HomeBlogThe Healing Journey, Part 2

The Healing Journey – Part 2

By Tara McGee, MSW, RSW, Dip TIRP Psychotherapist, OCSWSSW Yoga Therapist, IAYT

Being healed is an ongoing journey, a state that we continue to seek as obstacles and wrinkles find their ways into our lives to offer us another chance to learn something new. It’s like they are reminding us, prodding us, insisting that we keep on seeking to discover the healing state, that we keep on searching for what will truly alleviate our suffering. 

This is what the yogis spent their time doing; thinking about how to alleviate suffering. What they came up with (this is highly simplified) was that we need to recognize our suffering, examine it, accept it and allow it to be and somehow this allows it to dissipate. In order to do this, we need to be able to direct our mind rather than allowing the senses and our memories or programs of our mind to drag us along, directing us. Directing our mind from inside our intuitive self rather than allowing the external world (much of which we have internalized) to lead us, it is ultimately what will allow us to end our suffering. We will then become established in the Self within and be united with the divinity that is within and is all. We will feel ourselves to be part of the whole, complete belonging, love and contentment.

The theory is (although it is not only a theory since many people have experienced this) that once you are in that perceptual state, the other aspects of the self, physical, physiological, energy, lower mind bodies will align and suffering will cease. Another belief is that these aspects of your being may not fully align but because you are in a state of bliss, the other stuff will not be noticed or important – it won’t bother you anymore. Again, this is not a static state of arrival at being healed entirely; many yogis have achieved this state and could sustain it for a while and then they got drawn back into their old patterns and “fell down” to the level of having the lower mind take over again. Practice is recommended for everyone walking the path of healing to maintain the gains and continue to expand beyond what we can even imagine. 

The Importance of Cultivating the Use of Self

When we walk the path of yoga we have moments of profound experiences and also moments of deep boredom and hopelessness as we wonder when the change will come. The Yoga Sutra advises that in order to effect the change we would like to see, we must practice for a long time, in the right direction, with discipline, devotion, faith and enthusiasm. This can be hard to do when we are not sure what the outcome will be or when we can expect to attain it. Just like a diet, we often give up and need to start again. When we give up we may experience a return of the previous suffering, not having recognized that our practice was actually bringing us relief. So starting again seems to be a part of the healing process of yoga. 

Check out our blog for Part 3 of this learning coming soon. Tara Tara