Faith, Presence, and Passion: Self-Care for Emerging Earth Healers

As more and more of us leave the mainstream to take up heart-centered, but much less secure efforts to heal our world--what does self-care look like in a time of such great change?

In our now post 2012 world, the vibrations affecting Mother Earth continue to accelerate. An at once decrepit and out-of-control mainstream culture ejects more and more of us who find ourselves called to keep pace with the turning of this great wheel of consciousness.

As a result, many of you reading this are in the process of grounding yourselves on new paths—life and career paths with much more heart, but considerably less security. And most of these paths involve providing some form of healing.

For some of us, it's healing of bodies, emotions, or minds that need to think differently. For others, it's healing of our food chain, damaged environment, or energy appetite. And still others want to supplant soulless forms of commerce with interactions that are local, personal, and humane. But for all of us, it's about starting over (somehow), and bringing forth out of our own deeper selves lives and livelihoods that serve, rather than further erode—wholeness and harmony on this planet.

How do we care for ourselves in this new and different world?

For me, this transformation began in 2008. I walked out of my day job in systems development in order to turn my night job (shamanic healing) into a full-time, life-supporting practice. Had I known just how deep the changes and challenges entailed in this choice were going to go, just how stressful some of the necessary breakthroughs were going to be—I might have demurred. But this is the time we chose to be here. This accelerated surge of rapidly unfolding, roller-coaster growth is a rare opportunity in the cycle of incarnations. Like big-wave surfers, we either paddle faster to catch it, or watch it roll on by without us.

Is it worth it? Absolutely—in my opinion, anyway. So very much of what I had previously seen fall stillborn in this fractured world now springs joyously to life around me. But is it different from what I was raised to expect and learned to cope with? Does it require a whole different sense of balance and safety? Well—I must say yes, also, to both of those.

So what is the new shape of "self-care" for those of us feeling the exhilarating but stressful thrust of this pioneering energy change? Scanning the Internet on "self care for healers"—I see various pages headed "Six Tips," or "Eight Most Important Things to Do." Paragraphs on "Get Enough Rest," "Plan Ahead," "Be Holistic," "Don't Give too Much," and "Unplug and Exercise," scroll beneath my eyes. All sensible enough ideas. But as intelligent as these kinds of guidelines are, they seem to assume the stability and predictability of a world we've left behind.

What's happening now is unpredictable change, coupled with a steady push towards cleansing on pretty deep levels. This means plans go awry, big and small, and things in your inner and outer worlds go offline for overhauls (or forever) when you least expect it. Self-care necessity number one for me in such times is a steady practice of "presence." Presence means calm, non-judgmental awareness of just what is happening to you—be that triumph or tragedy. It grows strong with mindfulness meditation, is becoming a major tool in trauma recovery (that deep cleansing, again), and keeps you identified with your center, not the storm.

Jon Cabot Zinn calls it "full catastrophe living." Pema Chodron talks of "the wisdom of no escape." But if you are going to face into "what's really happening" (no matter what it is), the next thing you really need to get clear about is where you place your faith. Are you a child of the light, or not? Deserving of a rightful place in a loving, caring universe, or not? Micromanaging the divine doesn't work. On the other hand, presence coupled with positive faith becomes a form of surrender that turns chaos into miracles. So, for presence to stay possible, we are forced to strengthen our faith.

But, although I used the word "surrender" just now—I don't mean "give up." For the changes happening right now in the world to turn out well, they need our deepest passions. Not what we were told was politically correct or even possible—but rather what we really truly yearn to bring forth in our lives. So just that—follow your passions—that's the third tool in the new self-care kit. There is magic in the air now that will manifest those deep passions—even though it may require persevering through circuitous, seemingly defeating events (back to presence and faith again). There is a new kind of safety in "going for it" now. At least you are on the wave and doing your best. Not even gods can ask more.