Adrilia V Pedersen Wellness February 3 2014 Blog Post
Our beautiful, amazing country and the need for healing
I’ve been wondering for a few weeks if our life in the USA does not at times interfere with our ability to ask for what we need and with our ability to receive healing. Those same traits so helpful to our beautiful country’s founding fathers may in fact get in our way when we need help. In the US we are encouraged to be independent, to be trailblazers, to go at it on our own, to persevere in spite of the odds. In some ways, we are encouraged to not ask for what we need or want … to not ask for help, else it may appear a sign of weakness.
In other countries, seeing a healer is par for the course
It is my experience that in many other cultures people customarily visit a healer or a shaman for help just to be able to take care of the “soot” we accumulate as a result of living our modern lives. It seems to me that in the U.S. most people feel they have to explain or hide it if they see a shaman or a healer or a Reiki practitioner or even an acupuncturist. And frankly, this gets in the way of our health and wellbeing. It puts us at a disadvantage. There is a reason why many of these systems of support and healing have been around since the beginning of time. They are a huge support to humans in the business of living, changing, transforming, aging and dealing with stress. The plants, the animals, the natural world have always been our great allies in this business of living. In Plant Spirit Medicine Healing I experience that the plants are immensely generous, powerful and in tune with exactly what it is we need to be well, to be in balance, to live and grow and thrive and to adapt to our environment optimally … just like they do!
I am not sure if it is because our country is, well, young … or if it is because as a people we are too independent for our own good.
While one can benefit hugely from Plant Spirit Medicine healing at any time, once we are already seriously ill it takes longer for the peeling of the onion of stress, strain, illness and imbalance. The plants are ready and happy to share their magnificent healing with us. All we have to do is ask. Why do some of us find it so difficult to ask, to receive? Could it be because in our country strength and independence are prized above all else?
Are you a healer? I would love to hear from you!
I truly have been giving some attention to this matter and I would love to hear from other Plant Spirit Medicine Healers and other alternative healing practitioners. Please share your opinion with me. Is it harder for us in this country to ask for help? To receive healing? To embrace preventive healing options?
This is a powerfully insightful article and touches on some of the shadow sides of this country that, as a society, we don’t often acknowledge. I do not have a healing practice, but I do see that as a people our constant push towards growth and “making it happen” are beautiful traits that do in fact have another side to them. Sometimes that side takes over resulting in greed and in self absorption. Sometimes, due to our one pointed desire to achieve our intentions, it’s in a blindness to the blessings surrounding us in the natural world. As it is. My experience receiving regular PSM treatments and healings from a Huichol shaman, have transformed my life in so many ways. The plants teach me to listen and to slow down. To be still inside, to feel my emotions. To let there be a natural flow within me that is connected to my environment. To accept, to release the desire to control. They show me what it means to be grateful, to be generous, to be humble, to Love and to be Loved. They show me what it means to open to them and receive deep healing. All of this they show me and they show me my shadows too. I am deeply grateful for the strength they have to reach through the fog that surrounds us with their Love. Thank you for the profoundly beautiful work you do in being a midwife for all of this, Adrilia. You are an inspiration and a beacon!
Thank you, dear Karla, for your comment and for sharing your powerful experiences with Plant Spirit Medicine and with your shamanic healer. Your awareness of your process and your ability to witness the healing of the plants, who show us so much, including our shadow, is a testament to the beauty and depth of your heart.