following chapters will fuel your interest to explore them more. Maybe you can file these ideas somewhere in your mind pending further information. Personally, I find this helpful in dealing with concepts I’m still not sure about. But more importantly, the pending-file approach helps keep the mind open to new information and this receptivity (coupled with discernment) helps our growth immensely.

And if you’d like to reject the metaphysical aspects of my account and instead view it through a different perspective (such as from a Western psychological model), that’s fine with me too. I know I can’t provide concrete proof of my experiences in the same way one can’t give concrete, scientific evidence that true love exists in any given relationship, or proof of beauty in a piece of music. Nevertheless, the absence of proof doesn’t invalidate the authenticity of one’s feeling or personal experience.

While you read this book–whatever your perspective or world-view–I just hope that you’ll keep an open mind. And if you can see that something positive and transformative has happened because of my process, I hope you can accept it for what it is–even if the exact mechanism of how it happened is something you may not be able to explain comfortably to yourself right now.

Finally, if what you read here seems to prick or challenge you–and you feel resistance or even some anger–then I think that’s great! It might mean there’s something here you ought to stop and consider more deeply. Should this happen, it would be helpful to ask, Just why am I feeling this way? But in general, please make of my story what you will–and take whatever you feel is useful. How much you take is right for you and I’ll feel that my work has served its purpose.

With that scene now set, I invite you to read on and trust that you’ll find some aspects of my experience useful in overcoming what may be the greatest obstacle to healing–one’s own self.

CHAPTER ONE

HEALING–ONE WORD, MANY MEANINGS.

Before I move into the heart of my personal story, there’s a fundamentally important conversation to have. It was the one that in my experience, wasn’t explored in all the spiritually-based healing courses I attended, yet it’s the one fundamental concept we need to be clear about. Context–as they say–is everything and the subject of this conversation is what does healing mean?

We all know, don’t we?

I wonder whether your understanding of healing is the same as mine? And if we talk about a personal-healing process–which is the heart of my story–what does this mean?

Perhaps personal-healing process isn’t even a term you’ve encountered before.

Try a Quick Test.

As we all may have different ideas about what healing means, I need to be clear with you about what my understanding is. This is so you’ll know what I’m referring to in the chapters ahead. To this end, I’d invite you to try a short exercise first. Please give it a go, even if this is the first book you’ve ever read about healing.

Grab a piece of paper and a pen–or use a keyboard if you prefer. Give yourself about ten minutes and write a three-paragraph summary briefly describing:

• What the term healing means to you.

• What do you think a personal-healing process is and finally

• How you know when healing’s been achieved?

Your time starts now.

Good. Coming from a nation of keen punters–who’ll bet on anything–I bet if I could share your answers, they’d all be different. And this is understandable. After all, we all have different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. I’d invite you to hold on to your answers and out of interest, review them again when you’ve finished the book. See if anything’s changed.

I believe that it’s important to be clear about our own understanding of what healing means–and I’ll be honest here. If someone had asked me to do that exercise prior to 2015, I would have answered differently than now. Twenty years ago, my answer would have been different again. And I hope in twenty years’ time–if I’m still here–my answer will be further refined.

Interpretations of Healing.

Generally, the term healing can be interpreted in a few ways. The simplest one of course, is resolution of a health problem. You get a deep cut, it heals. You get sick, you get better. The principles of physical healing–like healing a cut–are probably a lot easier for people to understand, as it’s often something we can observe directly. I think another reason is that our understanding of healing is largely shaped by the ideas of Western medicine.

Western-medical understanding is based largely on physical phenomena–nuts and bolts, separate parts, chemical reactions, structures and functions. Western medicine sees the physical body as machine-like, with separate parts often having little obvious relationship to each other. When a part malfunctions, through causes like trauma, mechanical obstructions, genes magically switching on, or faulty chemistry, then sickness may result. Outside influences like viruses, bacteria or environmental factors, may lead to sickness as well.

In simplest terms, healing in Western medicine mainly involves restoring health through removing the physical problems–as in surgery–or using suppressive drugs to counter the faulty chemistry. Sometimes drugs–like antibiotics–are used to nuke the problem. When the health issue appears to have gone away or is said to be managed–often by taking more drugs–then healing is deemed to have happened.

I’m not suggesting that this model is entirely wrong as it depends on the situation. Sometimes a health problem needs a mechanical approach or serious intervention. This can happen when the body’s own self-healing mechanisms are overwhelmed–as is the case with serious injuries.

Physical bodies are fragile by nature and our state of health can be easily disturbed by many factors. It’s also mandatory to foster our own good health through sound nutrition, rest, exercise and living in environments supportive to our wellbeing. As we’re quite high maintenance beings, we ideally require a range of healing options at our disposal. It’s selecting the right tools for the right job that can be tricky.

But to me, here’s the bigger issue. When we think about what constitutes health and healing, the Western medical model tends to be entrenched in our thinking. And this entrenched thinking centres on healing as primarily a physical process.

Western-medical principles may even reduce many emotional issues to having a physical cause. The common notion of depression being caused by chemical imbalances in the brain is one example. That’s not to say that this isn’t the case