Tag: forgiveness

What Does It Mean To Be Healed?

Posted on by Katherine Bird

I am going to break down some considerations of what it means to be healed and some questions and practices that you can engage with right away to support your own path to understanding what it means to be healed.

Have you ever sat in the painful inquiry, “How can I have done so much work and still not be healed?!”

Have you had clients who struggle with the fact that they are still dealing with certain issues even after what feels like ‘forever’ processing them?

Have you ever doubted yourself, your tools or your own commitment to your work because of your own or other’s inability to move past a certain point?

I think that this is almost a more complicated topic in my work because most of the people that I serve are in some way a healer or coach or one focused on healing for many years for themselves and their clients.

Often anything less than complete reduction in all symptoms and a total and complete shift to a fully whole and functioning life in every aspect is seen as some sort of failure.

I see that people discount or even forget how much progress that they have made. There is little celebration of small victories.

The focus is primarily on what is not working, what is still the sticking point or the pain and the transformations, realizations and expansion are forgotten.

It is easy to focus on what is not working. It takes more effort to focus on what is working, what has progressed. Yet, this is where the full reprogramming occurs. This is the doorway in which we travel to full transformation.

This is a function of our brain and it’s wiring to focus on negativity because it is both an ancient orientation to stay safe and also a learned aspect of our being.

For example, if we can focus on danger and negativity, we will be more likely to get into shelter at dark avoiding predators. If we are able to focus fully on pain in our bodies, we will tend to treat it instead of letting it get infected.

And, as we grow we are taught that we must pay attention to what is wrong, the wrong answers on the test are marked in red and cause pain, shame and change. The right ones, we rarely think about again. In fact, a lot of people get shamed for getting things right when others struggle.

So, like I said, it takes a lot of conscious effort to recognize our progress and what we have done and take into account our process might be one that simply has some twists and turns as we learn, train and move through our emotions, energies and physical limitations.

Again, the question can be asked, “What does it mean to be healed?”

Honestly, this must be answered for each one of us as we go along and it will shift and change with the tides of your life.

Healed = Wholeness

You have probably heard that plenty of times.

If you want to see a cool video on healing, here is one from Chinese Medical Qi Gong Practitioners reducing a tumor in a patient. When I was shown this video, it was explained to me that they are chanting basically, “Already Done” and they are focused and imagining not that the patient is healing or the tumor is lessening but that it is “Already Done”. Full, complete, integrated and whole.

It is important for us as we go through our process to have this attitude. To see and imagine ourselves on a consistent basis as already whole, healed, complete and “Already Done.”

What might change if this was your mantra and meditation?

 

See if this practice helps:

Think of an issue that you have been dealing with.

First drop into your body. Feel yourself connected and receiving form the Earth and from Above.

Take some calming and deep breaths.

If this issue, pain, situation was completely healed, how would you feel?

What would you be doing?

Let the first things that come to you come out. Write them down. Imagine yourself feeling that way. Imagine yourself doing those things.

And, then… go do that. What will help you feel that way right now?

What can you do?

Before you start arguing with me about this one, just do the exercise.

And then.. you might argue.. “but, I have this pain, this issue so I can’t do the thing that I want”.

OK, maybe. Maybe your issue is that you broke your foot so you can’t go scuba diving like you want. But, maybe you can go to the seashore, you can go do something that will help sea life in some way, you can go float about in a bay.

You might be in really bad shape right now and all you can do is put on a recording of whales, lay in the bathtub and imagine to the very best of your ability that you are truly swimming about.

This will change your outlook. It will engage your muscles even through the power of imagination. The magical thing about us is that our brains don’t know the difference in what we are doing and what we are imagining. The imagination is a primary key into our healing.

All of the sudden more peace is found, more joy, more connection.

The body and soul start to heal themselves through this power of play and imagination instead of the ‘work’ that so many of us have become accustomed to as the path to healing.

Maybe you are depressed. If you consider, if you weren’t what would you be doing…and that might be making art. You might then come up with a lot of reasons why you can’t make art. Shift that to find some small way to engage with art. It might be just coloring, or building a beautiful altar or area in your home. It might be using materials from nature to make a mandala.

Because, what is healed? It is finding our way under the emotional, energetic issues that are holding us and manifesting in our bodies. It is finding a place of peace, joy and presence despite our issues, pain or struggles. It is moving forward, step by step acknowledging the profound shifts that we have already gone through, celebrating the small victories and leaning into the uncomfortable places.

I believe it is when we are able to be devoted to our practices, our intuition, our boundaries and our gifts. Because, you can go to one of those Medical Qi Gong Doctors, have them reduce your tumor, but if you are not making life changes, processing old emotions, coming into higher alignment with your truths and virtues, the healing has not really happened and disease will slowly come back.

We will all have pain, illness and struggle. Often, it is how we engage with these struggles that makes all the difference. They are our teachers. They ask us to show up brighter, more devoted, more caring and more compassionate to ourselves and others.

We are all healing, but we are also already whole. Be with your wholeness and allow it to inspire your actions.

If you are interested in this discussion of what is healing and how can we be of the highest service in healing, I hope you will join me for The Healer’s Masterclass Series starting Sept 12th. Sign Up For Free

Please Forgive Me, I Forgive Myself, I Am Forgiven

Posted on by Katherine Bird

PLEASE FORGIVE ME

I FORGIVE MYSELF

I AM FORGIVEN

Recently, in medicine ceremony this process unfolded through me and I was afforded deep, profound healing and awareness of a painful issue which has plagued me throughout my life.

We all know forgiveness is important to healing. The core of healing is often forgiveness.  We hear a lot about forgiving others:  our past partners, friends, parents and other family members. 

The deepest forgiveness work is forgiving ourselves.

PAST LIFE FORGIVENESS

Many of us have done great damage in our lifetimes  (maybe this one).  Let’s face it, if you believe in multiple lifetimes, you have to wonder where did all of those murderers, rapists, abusers, torturous prison guards, SS officers, etc etc etc end up in the next life?  If we hold that our soul is on a path of learning and discovery, we will acknowledge that some of those lifetimes we have lived (or are living concurrently as to the nature of time).  Many are walking through life in pain and disease from past life actions.

Deep Karmic healing requires our intense presence in the deepest wounds from these lifetimes.  In these lifetimes, we often allowed, called in and cultivated relationships with low frequency spirits that infiltrate our being with further pain, illness and trauma.  To root it out takes a willingness to face healing, often experienced as illness and pain full on with a compassionate heart.   We are called to go through the process of asking, then receiving our own forgiveness and to allow light to enter the places where we were not allowing it before due to our shame and subconscious self-hatred.

Without forgiving ourselves, we continue to hold hatred, shame and low frequencies in the body and being. 

There is no space for transformation without forgiveness.

Forgiveness for others is an incomplete process.

Please Forgive Me.  We often search desperately for someone to forgive us.  The light, God… We feel crushed under the burden, with the realization of our own horrors.  I have seen myself do terrible things and I have felt their implications in my life now.  This forgiveness feels external.  It has to be given the great weight and the detachment that we have from the issue.  But, we have to find this place where we completely surrender to asking for help and forgiveness.  Even if we are not exactly sure what we are asking for, we are tuning into a deeper knowing that realizes it is something that must be worked on.   

I Forgive Myself.  This one is such a challenge.  We hit against all of the reasons that we don’t deserve forgiveness, why we can’t forgive ourselves and the contracts we have made associated with the things we have done.  We must ask for help in removing these contracts from our energetic and soul signatures.

I Am Forgiven.  This is a place of deep rest and release.  We realize that we are already forgiven.  We have an unlimited amount of grace flowing toward us.  We always get another chance, a new start, but we have to ask for it and cultivate it in action.

Many of us in medicine work, healing sessions, relationships, and through other modalities are going through this process.  Sometimes it is very conscious, other times it is subtly under the surface.

When cultivated as a practice: 

Forgive me, I forgive myself, I am forgiven. 

We can open up to new possible futures without the weight of past negative actions on our soul, creating illness and pain in our bodies and following us everywhere attracting low frequency beings, people and situations.

A Letter to Heal the Mother Wound

Posted on by Katherine Bird

When I was first handed this assignment, I folded it up into a small square and hid it in my purse for several months. At the time, I was working really hard with my clients, had a shitty boundary system with them and was in a lot of physical pain and discomfort. I didn’t really want to deal with some of my anger at my mother, but it kept surfacing in the tears that sprung up on a regular basis. I was resentful and just couldn’t seem to let it go and our relationship was really suffering.

Every so often I would take the paper out of my purse, unfold it, read my notes on the letter I was going to write and then fold it back up and put it away.

Finally, one day I was ready. I realized that there was no way that I could continue to hold negative feelings toward someone that I still shared cells with. I was poisoning myself and the relationship was so hard to maintain. She could feel that something was wrong, she knew that I was mad at her, but I couldn’t let it out. I wasn’t being honest with either one of us.

I offer you this exercise as one to help clear the old wounds that might be plaguing your relationship. Of course, this can be done with any strained relationship in which old issues are driving things and is especially helpful for forgiving those that have passed.

Write a letter to your mother (or anyone else) in which you allow yourself to go into all of the places where she hurt you and did not show up for you. Get it all out there. This could take a while and will be painful. You might want to take some time off from talking with mom so that the pain that is surfacing and the words from the page don’t make it out to her. There is usually little reason to go into these things with a parent. They often can not hear or hold space for these things. It would simply be too painful to look at and not in the highest service.

Do NOT send this letter!

Speak these words to the Earth. Go out into nature where it is OK to break down and sob and say these words. Say them to the Earth. Let her hold your pain and tears.

When this feels settled, write another letter. This one from your mother.

When you sit down, ask to be connected to your mother’s higher self. Ask that you be able to write from her higher self to respond to your letter.

From her higher self, you can receive what you need. Go through each point and let her really hear you, acknowledge you as you would like to be acknowledged, let her say that she is sorry.

“I know that I let you down. I know that was not a loving way to be. I see that I hurt you. I am sorry. I was doing the best that I knew how at the time. Know that I love you.”

Let this really sink into your being. Read the words to your inner child and let her feel their truth from the higher nature of your mother.

You might want to write more letters to her or to others to complete this healing process.

The letter that you eventually write might be one of forgiveness, appreciation and love. This could be the one that you actually do send to your mom.

A ceremonial burning of these letters can also help to clear the energy and to create a new internal relationship for you.

As you heal and expand in consciousness, know that there will be wounds to heal and relationship dynamics to deal with. These can cause shutting down of areas and energy centers of the body and even create pain and illness. When you commit to doing your internal healing work, without requiring others to fulfill your need for healing, you can achieve remarkable peace.

I have noticed that my relationship with my mother greatly improved from this process.

We are close and talk often and I am able to have boundaries that I never had before in the relationship. I am taking responsibility for my experience within it and not holding old wounds up for viewing at every turn.

When we see the pains in our bodies and hearts as opportunities for growth instead of something to hide from, we allow a deep healing to occur and our true nature of love to emerge.