I suspected there was going to be a part 2 to the original post, but I needed a minute to get my head around it. Thanks Raech, for letting me “babble” while I thought it through!
Last week, I asked if you were using any of the skills you may have paid good money to learn, and talked about why you might not be. I encouraged you to think through what your original impulse or desire was, what led you to take the class, workshop or seminar that got you the training, and then why you may have become disillusioned afterward.
This week, I’m going to present an idea … and I would love for you to play with it and add to it and make it your own.
What if, in addition to professional healers who make their living doing healing work, we were able to have neighborhood healers, family healers, roommate healers; the gardener down the street with the big herb garden who always has a tea for what ails you; the roomie who does Reiki and keeps everybody from imploding; the friend who can read your cards and your aura and help you sort out what’s really going on. What if, instead of thinking about treating big stuff, hard stuff, these folks focus on the number one cause of all illness in the First World: Stress.
I may have mentioned it before but it bears repeating: 80-90% of all illness in the US is caused by stress.
If you are reading this from another country, it is probably about the same. The world we have created has become our prison. J’suis Sisyphus.
Between capitalism, consumerism, religion run amok (amok amok amok!), corruption in nearly every single government on the entire planet, escalating violence and hatred … well, we live in a cesspit. The rent is too damn high, property is robbery, jobs pay shit and have no respect for workers (2% raise again this year, hope that helps with the 5% inflation). Corporate bullshit has gone beyond unconscionable into heinous fuckery.
And we’re barely treading water. Stress is more of an epidemic than Coronavirus, with the added bonus that it makes you more susceptible to worse cases of all the viruses out there. And heart disease. And stroke. And depression/anxiety/panic disorder. And diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s/dementia, high blood pressure, stroke, fibromyalgia … any genetic marker you have for anything bad is much more likely to get turned on by stress. Our lifestyle is trying to kill us.
So, what if we created an environment where neighborhood healers were able to, very affordably, offer stress-busting, immune boosting support to their neighbors, thus improving the economic and social stability of the entire neighborhood? What if we could offer training in basic energy work, including Reiki – what the hell, everybody gets Reiki – and a simple collection of herbs that are safe stress-fighters? And what if those people were somehow subsidized and certified in this baseline, simple healing practice, so that they can be there to help with the colds and flus and the ordinary stresses of life, while the rest of us work on the heavy stuff? Make it accessible so the millions of people who have never seen a sound healer or an energy worker suddenly have every reason to get the help that is available?
I know this isn’t going to solve all our health problems, but it could make an enormous dent. And I know it may not be practical right now, but I think its time is coming.
I don’t see, in our current divided political yuckfest, cities or states ponying up the bucks to pay for a program like this, but … if enough of us decide we want it, or something like it, we can make it happen. I can imagine something like a network of city stress-busting centers, with sound baths at regular intervals, tea houses, energy workers, peer counselors, and even nutritional coaches. Services can be offered at affordable rates, even a sliding scale, and donations can be accepted. It may seem like a fantasy novel now, but lots of good things for society have come out of science-fiction and fantasy since their beginnings.
We can start small. Use your training for your family, your friends. Maybe offer a new neighbors a basket of healing teas as a welcome gift, either from your own garden or from your enormous stash of teas (you know who you are). Make sure your kids know they can come to you for Reiki when they are hurting physically or emotionally, or for a brain boost when they have a test the next day. Get these habits started early, and they will grow. Make taking care of each other the norm, and it will bloom.
I’d love to hear your ideas about this, so if you feel inspired, leave a comment and we’ll continue the conversation.