I think of myself as a healer first and foremost, and lots of other things secondarily: mother, acupuncturist, priestess, coach, writer. Yes I’m trained in Chinese Medicine, but that is not what makes me a healer.

Being a healer is a spiritual role that has very little to do with what your actual training is. There are healers who work at all different kinds of jobs, some of them have nothing to do with medicine. Sometimes healers are gifted energy workers, meaning they can shift things just using their hands, but this isn’t always the case.

I once knew a woman who was a brilliant healer, she worked in a candle shop. Her customers would come in just to chat with her, on the outside she just looked like a normal shop keeper. But if you ever stopped in and chatted with her, something would shift, you would leave feeling lighter, better, somehow less burdened.

In this article we will look at what the definition of a healer is, and how to tell if you might be one.

What is a Healer?

A healer is someone who has the gift of seeing the light in everyone, of seeing that divine spark that we all carry. As a healer, it is my job to sit within my own highest self so that you may find your own access to yours. A teacher of mine once described it as ‘the light shining out of my eyes recognizes itself in the light shining out of yours‘.

Healers don’t fix people. I’m not here to cure cancer, or make the lame walk again. While miraculous things can happen when there is healing, they aren’t necessary for true healing to take place. True healing is when you re-connect with the part of yourself that was always whole and perfect.

I believe we all have that side. Some people call it the diving-self, or the soul, or the spirit. This is the part of us that knows we are only here in bodies for a short limited time, that our journey here on earth is so much more important that wether we have a diagnosis or not, or whether our bodies work perfectly or not. It is the part of you that even death cannot dim or diminish.

When that type of healing happens, sometimes illness does resolve. Sometimes its miraculous, and sometimes it’s because we have finally moved through whatever was blocking us from actually taking care of ourselves.  But even if we are still left with our symptoms, even if we can’t defeat the disease, we are left with a sense of perspective, a knowledge of why we are here and what to do about it.

How do you know if you are a healer:

For each person the journey is unique, but here are some common themes I see play out over and over again with people I mentor as healers.

People trust you with their problems:

Are friends always seeking you out when they are going through something? Are you the one who people trust with their secrets? Healers tend to be ones we trust and confide in. Friends know they can come to you and be heard. You also tend not to judge.

You can often see both sides of a conflict

Because you are tuned into the highest potential in people it is hard to see the world in black and white. You can see the hurt and needs operating in a conflict instead of seeing one person as right and one person as wrong. Sometimes this carries over into conflicts that you are involved in. You can see the other person’s view point so strongly that sometimes you forget to stick up for yourself.

You have a tendency to get involved with people who need to be healed.

Before I realized my gift as a healer I was alway involving myself with people who needed to be healed. I could see the light so strongly inside people that I would ignore their very real human problems. It made me feel good that I could understand and give compassion to the people in my life who needed it, the only problem is that I did it at the expense of my own boundaries and needs. Part of realizing that being a healer was my job, was learning that I couldn’t practice it in my private life anymore. I needed to choose relationships that supported and fed me. I needed to choose people who were my equal, not in need of my healing.

You can feel what other people are feeling:

This is called being an empath. Not all empaths are healers, but I do find that most healers are empaths. Its a wonderful skill for working as a healer because it makes it easy to relate to people, it makes it easy for people to trust you. But it is also exhausting. Because I’m an empath, it can be exhausting for me to be around people who aren’t in touch with their feeling, or aren’t good at expressing them. Like I mentioned above, admitting that I was going to be a healer for my job meant I had to really clean up my personal relationships.

Do you suspect you might be a healer? Have you been drawn to learning about the healing arts but aren’t sure which direction to pursue? Remember: true healing lies in the ability to connect with your own highest self and hold that space for others, everything else comes secondary. Leave a comment below about your own experience with healing or knowing you are a healer.

If you are interested in exploring this more, I offer mentorship for healers.
photo credit: AlicePopkorn via photopin cc