You can cure a symptom and never be healed.

Our modern, fast-paced society screams, “I want it now…better yet, I want it yesterday!” There is an urgency to deal with whatever symptom is going on right now.

Back pain. Insomnia. High blood pressure. These are symptoms.  In our Western world, we want a cure.

Let’s take an example…

Suppose a person presents with chest pain. If you give them an aspirin and the pain goes away, have they been healed?  If you prefer the herbal route, CoQ10 supports heart health. If they taken the supplement and the pain subsides, have they been healed?

What if I told you this person has lost a loved one or has had a falling out with a family member?  It’s not actually heart pain.  It’s heartache.

Loss. Grief. Disconnect. 

When the pain goes away and symptom is cured by the herbs and the aspirin, the disharmony remains. 

Healing deals with a whole other level.  Healing resolves the source of the symptom.

I was recently at the Hawaiian Lomilomi Association Conference, a beautiful gathering in Volcanoes National Park. We had several different inspiring speakers. The question was raised about Curing vs. Healing.

From a Hawaiian healing perspective, we don’t just work on the symptom because the symptom could be anything. Pain. Insomnia. High blood pressure, Anxiety. The symptom could have many forms but that doesn’t tell you what the source is.

One of the presenters, Kahu Keala Thompson, likens treating symptoms to using band-aids.  It’s only useful if you want a cover up.

Healing happens on a much deeper level. For the Hawaiian practitioner, healing can occur far outside of the physical body. It can be found on a spiritual or emotional level when that is the source.

Faith.

If someone is coming and they are interested in healing, many of my Kumu share that faith is a key ingredient.

One of the beautiful presenters, Daniel Moore describes faith as “hope, confidence and assurance”. It is vital that our client have faith in the possibility of healing.

But you, as a therapist also must have faith. If you have someone that comes to lie in your table and they give you a laundry list of issues they have going on, it’s really easy to feel overwhelmed.  You might even think, “Oh my God, how can I possibly help this person?”

It’s not our job to question how we’re going to do it.

Connect.

Our job as practitioners is just to connect. Plug into the source of all healing. When we plug into that source of peace, grace, compassion unconditional love and guidance, healing can pour through.

Healing meets the client wherever they’re at in their journey.

If we see them as broken, then likely we are not the person that’s going to be able to help them to receive healing. We won’t be a vessel of the heart energy of Aloha if we are preoccupied in our minds with how we’re going to fix them.

Even thinking it’s us that fixes them is NOT in alignment with the Hawaiian principles of spirituality and healing.

Don’t ever put an energetic of doubt in front of your work. Even self doubt can create a block to spirit moving through you.

Ask.

With love in your heart, for guidance and support and you will feel a sense of peace as the vessel. One of our Hawaiian proverbs or ‘Olelo No’eau is

Ua ola loko i ke aloha-healing comes from within by means of love.

Healing doesn’t mean it’s cured or completely gone. That’s our idea of curing.

Healing means the source is healed.

Healing can happen even on your death bed. You may think that they are not healed if despite treatment, prayers etc. the cancer is still there. The spiritual healing of forgiveness of family members and expressing love for relations who perhaps weren’t as harmonious as could have been may have been the source that was healed. Whatever the source of the problem was, it’s now forgiven. Healed. Relieved. This is so important.

This is how we get untangled from the web of disharmony in our mind, body and spirit.  The web can get stronger and stronger and stronger if we continue to feed those emotions that are the source of the issue in the first place.

My hope is that we seek to open a way for deep healing and the curing will be the result of the deep healing that happens within.

Trust.

Keep yourself open to the possibility of healing no matter what.

Keep the faith and confidence in yourself and in spirit. Trust spirit to move in the right timing for the highest for the person who’s on the table.

Have faith as the therapist.  As we stand in that pure holding of sacred space for someone else, we too can experience the magic healing as it pours through.