For twenty years I suffered with chronic migraines, starting at age 27. About 12 days of each month, I was in agony. There were many times when I considered ending my life and if it weren’t for having a child to take care of, I might have. I’m grateful every day that Reconnective Healing changed my story.
Recently, I heard from a former client who asked me to do some work for a family member who is going through something similar and is at an extreme level of desperation that that kind of pain can drive one to. Her migraines are not letting up at all and so her pain is constant. My awful condition was helped immensely by the distant healing I received, but it doesn’t work the same way for everyone, and I wonder about that.
As a person who spends much time learning to know my true Self, I do realize that I am not defined by my physical body, but when it hurts (and migraines are unbearably painful), it’s difficult to remember that. You just want the pain to stop and you don’t usually want to hear any spiritual explanation, though you’ve likely explored every possible angle for what triggers it.
Here’s what I got from the Records when I asked, “Is there actually a purpose to pain, and how can I help clients be free from it if that’s what they want and are coming to me for?”
Response: It may be difficult to hear that such pain could serve any purpose other than to create misery in a person’s life, but truth be told, it is often the way toward a door that opens into something truly wonderful. It’s getting through it that’s the hard part.
Many are the karmic overlays that have brought someone to such a point that they suffer in this way. Stories lie behind the pain and reveal the many times you were the cause of another’s pain, or where the roles were reversed and you were the victim…this seemingly endless cycle of experiences of inflicting or being inflicted upon. When you suffer pain to this degree you are often on a springboard to knowing your true Self. It’s in those terrible moments, those you call the dark night of the Soul, that the potential for true awakening can occur and you no longer see yourself defined in the way you’ve known yourself to this point. You get your first real glimpse of the powerful Love of your Creator, who has nothing to do with the physical body and the way it suffers. And they all do…your bodies…suffer in one way or another.
But we understand that you are looking for ways to help those clients who are at such a terrible, desperate choice point in their lives, and who come to you sometimes with just a tiny thread left of hope that maybe, maybe this time, it will be different. Maybe this will work. Maybe this will be the miracle I seek. And you, as a facilitator of healing and wellness, bringing your own story of years of suffering, understand what it feels like to be so desperate that you consider putting yourself out of your misery by ending your life. It stirs up the memories of the pain and inspires you to reach out for answers.
The things you have studied which are in the energy healing vein, are sometimes supremely effective and yet at other times seem to have little to no impact. What you cannot know is that even if the primary presenting symptom does not abate to the client’s desire, healing does occur. Sometimes it arrives in splashy, dramatic form, with apparent miracles that relieve the person from their suffering. Other times it makes little inroads toward helping the person get closer to the truth of who they are and what this particular painful lesson is about. You create that ripple effect and yet because all pain and suffering was not relieved, you think somehow you failed.
Yours is not to determine another’s path. Offer up the abilities you have in a prayerful opening of your hands, and let the Holy Spirit determine the outcome. This is all you can do, no matter your desire to fix, heal, cure, alleviate, and miraculously change another’s suffering. Compassion goes a long way toward motivating you to give it your all, but it isn’t your all that does the healing. Remember? This isn’t the first time you’ve heard these words!
As you think of the particular client who came into your life recently, and as you remember the way you formerly suffered and are now free, know that the potential for change is there. Sometimes, you will play a role, and other times you will have nothing to do with it whatsoever. But never lose your desire to be of service and to offer what you can toward that end. Heal others, heal yourself.
I Am that I Am and Source has only One Son.
(From a New York Times slideshow of art created by migraine suffers)
©Maria K. Benning, M.Ed.
(In Austin unless otherwise noted)
July 13-15: San Diego Beginning & Foundation Class
Nov 3-4: Healing Through the Akashic Records w/ Linda Howe!
