Heal Yourself...All Else Will Follow

My friend Andrea posted a comment on Facebook that I thought was worth expanding. Her comment was "Don't run around and try to heal all your friends and family, do your own work and heal yourself.This will do more good for those around you than anything else."

She practices Reiki and other methods of healing and spiritual exploration, as I do. I think her comment is a beneficial one in examining where we need to focus most. It is wonderful and rewarding to help others around you, whether it be with healing work, assisting them with their troubles, or offering advice; but it is even more important to heal yourself. Ultimately, all healing comes from within, so until one is ready to get real and honest with their own issues and needs, no true and lasting healing can take place. Recurrent problems, even if momentarily minimized or squelched, will rise again, either in the same form or another.

One thing that I have found with healing work is that when others begin to think you have all the answers, it is easy for them to begin to lean on you for all of their fixes, forgetting that each of us always has the answers within ourselves if we are willing to go to our Higher Selves and Source to connect with those answers. Part of helping others is often giving them the morsels that they need, then sending them on their own way, setting them free to learn on their own, like a mother bird sends her young ones off to fly. It is similar to the adage, "Feed a man a fish and he will be nourished for a day..teach a man to fish and he will be nourished for a lifetime"...Show them a way, then let them nourish themselves.

It is important that each of us who is on a journey of healing or who desires to embark on a spiritual path takes the time to heal and nourish ourselves first and foremost. Even if we desire to help others, we must realize that they have to want help (and it is not our place to push it on them), and that they have to be willing to do much of the work themselves, to accomplish healing deep inside. Once one goes within and heals their own body or soul, their light will inevitably touch, inspire, or heal others around them - whether they are actively seeking this or not. Simply being in the right light and vibration has a positive effect on all those around us.

So..if you desire to help others, to be a light to the world, or to contribute to a positive movement in anything, first, heal yourself, take care of yourself...love, value, and appreciate yourself. Then go out and BE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.