The Phases of a Healing Journey
In this article I outline the various phases of a Healing Journey.
I hope by revealing the actual phases or cycles of healing that it can illuminate how the process actually works and what it looks like because there is a lot of crap information and books out there marketed to teach people how to heal when in reality they haven’t gone far enough in their own healing journey so people are getting 5% of the information and it’s extremely ill-advised.
Many of the phases in a Healing Journey are cyclical (or repeating) so the process is not linear. It will last as long as it lasts. Healing is never fully 100% complete, but the most fundamental part of healing is cleansing and releasing. This is the part that people need to be willing to focus on in order to faciliate the rest of the healing process. Time to heal is really about carving out space just for yourself to focus on how you feel inside your body, understand what's going on in there, and dedicate time to clean and release old energy bogging you down. Like with any endeavor in life, healing requires dedicated time, energy and focus. It requires commitment and discipline. But this endeavor is not about creating or fixing, it’s about destroying and releasing. Therefor, it does not require the masculine approach that we are programmed to apply to every effort in society. It requires a feminine one. This is about holding space for something or nothing, doing nothing, listening, letting go of control, not knowing, releasing, and cleansing. This is about getting rid of stuff, not accumulating more. This is about breaking down the ego and program, not fixing or creating a new or ‘better’ one. It’s about brutal honesty. Seeing and accepting things as they are, and then choosing to let go and clean out the old. It is why I teach energy meditation as a vehicle to do this work, and why I believe people should cultivate a meditation practice.
Before we go into the various phases, I will briefly share some notes on my own Healing Journey for some context. I hopes this shows that anyone is capable of healing so long as they make the choice to do so, and they focus the time and energy. You don’t need to know what you are doing ahead of time in order to heal. You don’t need to havea plan or all the steps laid out to get there to get to the other side. And you don’t necessarily need to have 100% time and energy available in order to heal, it’s better that you devote 25% than nothing.
When I began my healing journey, I did not intend to or know that I was embarking on one. I did not set out one day and say, let’s begin to heal. Nor did I know anything or know how to do so. At the time I did not believe in soul, spirit, energy or God. I was not religious or spiritual, nor did I ever desire to be. I was not already bought in to the concept and I prided myself on being intellectual, logical and cynical. I believed at the time that spirit and God was not real because I could not see or touch it, and I never experienced it personally. I was unconscious, living out my daily program with more suffering than I admitted. I had a good life, everything that we are programmed to want I had it. It wasn’t until my Jesus year at 33 that my life began to crumble. I was called to let it burn and die. I was called to say goodbye to a person I loved for 8 years, and divorced my husband. I was called to leave behind my NYC career, and I quit my job. I was called to leave behind home in the U.S., and I ended up living in Mexico and Latin America for 2 years. I was called to heal, and I began sifting through and releasing old trauma and energy over the course of 2-3 years. I was called to destroy my self, and I systematically dismantled my ego and programming over the course of 1 year. I committed myself, my time and all of my energy to this process. I spent most of my days alone, in meditation for at least 3-4 hours a day, buffered with a lot of space and time doing nothing. Although a lot was happening below the surface. And I did this primarily for 9 months during the peak of my cleansing and releasing process before I began to travel to reconnect with nature for another 9 months. My entry point to a Healing Journey came by way of an unexpected, spontaneous spiritual awakening that I did not consciously ask for. But it was time and it was going to come no matter what. It began with profound, vidid dreams, visions and messages from beyond every morning. I began meditation despite having no experience, and received downloads, messages and visions from higher energy beings (I suppose society calls them archangels or God) that guided my entire awakening and healing process. However I still had to consent to the process, and I still had to do the work every step of the way. I did not know the steps or the process ahead of time, I just did what I was being guided to do one step at a time in the moment.
And so as you read the phases or cycles below, I encourage you to consider this not as prescriptive action steps to take or follow, but more as a reference point to share a bit of definition to a very abstract personal process. Perhaps this will help make the process feel a bit less overwhelming or unknown because now there’s some shape to it, and give some encouragement to embrace the work.
Phase I - Acknowledge & Commit
Acknowledgement of where you are and the desire to change.
Commit to carving out time for your self.
Getting comfortable with sitting with your self.
Initial stages of getting a meditation practice going: figuring out the when, where, how and what of the practice.
Let go of some of the inner control and tightness.
Practice allowing things to rise, pass, and release.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: lost, stuck, lifeless, tired, unhealthy, depleted, anxious, stressed, sadness, despair, hopelessness, uncertainty, pushing down your fears, loss of control or need for control.
Phase II - Getting Comfortable with the Uncomfortable
This is when things get hard and most people give up, or most people don’t get past this phase.
All the inner mental junk begins to emerge and surface.
You will face your inner fears, worries, anxieties, demons, traumas, repressed emotions.
Meditation coaching helps pace this and equips you with the skills to manage.
This is a critical phase that needs a lot of time, space, patience and kindness. You are clearing out the junk and toxic noise inside of you. This will go on for however long it needs to be aired out. It will be uncomfy but remember to let is rise and pass, do not resist or repress.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: afraid, overwhelmed, loss of control, sadness, pain, uncertainty.
Phase III - An Opening
Initial surface-level noise more or less has been aired out. Doesn’t mean everything is gone, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps there’s a lull.
May experience some sort of breakthrough, like your heart cracking open or something bursting open. A major release or realization.
When the hard shell has been cracked, this is when people are able to beginthe process of reconnecting with energy and accessing buried, deeper-level energy and traumas.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: heartache, pain, confusion, curiosity, humbling, hope, uncertainty.
Phase IV - Connecting
Beginning the process of re-forging connection with your inner energy and Universal energy.
Learning to feel and connect with Universal energy.
Learning to differentiate between your egoic and soul voice.
Continuing the process of letting the inner rise and surface.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: lighter, release, curiosity, confusion, uncertainty.
Phase V - Cultivating a Relationship to Soul
Learning to listen and cultivate an open connection and dialogue with your soul’s voice.
Learning to access wisdom, inner truths, past lives, karmic lessons, tasks.
Connecting with energy and signals from the body and emotions.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: lightness, curiosity, wonder, enlightening, gratefulness, warmth, love, nurturing, supportive, truth.
Phase VI - Cultivating a Relationship to Energy
Learning to feel and strengthen your connection with Universal energy.
Learning how to differentiate the feelings of different frequencies of energy.
Learning how to channel Universal and elemental energy.
Learning how to move energy around.
Learning how to harness Universal energy to clear chakras and energy blockages, remove energy cords, strengthen your auras and energy shields, protect yourself from vampiric energies, to clean, manage and raise your energy frequency.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: lightness, expansiveness, wonder, energizing, enlightening, gratefulness, warmth, love, nurturing, truth, joy, happiness, peace.
Phase VII - Cultivating Your Intuition
Learning to exercise and trust your intuition.
Practice following your heart and intuition to make decisions.
Taking risks, making bold decisions, and pursuing what feels right and good.
Allowing yourself to have fun, enjoy life, create new experiences for yourself so you can put your intuition into practice and learn lessons.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: happiness, joy, boldness, uncertainty, fun, pleasure, busyness, ignorance, possibility.
Phase VIII - Space & Integration
Coming down from the high.
Energies forcing you into stillness to integrate your experiences.
Sitting with yourself and processing everything to prepare for the work of excavation.
Reflection and introspection.
Practicing patience and not knowing.
Getting comfortable with uncertainty as a constant part of the journey.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: disorienting, shocking, disappointment, challenging, isolation, uncertainty, confusing, frustrating, pain, fear.
Phase IX - Excavation
This is the early stages of peeling back layers, digging deep, and releasing into the abyss within in the pursuit of self-discovery and understanding.
Discover and feel your inner and ancestral traumas.
You will learn how to see and understand your behaviors, beliefs and patterns in all honesty, and begin to discern what serves you and what no longer does.
Breaking through to truly see your illusions, false desires, toxic patterns and beliefs.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: challenging, isolation, loneliness, frustrating, pain, fear, uncertainty, confusing, denial, breakthroughs, aha moments.
Phase X - Shedding
This process is about letting go of all that does not serve your well-being and your soul.
Learning to shed false layers, false identities, the over control of your ego, false beliefs, toxic relationships (to roles, people, things, substances, etc), toxic patterns and programming that you did not consciously agree to.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: freedom, inner peace, lightness, epiphanies, test of resilience and conviction, inner strength or inner fear.
Phase XI - Space & Integration
You will feel lighter, freer.
You will have created inner spaciousness.
Your first instinct will be to immediately fill it. But this phase is about learning patience and the art of enjoying this newfound inner space and freedom.
Sit in the space and integrate.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: spaciousness, open, peace, free, lightness, calmness, tranquility, aware, clarifying.
Phase XII - Dreaming & Connecting with Joy
Allow yourself to dream and imagine new possibilities for yourself.
Learn how to discern what actually brings you joy and what doesn’t through intuitive feeling exercises.
Open up to the idea of new realities and that you have the power to create what you desire.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: openness, expansiveness, curiosity, creativity.
Phase XIII - Reprogramming
You will then learn how to reprogram yourself to replace any patterns and programming that no longer serves your highest self.
You will identify the patterns and programming you would like to put in place and exercise based on the new dreams, joys and desires you have for yourself.
Practicing making every decision by intuition
Phase XIV - Exploration
Learning to balance your meditation and intuitive connection while re-emerging and opening yourself to new experiences.
Experimentation and self-discovery phase in the physical world.
Connecting with new interests, hobbies, passions, dreams, hidden talents.
Making decisions led by intuition.
Practice being more present, staying open and curious.
Phase XV - Connecting with Nature & Love
Connecting with the energy and unconditional love of nature.
Understanding gratitude, appreciation, optimism, unconditional love and support.
This time can be deeply healing and will continue to unearth hidden and buried emotions, traumas and truths.
Continuing the process of re-prioritization and revaluation of what’s important in your life.
In a healing journey, emotions can include feeling: deep connection to all beings, love, fullness, compassion, lightness, joy, peace, radiance, flow.
Phase XVI - Space & Integration
You may have gone through a period of transformation.
Now is the time to sit with yourself in space and introspection to process and integrate all that you have learned and experienced.
Continuing to learn and exercise patience, letting go, and getting comfortable with the undefined, unknown path.
Anything unaligned or negative will surface and you will have the opportunity to process and heal them.
Phase XVII - Completion
You may have released past traumas and have processed your stored emotions, inner demons and fears.
You may feel a deep sense of inner peace, freedom, strength, power, hope, patience, love and compassion.
You may feel whole and complete as you are.
You may be filled with possibility and may have the ability to dream and imagine and pursue new possibilities and realities for yourself, with time, patience and determination.
You may be better equipped to face the challenges of life and you look forward to them as they are the stepping stones for your continuous evolution. You may meet them with courage and hope, knowing that you will learn what you need to learn to grow and self-actualize.
You may understand how to create a healthy and sustainable life for yourself. Perhaps making decisions that support your well-being, balance and harmony with life.
Perhaps opening yourself up to new experiences, new possibilities, risks and possibly pushing your limitations.
Perhaps feeling satisfied, content and at peace with where you are.
You may be better equipped to wield and harness energies to manifest and realize your goals.