Working Hard at Healing without Results?- 3 Supportive Conditions for Healing
If you are working hard at doing your healing work and not seeing the changes you long for, you might be lacking supportive conditions.
Healing work can and does take many forms in the world. Whatever modality you might choose for healing, a portion of its effectiveness depends on supportive conditions. Supportive conditions are those that make what you wish to transform or create more probable. Let’s look at three specific examples of supportive conditions for healing.
1-Attending to the Needs Cycle
You have a natural cycle of processing your experiences and meeting your needs. This cycle includes four stages:
AWARENESS is having insight or clarity about what you need in a given moment or situation. How often are you asking yourself what you need and taking the time to listen with mindfulness? How could you easily incorporate this practice into your life?
ACTION is taking effective action to nourish a particular need. Having identified what you need can you identify what actions and what overall decisions you can make for consistent self-care?
SATISFACTION means pausing to feel the satisfaction of having a need met. Are you present for the experience of satisfaction when things go well?
COMPLETION means experiencing a sense of rest or completion with regards to the need met. When you complete meeting a need, are you resting into satisfaction and allowing completion until a natural spaciousness arises that welcomes the next experience?
Most of us habitually leave out one or more parts of this cycle. Frequently skipping any step in the cycle in a habitual way has a number of consequences such as depletion, irritability, anxiety, and overall malaise. More importantly for our purposes here, it disallows the internal space you need for healing.
2-Engaging in a Supportive Social Network
In much of the world, it can be challenging to access a sense of supportive community. Many people have a circle of friends that they see intermittently rather than a consistent experience of community. This inconsistent sense of community makes it even more important that those in your social circle have the capacity to accept and encourage you as you transform. It’s essential that you are able to try new ways of being and relating and receive support in that process.
On a larger scale, finding groups of others that share your vision for healing goes a long way toward maintaining momentum, focus, and inspiration. Some common examples of these are AA and Al-Anon meetings, certain yoga programs, certain spiritual traditions, or healing retreats with particular themes.
3-Reflecting on Supportive Physical Conditions
Reflecting upon supportive physical conditions might require the most gentleness and compassion. Often evaluation of physical conditions quickly escalates into a series of criticisms or ideals. You might feel bad because you are not “eating right” or criticize others for not caring for the environment. You can start small in this area just by asking yourself what one thing you could change or add to a given physical environment to make it more supportive.
The hope in becoming aware of supportive conditions is not only to help your healing work become more effective, but also offers an understanding that can bring compassion in moments of struggle. Considering the conditions present in a moment of challenge or reactivity can invite a sense of grace and acceptance.
Practice
To begin exploring supportive conditions reflect upon the needs cycle. Set aside time to journal with the following questions or reflect upon them with a study buddy.
AWARENESS: How often are you asking yourself what you need and taking the time to listen with mindfulness? How could you easily incorporate this practice into your life?
ACTION: Having identified what you need can you identify what actions and what overall decisions you can make for consistent self-care?
SATISFACTION: Are you present for the experience of satisfaction when things go well?
COMPLETION: When you complete meeting a need, are you resting into satisfaction and allowing completion until a natural spaciousness arises that welcomes the next experience?