When I first started working with clients back in the late 1990s, I quickly realized two things.
First, that I seemed to know more than I thought about business and marketing, and clients started to do well.
Secondly, that information only got people so far. Many clients seemed to get stuck, even with good information on what to do.
At the time, I told my wife Holly, “I need to learn how to help these folks process their stuff. What should I learn? Hypnotherapy?”
“No,” she replied. She had studied hypnotherapy herself, “You don’t need that.”
Little did we know that within the next month Holly would come across a Sufi spiritual healing student, and by the fall we would both have started learning healing with the Sufis.
Ten years later I’m still doing this bizarre let oddly nourishing combination of Sufi healing and business teaching, After working with literally thousands of clients over the years, I’ve seen two general approaches to healing for any situation.
For those who take on healing, one gets used a LOT. The other is mostly ignored. Yet you need both.
But first, let’s talk about healing.
What is “Healing”?
Healing is a return to our original state of love. That state is one of wholeness and solidity that can’t be shaken. It’s our core. It’s who you really are. It’s what’s for dinner.
Needing healing doesn’t imply brokenness or imperfection. What it means is that our witnessing, our awareness, is sunk in the impermanent physical world, where things are always changing. Clouds in the sky can look like fantastical–solid, tall, dark, strong. Yet they are in constant movement and change.
The world is like that. Your business, your body, everything around us is constantly in flux.
To heal is to realize that all of that motion is around a core of solidity that can’t be shaken. Your heart is that seat of that core.
The Most Common Route to Healing
I often tell clients when we work together that there are two ways to try and settle into that core of solidity. One is through “processing.”
You find a willingness to become aware of your illusions, where they come from and why, and to discern a deeper truth that lies beyond. For instance, someone might continue to resist marketing themselves despite all of the best information in the world. Looking more deeply reveals a fear of being judged. Awareness of that fear reveals an event in their childhood that was emotionally traumatic.
Healing would have the person look more deeply at that event, and to clear energy, let go of illusion, perceive the presence of love and the Divine in that event, and have it transformed leaving the heart and soul feeling lighter and more free. Suddenly, vavoom, the person is free to market themselves.
This is the most common route to healing. Many different modalities are basically this approach. People have different “techniques” to access the universal love that clears the illusions and stucknesses, yet the template of the healing session looks very similar.
This can be a very powerful and effective route, and self-knowledge is a great thing. However, notice that the real strength of the healing comes in not with the awareness of the incident, but when the love, the Divine, sweeps in and transforms everything.
Which leads me to the second route to healing.
The Second Route
The second route is when the love of the Divine is accessed directly, without internal processing and intellectual awareness, and the person in question is just bathed in that, cleaning away the dirt on the heart that has obscured the experience of love.
Easy, simple, compassionate. Very little work is needed on the part of the person needing healing, except for the willingness.
Why I’m Talking About All of This
When you are stuck, when there is struggle or stagnation, when you can’t quite figure things out, chances are you’re focused on the shifting clouds around you.
What you need is to sink into the core of love and act from the solidity of that place, not being confused by the illusions around you.
It can be very challenging to really get, really really get, the truth that we don’t do anything. The life energy that animates us comes to us and through us. There is so much compassion, mercy, and love available to you in any moment, but it can be hard to perceive it when you’re focused on the chaos.
In many cases, what’s needed is the first route to healing. However, that route carries the risk that you’ll get stuck trying to “figure out” what’s wrong.
When that happens, go direct. Ask for the healing directly. In your heart, ask to be made aware of and rest into the solid foundation of love that you are already standing on.
If you want a heart-based practice, try the Remembrance, which I teach in this workbook: Getting to the Core of Your Business.
Sometimes you don’t need to see what happened, sometimes it can all just be swept away with you needing to paw through the dust and dirt.
Have you experienced healing in your business, or need to?
p.s. If you’re really wanting to stay in your heart and hold onto your business no matter what bumps show up in your life, then you may want to consider the book that was born out of this journey.
Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: spiritual, practical, nitty-gritty and hundreds of small business owners already have it.
19 Responses
Oh, yeah…right….focusing inward towards the source of Love.
I forgot to do that…. for… ummmm…..all summer.
There! I admitted it!
I was wondering what was up with my business. But since, I can’t think straight, I can’t catch my breath, and because I am on the UPSET and CRANKY Roller Coaster, I would have no way of knowing what was up with my business unless I went inside.
In the spring, we got a 10 week old puppy (on top of single mothering 3 lively Teens and a baby business). Life shifted into emergency mode, as ever increasing puddles of pee and piles of poop littered our home; essential items like printer cables, coffee cups (and homework) were shredded within seconds of inattention to Rosie. Life became one big Rosie training session (on top of single mothering 3 lively Teens and a baby business).
My recharge time went out the window, along with my good humor. My business started limping along. It is doing well enough for a baby business, but all the Joy went out of it. Now, I know why.
I had a clue when my Ex started getting under my skin again.
I had a clue when new moms stopped coming to my Mother’s Circle.
I had a clue when I started yelling at my kids and leaning on them for acting their age.
I had a clue when I opened my laptop, couldn’t think of a thing to write and closed it again.
I had a clue when I was standing in an ice cream store and ordered a Large Chocolate Milk Shake.
I had an Aha! moment when I watched “The Coal Miner’s Daughter”. In the movie, Loretta Lynn is going along gangbusters when she just can’t do it anymore. She stands in front of an audience and explains that “Things has been going along just a little too fast.” before she collapses into Doo’s arms and is carried off stage.
I had another Aha! moment when I went to an Al-Anon meeting and was reminded to ask for help from a source greater than myself (and I guessed they weren’t talking Carvel.)
The final pieces in the puzzle are NVC (Rosie in her crate) and Remembrance.
Thank you, Mark.
Love,
Donna
Donna- nice. And yes, Carvel is not necessarily the most effective higher source. 🙂
I really appreciate your definition of healing Mark. It’s one of those words/phrases that I totally get intuitively but it can feel tricky to explain to someone who’s not familiar with the concept.
And I can find myself being apologetic, “Um it doesn’t mean you’re broken or anything, just…”
So thank you for giving me a way to talk about healing that is straightforward. It addresses the power of healing without diving into New Agey cliches.
Peace
Judy
PS My heart is with you re your boys. Glad you found a way back to peace in the situation.
@Judy- Nice to see you here again! And glad the definition helped.
Beautifully said and so true.
No matter which way you approach your self and your life, direct communion with Source/Spirit is what really creates all healing and transformation. Always.
Of course Source/Spirit/God is always present, but the unique gift of human consciousness is conscious choice. We have to intentionally engage our awareness with that presence to complete the circuit.
A beautiful reminder not to get stuck in endless processing and just take the direct path!
Blessings,
Mikhaila
Mark (and Mikhaila!),
Thank you both for words that have such beautiful timing for me now – I have been just so very open to quite a wonderful amount of growth and healing recently that it’s quite exciting! Mark, first your reminder about how “very challenging it can be to really, really get that we don’t DO ANYTHING”…. (my emphasis!)……..and that the life energy comes to and thru us.
And then to read YOUR words above, Mikhaila that “Of Course, Source/Spirit/God is always present, but the unique gift of human consciousness is conscious choice. We have to INTENTIONALLY (my emphasis!) engage our awareness with that presence to complete the circuit.”
I’ve been mystified about the wonderful abundance that I’ve been gifted with in the last 7 or so months…… And what I realize thru the kernels of truth you’ve both revealed for me is that, increasingly, I’ve made the “conscious choice” of engaging with God and the realization that love, healing, abundance and truth is ALWAYS there – I simply must truly open my arms and heart to receive…
And the results have been staggering. And just so beautiful. And I am so very THANKFUL.
Peace,
Otha
Otha- staggering! I love it that you’ve been staggered by love. 🙂 Thank you for letting us know!
Interesting that I chose to use word “staggered”…..thanks for noting that Mark! I realize now that I did/do mean that and it accurately reflects that the results did knock me for a loop, in fact, I sank with depression not knowing how to handle the abundance it was so overwhelming. Which surprised me as I thought abundance was what I wanted. Then I rebounded and asked Allah for guidance on how best to surrender to it and the answer came very quickly in the form of a helper for my business and it just flourished….. Now that you’ve highlighted that for me, my process to get here is clearer. THANK YOU!
You are so welcome, Otha. One of the most unanticipated reactions is that abundance is really disorienting.
MIkhaila- the direct path, yah!
Hi Mark,
The timing of this article is just perfect–I needed the reminder (1) to get back on track with my Remembrance practice, and (2) that as oppressively real as the dark columns of clouds feel, they do eventually disperse or shift and a new ray of light or some new projects eventually appear on the scene. My experience lately has been that the looming projects appear to be forever on the horizon and just out of reach…
They do disperse, Sue, don’t they? Dark clouds bring the rain, so we need them, but when we’re anchored in Source, it’s all just weather. 🙂 I trust and hope that your weather changes soon!
Hi Mark-
I like the distinction you’re drawing here; very nice and useful.
For myself, I’ve never had the experience where direct Divine love washes away the cause in me of the specific issue. Rather, Divine love helps me be more comfortable with myself in that time, and that allows me to (a) be more gentle with myself around that issue, which helps me to deal with it, and (b) gain some insight as to what the cause is (which sounds more like your first way of healing), which helps me to lastingly wash the dirt away. I don’t know if that’s the same as what you’re describing, or different……
Also, I (rarely) have another experience, which is of the Divine directly communicating with me in a way that I experience as nearly verbal, or at least something that is so powerful and encompassing that it very easily comes into words.
Two examples may help make this clearer. First, once, when I was going through the most poignant breakup of my life, and I prayed for relief, I got back the message, “Don’t worry about it.” Not what I wanted to hear, and very, very good advice. Second, recently and unexpectedly, I got the message, “Are you ready for it to be easy?” (with the strong implication of, “Because, you know, if you’re not ready for it to be easy, it’s going to be _much_ harder for it to be easy.”) I then started trying out the believe, “This is easy”, and an amazing number of things are about 90% easier than they use to be!
So opening to that Divine “voice” is another aspect I commend to people, if it appeals.
Love,
Doug
Hi Doug- It’s not exactly the same. My experience with it being washed away directly is usually in the context of getting help from someone who is facilitating the healing, but has happened on its own, when it’s just washed away. But the first route is definitely more common when I’m working with myself.
Accessing those kinds of messages can be so helpful. That’s an understatement. 🙂
Got it. Thanks, Mark–that helps me understand what you’re saying. To confirm, it sounds like you’re saying that the first method is something a person can more often or reliably use by her/him self, and the second is something that is more often facilitated or apparently spontaneous.
And a thought that occurred to me this morning: It is impossible to restrict the Divine. The methods we’re discussing are ones that we use, and perhaps like, but the Divine moves as the Divine moves. We can encourage ourselves to be more open to the Divine, and develop certain “familiar tools”, and the Divine may reach into our lives in any of an infinite number of ways. We can only help ourselves be more open.
Exactly, Doug. No restrictions on Source. Which is one of the reasons why the second path works sometimes- things just get swept out…
Thank you, Mark. Truth again! You articulate it so clearly. It warms my heart, and nourishes my mind. Wishing you blessings in the continuing journey with your boys and with Holly. Much love and gratitude to you!
Siddheshwari
Siddheshwari- Thank you, beloved!
I think it includes sacrifices by heart . am sure.