What are our interests?

[arctic splash]

I'd like to hear from all of you what your interests are, how you got interested in healing, and what healing means to you!

Though healing arts have fascinated me for a relatively short time (I just didn't know what was out there), I am now applying to an independent study graduate program to study "Ecology and Healing," or perhaps, "Ecology, Spirituality, and Healing." Healing has become integral to every aspect of my life. I've been inspired by a wonderful book, Reinvention of Work by Matthew Fox, which posits that *all* true work is healing work: healing our minds and bodies and souls, our relationships with each other, and with the Earth. So... I have a very broad definition of healing... I think we all can (and must) heal in our own way, and there are so many ways! That can be playing music, or making someone laugh, or building pleasant and healthy places for people to live, or growing good organic food, or reading a good book, or giving a massage, or... I think if it's not healing, we should reconsider why we're doing it.

I'm interested in reiki, polarity and massage therapy, qigong, herbs, breathing, meditation, visualisation, healing through creative expression, Native American healing, stone healing, dreams, ecopsychology, healing through healthy spontaneous ritual and shared human experience, nutrition and healthy cooking, finding ways to conquer alienation, reevaluation therapy, cuddling.

I heard a really great definition of wellness at an NSA (Network Spinal Analysis... really cool stuff) presentation a few nights ago: "An integral state of wholeness... linked with a personalised connection with a perceived transcendent source of strength or wisdom... experiences community, peace, wisdom, well-being... evolving pliable sense of self [we can be spontaneous and paradoxical and multi-dimensional and not limited to a single label]... heightened sensitivity to emotions or actions involving gratitude, forgiveness, empathy, love and compassion in relation to the individual's life experiences." Dr. Johr, who led the presentation, said that there's no reason a healthy person shouldn't be able to walk into a room and know right away who's worth your time and who's not. I really like that.

[AineDanu]

I have been interested in healing for most of my life. I was born with a rare disease and have spent most of my life fighting to live. I have been in and out of hospitals and doctors offices constantly and I have seen so many misdiagnosis, and so many times that the attitudes of the doctor adversely or positively affected the patients progress. I have had doctors who treated me like an idiot and I never seemed to improve under their care. I have had a couple of doctors who went out of their way to make me laugh and be relaxed, and who ALWAYS listened to me and responded to my thoughts/questions/concerns with respect. Under those doctors care I have flourished. But through it all I have never felt that any of these types of "healing" would help me.

My first interest in alternate forms of healing was herbs, and I am still very interested in them and all they can do. To my way of thinking they worked for the Native American for how many years before we created manufactured drugs......there must be something there. Plus I have a strong belief in the powers of Mother Nature to care for her own. I am also greatly interested in the varying forms of Reiki, crystal therapy, color therapy, positive thinking, visualizations, and many many other forms. I do believe that laughter is one of the best medicines and that whatever brings you joy and happiness is going to help you to heal on many levels. If you are happy and at peace emotionally then that will reflect in you physically. I have always been a counselor of sorts for friends and strangers. I do not know why but perfect strangers like to walk up to me and tell me their life stories and seek my counsel, I am not trained for this and I must admit that for the longest time it really weirded me out having this happen over and over. Now I am more used to it and I am simply glad that I can help. Although I still do not know why people come up to me like that. :)

Anyway, that is some of my rambled thoughts on the subject.

With Love,
AineDanu

OH I should mention that I also believe that keeping love in your heart and sharing love with all those that you can is the absolute best form of healing.

[Tanemon]

Hi :smile:

My interests include developing more as a healer, and also hiking, animal watching, cross-country skiing, gardening, growing trees (arboriculture), music making (guitar), doing carpentry, and personal synergy with my neighbors. I also have made a personal study of ecology and certain aspects of history. And I like to read about different ways that people lived on the land or made a living from the water (sea, rivers, lakes) in the past. Soon I will be learning to weld - a valuable skill.

I was practicing meditation for a long time. And I did a fair amount of reading about Native Canadian (or "Native American") spirituality. Then I had a couple of health problems - plus I broke my leg. So I got into Reiki and it changed my life a lot. Then I decided that I might be able to help other people through energy or spiritual healing.

Rather than wax on any more about myself, I'll leave it at that.

:sunny: Tanemon

[Inward Visionary]

Well, my awareness of healing has come about in the past couple years. The more my knowledge on the subject increases, the better I understand different situations from my past and the present.

I guess my real interest in healing started at a Spiritualist church. They offer Reiki treatments there and a clairvoyant medium-based message service, as well as the preliminary church service. Going there always kind of recharges my spiritual battery. Especially since I'm a "catcher" during the Reiki healings, I receive and transfer Reiki through everyone who goes through the tunnel.

I then met my current teacher/spiritual mentor. We became really good friends. She's a shamanic practitioner and runs her own healing business, which I hope to be a part of in the future.

I guess after establishing a good foundation of knowledge and teachers on the subject, the healing energy kind of starts to teach you itself. The more you practice and use it, the more you will learn about it, and the more powerful you become.

Healing to me is a part of everything. Not everybody is aware of it, not everybody accepts it, and not everybody knows how to handle it or what to do with it. But it's here and it's working all over the earth everyday. It has a consciousness of it's own and goes where it needs to. It's up to the individual to accept it and acknowledge that it's working for the highest good.

My biggest interest right now is starting my own business. Reading this thread actually gave me a little personal revelation on that. My line of work is web design and web graphics, but I had started out by doing some re-designs for small businesses with simple websites. So in a way, I was kind of "healing" those old, ineffecient websites. :lol: I also enjoy reading, music, cooking, meditation, adventures in nature, anything to get my butt off this computer chair, and multiplayer 007! It will always live on!

[Aurin]

Oh, man oh man, what a broad subject.... Let's see... I used to love programming computers (Work sort of drained the fun out of it) ... I enjoy making chainmaille (I've made a mantle and a vest for larger projects but typically I make jewelry). I play guitar and recently made a mini practice amp (That was a fun electronics project). Of course I'm interested in healing, not just Reiki though that is my primary interest. That'll do for now ;-).

[arctic splash]

I was intending to ask you all what your healing interests are...

but if you want to share *all* your interests, okay, that's good too. :D

[aeternus lumen]

I have been interested in healing for a while now. Over time, it seemed to keep calling to me. I had heard of reiki a few times here and there in the past, but for the last year or so, it seem to be calling louder and louder, so finally i listened. I'm still begining my relationship with reiki. It has already had a major impact on my life in sooo many ways.
Another thing i am really interested in, and i feel has a lot to do with healing, is quantum physics and string theory. I really think that science is begining to 'find' what so many have known for so long. String theory kind of proves that we really do create our own reality, and manifest our thoughts and feelings.
I won't ramble any longer, because i usually don't stop. lol.
Peace and Light

Namaste~ :ghost: :braindrai

[KEishin]

Well, I first found out about Reiki from a friend of my mother who was attuned to L2. She told me lot about it, but was unable to give me an attunement at that point. I tried for years to get it to work without the attunement, but only had limited success. When it did work, I was so exhausted that I would sleep for a few hours afterward. Not the best solution.

So I focused most of my effort on herbalism, meditation and dreamwork in the meantime. I found I had a bit of skill with channeling random information to people I'm healing, which used to freak me out. (No more!) Now I just start blabbing while giving Reiki and though it may not mean anything to me, oftentimes other people understand.

When I joined my coven several years back, my HPS was a Reiki Master, so she gave me 1 and 2 and last year gave me 3. I'm still working towards 4 but I think I'll be ready to do my first attunement soon! Whee!