Healing happens through relationship.

About a month ago, I was going through a guided meditation, lying in a park under a perfect fall sunset.

My sister Kylie, who was guiding the meditation, came over and put her hands on me. I began to well up with tears, suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude for her presence, and with relief in my heart as I had an epiphany.

I realized that it was OK to have help in my healing. For so long I had been afraid to ask for help. When I finally gave myself permission to seek help, I felt guilty about it. Guilty that I was so consumed with chasing my healing and trying to force it. Embarrassed that I couldn’t do it alone, but ashamed that I needed others.

At that moment during the meditation, I felt peace, knowing it was OK to work on my healing in the presence of guides, mentors, and “healers”. It was OK to ask for help. And more importantly, it was OK to receive help.

As I’ve been working on honoring my divine feminine in the past months, I’ve been developing my capacity to receive.

Asking for help is one thing. Being able to receive help is a whole other matter. It challenges my ability to humbly and fully accept another’s generosity while not feeling ashamed of my own shortcomings or unworthiness. This is a skill I think many humans struggle to balance.

A couple weeks after the meditation, I was having a discussion with my other sister, Tiana. She spoke a few words that stopped my convoluted web of thoughts: “Healing happens through relationship.”

These words were something that I knew in theory, but the timing of her words as she spoke them was exactly when my heart needed to hear it.

It’s not another person’s physical touch that heals the physical wound. It’s the intention of the touch that holds space for us to heal.

It’s not the resourceful words which come from another’s throat that fix our problems. It’s the resonance of their voice or message that holds space for us to accept whatever truth we may glean in that moment to find healing.

Healing is a promise. Our bodies always work to protect & heal. God promises us this.

We are the hands and voice of God, and so we heal ourselves through each other.

Live in peace, Ali