So hey, all you lovely folks who have trained in this or that healing modality: Are you using those skills you paid to learn and worked so hard to master?
If yes, great. Congratulations, you are a rare individual.
If no, welcome to a very, very large club. Let’s talk about it a minute.
I’ve been there. We have a magical weekend, overstuff our heads with information that might or might not be well explained, practice on a stranger about once an hour to learn the next bit in each skillset, and go home feeling giddy and overwhelmed and exhausted and hopeful.
And then what? For a lot of people, there’s a great big letdown. The endorphins wear off and splat.
Maybe the instructor was a jerk. Maybe the other attendees were pretentious clique-bound creeps you couldn’t – and didn’t want to – fit in with. Maybe you were afraid to ask clarifying questions because you didn’t want to look dumb or hold everybody else back. You thought you wanted something, and then you got intimidated, decided you’d never be good enough, got scared for some reason, or had a negative experience that caused you to go off on the whole idea. Maybe you realized that you can’t just quit your job and hang out a shingle because you have to go through another level or pay a lot more for that kind of certification and you can’t afford it, or justify it financially to yourself, or a partner.
Maybe it just wasn’t as cool as you thought, or there’s something strange or silly or troubling about it that you can’t imagine yourself in a million years ever doing.
The infatuation is over, you’ve done it and now you don’t have to do it again. You unwrapped the present and found it … lacking that certain something.
And it isn’t just people taking healing classes. It’s writing, art, acting, dance, four years of college … And the whole thing can cause a person to feel guilty, depressed, angry, resentful, inadequate, incompetent, or lost. Broken dreams have some sharp edges.
So what was the original impulse? What set your heart to pitter-patting at the thought of learning this thing? Was it the actual practice? Things like Reiki, Healing Touch, or vibrational/energy healing can be sooooooooooo cool. They’re the closest thing to real magic that most people ever get. And to be able to do that and have your clients say, “Oh my god, what just happened, I feel amazing and I can’t believe you did that!” is as powerful as a drug. The idea of it makes a damn fine fantasy.
And the reality of it really can be all that and a sammich – but what a lot of people don’t understand is how much work it is, and how hard you have to study and practice – and how many levels and layers there are to get through before you can actually practice on another human. A good healer makes things look effortless, because they have practiced so hard and studied so hard and learned so much and worked on so many bodies that by the time they get to you it is effortless. When I am working on someone, I’m not thinking about anything that I know; I am listening hard and watching hard and feeling hard, letting my mind go fuzzy so whatever it is that guides me can send me the signals I need to do what needs to be done. That’s it. Learn all this stuff so you can shut your brain off and not think about it. Sounds pretty counter-intuitive, doesn’t it?
But it’s like playing a musical instrument really well. When you are first learning, all of your effort is in the frontal cortex of your brain, the most recently evolved part, and you have to think hard about every move and every choice – and then one day, you just do it. You might not even notice that you just did it until later, and then you laugh and do a little victory dance. It has moved into longer-term storage and is now muscle memory. Well done! And it looks effortless – or at least like less effort than it did a week ago. Same with any of the other skills you may be trying to acquire.
To quote Dolly Parton, “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.” Seriously, it takes a lot of work to make it look easy.
And the beauty of it is, it’s actually never easy. It’s wonderfully challenging and beautifully complex and deliciously complicated. It’s a never-ending climb up Mastery Mountain, where it gets harder to keep going but the view … ah, the view just gets better and better with every step.
What I am saying is, think about what you originally wanted to achieve, and see if there is a way to have a piece of it. Even if you never quit your day job. Or think about how you wanted to feel, and see if there is some other craft or practice that can give you the feeling instead of what you originally thought you wanted.
Clearly you had a desire for … something. Something grand and deep and rich and challenging in all the right ways. You can still have that. It doesn’t have to be the thing you learned and let go. It can be something related, or unrelated, or parallel, or sideways. It can be something that gives you the same feeling but requires less formal training. Or maybe you need a different teacher to give you the same training because the original one didn’t resonate with you and you just couldn’t get it.
Don’t give up on the dream and the desire. Life and love find a way. As I often say, “As long as I follow the Path of Joy I will always be exactly where I need to be.” So follow it, from joy to joy to joy if you have to. It may take months or years or decades, but so what? One of my dearest friends graduated from theological seminary at the age of 86. It took her that long to decide that it really was that important to her, and she really wanted to do the work and serve her community in that way. I cheered her on at every step. You can do anything you truly desire to do. You can have your very own piece of “it all” if you really want it.
Need some help getting yourself on track toward a big dream? Sound healing can help!