The power of healing lies within you

Sumitra Daswani is the founder of Born From The Earth – a natural healing company – and is a holistic health practitioner, trained in Ayurveda, medical botany, nutrition, meditation and sound therapy. She guides others on how to heal themselves naturally and achieve optimal well-being. She writes about her journey to becoming a healing practitioner and how everyone has the innate capacity within themselves to to heal

The first time a friend, a former business executive and CEO, said he went to India for a year and came back a healer…I dubiously and very skeptically thought, “Ok so you went to India, came back and now you think you have magical powers…right, ok, sure.” 

Wouldn’t you have had the same reaction?

Flash forward 3 years later, I moved to India and people now sometimes refer to me as a healer…hmm.

So how does this “becoming a healer” work?

In my case, it stemmed from my own suffering. Doctors had me on a cocktail of medications for 14 years for a very common hormonal balance–polycystic ovarian syndrome, which affects 1 in 10 women. I also suffered physical injuries–a torn labrum in my right hip and a degenerated disc in my L4/L5 spinal vertebrae.

For 2 decades, I was either hormonally distraught, in excruciating pain, on a weight gain-and-shed roller coaster, or suffering side effects from all the medications–like reptilian dry skin and unsightly cystic acne. Fed up with the American medical system, I turned to alternative therapies like acupuncture and meditation. And when I started to see results, I went back to school to become a Board Certified Holistic Health Coach, trained in Nutrition, Life Coaching and Medical Botany (Herbalism).

I moved to India from New York City in 2016 to advance my studies in holistic health–also becoming certified in Ayurvedic Nutrition and Sound Therapy. The goal of studying has always primarily been to improve my own health, but along the way, I’ve helped many clients with their mental, emotional and physical ailments as well. I personally prefer the term ‘practitioner’ because ‘healer’ seems to imply I will automatically “fix” whatever is ailing you. And that’s simply not the case.

Instead, I am going to let you in on a big secret about ‘healers.’  Ready? 

We are ALL Healers.

That’s right. You’re a healer and you’re a healer and you’re a healer….and, you get it.

When I see you as a client, one of the first things I tell you is that no one can heal you, except YOURSELF.  That’s right, you heal yourself.  The same way your body heals a cut or a sprained ankle.  But, I am here to guide you along the way and create space for you to do the internal work required for you to heal whatever dis-ease is currently or chronically afflicting you.

So how do you heal yourself?  Here are four steps for you to (get past the mind-blowing impact of what I just told you, and) begin your healing journey.

Step 1: Start with BELIEF.  

Having an open mind allows you to participate in the healing process with absorbency.  If you truly believe you have the power to shift your current state, you can be the architect of your own healing. Bear in mind, fear sits on the other side of faith and belief, so eliminating your fears is the first step towards changing deeply ingrained belief systems.

A simple practice is the use of affirmations. Even a simple affirming statement repeated over and over, such as, “my body is healing itself,” triggers the subconscious mind to move you past your evolutionary negatively-biased brain (yes, we all have one) and towards a more positive mind-set. Once the affirmation moves from your conscious mind into your subconscious, it will accept the statement as truth, and therefore, belief.

Step 2: Build your HEALING TOOLKIT.  

Find the healing practices that help you shift you energetically into a lighter, receiving, more harmonious state of being. This can be self-directed actions, such as prayer, chanting, going to church, gratitude exercises, myofascial release, exercising, eating a nutritious diet, meditation, and so on. If you don’t have any practices yet, try testing and learning. Try a practice for a week and see how it makes you feel. If it seems to be pushing you in a positive direction, continue.

And if not, try something else till you find what feels easy and beneficial to do. Additionally, you can regularly work with health practitioners, such as those that practice energy medicine, physiotherapy, yoga, spiritual counseling, and others. Good practitioners teach you specific practices so you can continue the work on your own.

Step 3: Apply INTENT. You may believe you have the power to move from an unhealthy state to a healthier one. However, you need intent to direct that belief to where it needs to go. Whichever healing modality you choose to use, whether acupuncture, sound therapy, meditation, or even allopathy, understand that the therapy you are choosing acts as a trigger mechanism, but the intention is the focussing device that magnifies the energy. Focussed intent magnifies the power of whichever healing modality you choose to apply. Always remember the equation–Practice ‘X’ + Intent = Healing. A good healing practitioner will guide you to set an intent upon beginning any healing session.

Step 4: PRACTICE DAILY.

Healing does not happen overnight. This is partly because our belief systems do not budge easily. DAILY practice will not only help to strengthen belief, but make your practice more effective. When your subconscious mind takes over to form a sustainable habit, you will be able to explore your practice with more depth, making way for newer results. And, as your consciousness towards your healing practice grows, you will be able to apply it more meaningfully and rigorously. For example, if you are working on healing a spinal injury, and you practice spinal exercises daily, your awareness of your spine will begin to permeate all of your movements, perhaps enabling you to improve your posture throughout the day. 

What do you know–becoming a healer is not so magical after all.