The Hero's Journey of Healing

As the sun set on Geyser Peak, just outside of Capitol Reef National Park in Southern Utah, I reflected upon how the healing journey asks everything of us, and makes no promises in return.

In order to truly heal — whether from a physical incapacity, psychological imbalance or deep, ancestral trauma — we must be willing to change everything. We may need to shift our eating habits; we may need to have hard conversations that permanently change the nature of important relationships; we may almost certainly need to engage in a new depth of self-reckoning that exposes aspects of ourselves that we'd justifiably kept hidden until now.

And none of that guarantees we will be cured! It is possible to go through all that transformation, offer your best effort and still die young. Why would that be the case?

In The Spirit of Healing, by Dr. Lewis Mehl-Medrona, he talks about the difference between healing and a cure. Simply put, a cure alleviates symptoms, whereas healing has to do with a return to wholeness.

Is it possible to be healed and then die anyway?

Setting off on the journey, not knowing what you'll find or where you'll end up is truly heroic. It takes enormous faith and courage to commit to a path that makes no promises. None of us are here forever, but if we leave having approached an increased quotient of wholeness, I believe that may be a source of personal peace and inspiration for others.