The desire or perceived need for “healing” comes up again and again. While working with energy tends to be associated with being an “energy healer,” I usually distance myself from this term because of its often unquestioned assumptions. This isn’t just abstract or semantic. Realities are created by energy coupled to intention — what’s in the box of the quest “to heal”?

Restorative healing or awakening?

Consider these questions. Who precisely is in need of healing? What does this process look like? How do you know when you are healed? What would you do if you were already healed? Is “feeling better” a good indicator of healing? And what does “feeling better” actually mean?

It is time, both in our evolution as individual beings, and in the evolution of our planetary consciousness, to clearly distinguish between “restorative healing” and “awakening.” Both have their place in the spectrum of work that individuals undertake on their journeys, but they are not substitutes for each other – and certainly do not have the same outcome.

Restorative healing – and I would suggest what is usually assumed when people refer to “healing” – is bringing some “thing” back to its original state. This is a restoration of wholeness or complete and unabridged function. Effectively “erasing” or “correcting” the effects of an injury or experience, physically, emotionally, or energetically. Geometrically speaking, we can think of a circle – going around the loop until we return to the starting point.

In contrast, I define awakening as about directing intention to bring some “thing” (perception, energetic construct, emotional pattern ) into a new and consciously elevated place, beyond the state of being at the time of the injury or distortion. In this way, there is NOT a problem to be fixed or an issue to be resolved. Everything is simply an invitation and opportunity to clarify the mind, open the heart, and expand awareness. Not resolution crafted for a “better future.” Not “dealing with” the past.

Transformative potential only exists NOW. Your intention cuts across all Time.

The idea of restorative healing has its roots in healing physical trauma, e.g., a cut finger or broken bone. In these cases, clearly, mending the skin and tissue back to the way it was before a finger unfortunately encountered a sharp knife, or a bone becoming continuous and solid again, are desirable goals in the healing process. I propose, however, that process and metaphor of physical healing has been often unconsciously misappropriated to all aspects of the journey of life or the spiritual path.

Why heal?

So we turn again to the leading question of this article – what is healing? Behind the “what” is more precise and potent question – “why heal?” In the case of restorative healing, the goal is assumed – to fix and return to a previous state that is assumed to be complete.

Awakening rests on a very different assumption: more is possible and desirable than already has been. Not more in an essential sense of Spirit or Beingness, but “more” in the sense of how we express our lives and experience Life. There is a great paradox to embrace: you are both Whole and complete and always evolving and creating.  The living of this paradox is the great Eternal project.

From my eyes, the fundamental aspiration of awakening is to elevate energies and experiences in order to realize our True Nature and embody a more authentic expression of our individual essence. When something is transformed, something new is created and the original is consumed in the process. For example, wood is transformed into light and heat through fire. Here we see the spiral of awakening experience – elevating energy and awareness to a new perspective beyond where we have ever been. It’s a one-way ticket.

Thus, awakening is an intentional pathway to deeper and greater aliveness within and through Life. In this way, awakening is not a modality, philosophy, or set of practices. It is an approach to the deeper meaning and purpose of life’s journey.

Awakening is ultimately guided by a simple, core question. How can every experience – initially possibly judged as helpful or hurtful – become a doorway to elevating your energy and awareness? Elevated energy and awareness create elevated expressions of life. Here lie the footsteps in the center of the spiritual path — the life you are living is not a side show en route to being “healed.” What and where is your awareness right NOW?