The Metaphysics of Healing

What is the relationship between healing and self-mastery? Does embodied enlightenment mean that you are “fully healed”? And how does integration play into all of this?
You’ve probably noticed that healing is inevitable on the path of self-realization and embodied enlightenment. In fact, the quest for healing (together with failed attempts at healing) is often the catalyst for spiritual awakening. 
Have you ever thought about what healing emotional wounds really means? In this blog series, I will explore this topic using both my clinical and metaphysical background. As I like to explore subjects in-depth, I’ve divided it into four parts: 1) What causes emotional wounds, 2) What does it mean to heal, 3) How to heal, and 4) Does healing ever end? Let’s dive into the first part.

​Part 1: What causes emotional wounds?
 
To understand healing, we must first understand what causes emotional wounds or psychological injuries. Contrary to the mainstream clinical approach, I posit that we are multidimensional beings: psychological injuries don’t take place only on the mental level, but also on the energetic, physical, and spiritual levels of being. Below is a description of how imbalances develop and manifest in the different dimensions of human experience. 

Psychological injuries manifest on the mental, energetic, physical and spiritual levels of being.

​On the level of physiology, a wound or imbalance is the result of a survival threat (or a perceived threat). It is noteworthy to mention that because we are a social species, social threats – such as bullying, judgment or rejection – are perceived by the mind as survival threats. In humans, the nervous system is designed to regulate emotions, to easily shift from one emotional state to another, depending on what is needed. Prolonged or intense emotional injuries – especially ones that are experienced in childhood – can cause dysfunctions in the nervous system, as well physical changes in the brain. Emotional wounds, therefore, take place in the body just as much as in the mind.
 
On the mental level, emotional wounds are the result of neglecting physical or emotional needs in a continuous or severe way, causing the individual to develop beliefs which are adaptive and necessary for survival in the short-term, but become limiting in the long run. Without limiting beliefs, an emotionally painful experience will dissolve quite easily provided that our basic needs are met.
 
On the energetic level, any wound, emotional or physical, can be seen as a manifestation of an energetic imbalance, usually in the form of “stuck energy”. Emotional energy is meant to be in a state of flow, but when this energy is not allowed to flow freely, it becomes stuck. Stuck energy means that an aspect of the self is stuck in a vibrational state of low frequency. 

In essence, every emotional wound or trauma is the result of feeling separated from the divine consciousness and love at the core of our being.

On the spiritual level, any suffering or sense of emotional pain is the result of perceived separation between the human and the divine. This is the case even when the individual doesn’t believe in God. Most humans have ‘spiritual abandonment issues’ on a deep, often unconscious layer: We feel abandoned by God or by our Higher Self. In everyday life this is often experienced as loneliness, low self-worth, or a lack of belonging. Although this separation from our divine roots is only an illusion, it can feel very real on the human level. In essence, every emotional wound or trauma is the result of feeling separated from the love at the core of our being.

It may seem that these different dimensions of experience are paradoxical, yet they can actually all be real and valid at the same time: Just as you are not either emotional or physical, you are not either human or divine – you are all of that, and more, all at once! 
 
Another important thing to remember is that while imbalance can occur on many levels of our beingness, the divine essence of our being is never damaged, imbalanced, or otherwise tarnished. The human body, the mind and even our energy body are all highly susceptible to imbalance, yet the soul and our core consciousness are eternal, invincible, and limitless. At the core of our being, there is never a ‘need’ to heal, because there is never anything that is broken or not whole. To truly understand and receive this truth is the most important step in healing.

From the perspective of soul, there is nothing to heal because we are never broken – to understand and accept this truth is the most important step in healing.

In the next blog post, I will explore what it means to heal.