Heal & Release the Past
by Cheryl Canfield
 Paying
attention to how we spend our energy can provide major clues in the process of
healing. Certain emotions, such as blame, guilt, anger, or fear, that we return
to again and again, can literally drain our life force and leave little or
nothing to fuel the immune system.
Unlike the burst of fear or adrenaline that temporarily fires us up to
respond quickly in an emergency situation -- a kind of energy that is easily
replenished -- the ongoing burdens of guilt and blame over "what was" or fear of
"what may be" is draining. Holding on to negative feelings is simply an
exhausting expenditure of energy that can lead to emotional and physical
bankruptcy.
When we hold bitterness or anger or fear toward another, we hurt ourselves,
not the object of our focus. We drain our own energy, and this affects us on all
levels. Further, through our bitter focus we grow our adversary into the
proportions of a giant or a monster. When we let go of damaging negative
emotions and the stories that feed them, our adversaries tend to shrink. In
time, they may even disappear altogether.
Unconscious or submerged issues can also drain our vitality. It takes a lot
of psychic energy to keep old traumas from our conscious awareness; expenditures
of this kind are equally exhausting and depleting. But if we aren't aware of
these buried problems, how do we know if we have them? Although they may be
difficult to get in touch with, certain clues may point to their existence.
These include ongoing mild depression or a sense that we're blocking ourselves
or that we sabotage ourselves from meeting certain goals. Journaling or
counseling can begin to bring the issues that we haven't been ready to deal with
to the surface.
One man who came to see me, Bill, had prostate cancer that had metastasized
to his bones. He had been struggling with this condition for five years, using
both conventional and alternative medicine. When I first saw him, he had decided
that the time had come to focus on the spiritual side of his life. I told him
that the spiritual path was not an easy path. It takes courage to know ourselves
honestly and hard work to make whatever changes may be necessary.
He was eager to begin and took copious notes as we spoke. Between our next
few meetings, Bill made trips to various treatment clinics where he did
everything possible to get his cancer under control. His attitude was optimistic
most of the time; he was learning to use meditation and relaxation, however
sporadically, to pull himself out of occasional depressions. But I sensed that
he wasn't really getting in touch with his emotions. He gently brushed off any
difficulties in his personal relationships and seemed disconnected from his wife
and young children.
After several meetings he brought up the fact that he had never dealt with or
grieved the death of his parents. They had been dead now for ten years. The pain
was obvious in Bill's face as he went back to the particularly painful death of
his mother only months after his father was killed in an accident. His emotions
spilled out in cathartic release as he told the story.
As I guided him into a dialogue between his mother and himself, it came out
that he felt a tremendous amount of responsibility toward her, and guilt that he
had somehow failed her. Periodically during the dialogue I would ask him to
imagine switching to the objective perspective of his higher self. From there,
Bill talked about various misconceptions he had developed about the demands and
responsibilities he had heaped on himself.
Through the dialogue his mother also expressed disappointments about some of
his choices in life. As they went on, they began to come to the understanding
that as a young man he had needed to make his own choices and to do what was
right for him. As the dialogue came to a conclusion, she gave Bill her blessings
and acceptance.
I asked him if there was anything else he would like to say to his mother.
"Mom, I can't come and be with you now. I have to stay here and take care of my
family." She replied, "Yes, son, you need to be there for them just as I was
there for you. I love you and I will always love you and I'm here for you
whenever you need me." For the first time since her death, Bill felt free of the
guilt that had been pulling him out of the present and draining his life energy.
This awareness of the life force as energy is key to the vision of profound
healing. If we don't change the pattern of negative expenditures of energy,
we'll continue to come up with a deficit that manifests again and again in the
same symptoms or new ones. To really heal we need to open up to the transforming
power of compassion and forgiveness, both toward ourselves and others. This
power connects us to that universal source, through which our energy is ever
replenished. Then we can transcend the temporary cessation of symptoms that is
sometimes taken for healing.
In a study designed to measure immune responses, a group of people were asked
to spend twenty minutes a day for one week writing about the most traumatic
event in their lives. Comparing the results against a control group, researchers
found that those who wrote about their trauma had much stronger immune
responses. It's healthy to pull up the traumas from our past, sometimes stored
unconsciously, and release them.
As we heal and release the past, we are released from the charge we have
given to certain events. They lose their power over us, and we can better learn
the lessons inherent in them. When we have a healthy relationship with and
understanding of the past, we can visit it without getting stuck there or
falling back into the position of a victim.
This
article was excerpted from:
 Profound Healing: The Power of Acceptance on the Path to Wellness
by Cheryl Canfield.
Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Healing Arts Press, a division of
Inner Traditions International. ©2004.
www.InnerTraditions.com
Info/Order this book.
More books by this author
About the Author
CHERYL
CANFIELD is a wellness counselor who lectures nationally on topics of profound
healing and steps toward inner peace. She is the editor of the book,
Peace Pilgrim's Wisdom and
co-compiler of
Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words. Visit her website at
www.ProfoundHealing.com
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