What is ‘Healing’ in the Conscious Community?
Beyond Pharmaceuticals: Healing and Growth Practices in the Conscious Community.
Have you noticed the word ‘healing’ popping up on your Instagram feed as much as I have? Well, it’s also being used frequently in the conscious community. The word ‘healing’ took me a long time to accept and embrace (and to be honest, I still struggle with it a little bit). It often gives me the impression that we are ‘sick’ since we need to ‘heal.’ While certain individuals may indeed be dealing with health issues and require healing, the word is often used in a broader context on Instagram and in the conscious community.
So, what do we mean when we talk about healing? Healing can encompass physical and mental aspects, often intertwined. It is frequently linked to our past, upbringing, family, or culture. Healing is about reclaiming wholeness, embracing our core (which is love), but which is often obscured or hidden. Healing means being conscious of your conditioning, your shadows, your subconscious, and taking responsibility in alignment with the values and dreams you hold in your life.
What does healing look like in a conscious community?
- Setting Intentions: In the beginning of a gathering, workshop, or dance, we often set an intention. Why are we here today? Why are we spending this time with ourselves and each other? Sometimes, the facilitator sets the intention for us, but often, we must determine it for ourselves. Initially, this was quite challenging for me. I used to think, “I am here because I planned to be here.” If you often act somewhat robotically in your daily life, doing things because you feel like you ‘should,’ you might not be connected to any intention. However, the more aware you become of your thoughts and feelings at this moment in your life, the easier it becomes to tune in with yourself and set an intention. Examples of intentions I’ve had include being present with what is here and now, connecting with my femininity, and working through my anger.
- Healing Practices: People in the community are generally eager to grow, thrive, and heal. In the conscious community, we are mindful of the wounds, scars, and conditioning that we carry with us all the time and how various practices can aid in healing and personal growth. Some of these practices are done individually, while others are group activities. We each choose what works best for us. Common examples include cacao ceremonies, meditation, journaling, breathwork, dance, yoga, and qi gong.
- Medicine Beyond Pharmaceuticals: Before entering this community, I would only use the word ‘medicine’ when referring to pharmaceuticals. What a limited use of the word! At its core, medicine is about healing, and healing comes from many sources other than chemicals (though I do highly appreciate pharmaceuticals too!). Life offers numerous sources of healing, such as caring people, pets, music, dancing, singing, cacao, plants, nature, heat and cold exposure, and time for relaxation.
- Alone Time: During a gathering, it is entirely normal and welcomed to take some time alone for yourself. You can sit alone, meditate, journal, read, or listen to music, whether it’s in a quiet corner of the room, around a bonfire, or wherever you feel comfortable. The need to be alone and recharge is met with understanding, never judgment. Personally, I find this solitary time to be very recharging. When I attend a gathering or party in the ‘normal’ world, I miss this aspect so much that I sometimes retreat to the bathroom for a break (and I’m probably not the only one!).
- Integration and Decompression: After a gathering ends, we like to reflect on our experiences. What were our highest and lowest moments? What moments of bliss, ecstasy, and gratitude did we experience? What moments made us anxious, insecure, or frustrated? We never expect a gathering to be purely ‘nice,’ and this is something I truly value about this community. We all want to learn and grow from our experiences, so we take the time to ‘integrate’ them and come together for a ‘decompression’ session. The gatherings we have are so different from what most people experience in their daily lives that it can sometimes feel like being on another planet. The things that are considered ‘normal’ in a conscious community might not be normal for most people. Therefore, we talk about ‘returning to normal life’ or ‘the old world’ when we leave a gathering. Healing is all about integration.
We Don’t Heal in Isolation, but in Community
Communities and gatherings wield remarkable power, yet the direction of that power depends on how we facilitate our interactions. It can either lead to greater isolation or foster stronger connections. Personally, my experiences within the conscious community have left a profound mark on me, offering healing in ways that isolation at home or even with a therapist couldn’t provide. By incorporating healing into the community, we make it acceptable to acknowledge our pain and bring it out into the open, thereby normalizing the process of sharing our wounds and supporting one another.
Are you curious to learn more about the conscious community? I invite you to also read my articles on the definition, connection, struggles and surprising practices in the conscious community. And my article on why I can’t imagine living permanently in a conscious community.
Disclaimer: I use the language of ‘we’, but obviously, these observations are only based on my own experiences. Ask someone else in the community and they probably will both agree and disagree with some of my observations. Ask me in a year — and my own perspective will probably have changed too!
