Being a healer is a beautiful thing, but it does leave you susceptible to healers disease.
Healers disease effects almost all healers at some point but is often something that they out-grow.
If you are a natural healer or heal for a living, here is all you need to know about healers disease.
Risk Factors
Healers: those who are compassionate, loving, gentle and sensitive to others feelings and emotions. They have a way of listening, giving you time of day and offering valuable and supportive solutions no matter what the issue. Healers are often the go-to person when your life is a mess or when you are in turmoil and natural healers are often quick to drop what they are doing in order to help.
Signs and Symptoms:
- Putting everyone else’s needs before your own
- A need to heal others in order to feel validated about yourself
- An ability to recognize the need to heal in others but not in self
- Feeling the need to reduce or play down your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and talents in order to make those around you happy or comfortable
- The need to give and give and then give some more – whether it be time, money or your attention
- Risking your own health or desires in order to satisfy someone else
- Feeling under appreciated, taken advantage of or manipulated
- Attracting people in your life who seem to only speak to you when they want something
- Finding yourself constantly apologising, forgiving and tolerating others bad behaviour
Causes:
A healer is always responsible for the manifestation of healers disease however, this is how it usually happens:
- The healer starts to acknowledge that they have some gifts in terms of healing whether its offering good advice, making a herbal remedy or using energy healing.
- The healer then starts to practice on others and is pleased with the results and receives praise for their work.
- The healer than starts to feel validated with their abilities and goes in search of more people to ‘validate’ them.
- The healer feels uplifted through helping others and continues to give and give and give without expecting anything in return.
- The healer continues on this path, failing to create boundaries and then ends up feeling depleted.
- The healer doesn’t know how to stop giving and has created friendships, relationships or even a life around their ability to give and help others.
- The healer tries to establish boundaries but is met with aggression or retaliation from certain people in their lives who depend on them.
- The healer ends up depleted, drained or even depressed.
Side Effects:
- Feeling drained, depleted or low in energy
- Feeling frustrated, annoyed or angry
- Low self-esteem
- Inability to trust in natural healing abilities
- Feeling blocked, stuck or unable to move forward
- Feeling under-appreciated or unloved
- Feeling overly sensitive or highly emotional
- Feeling unsupported or unmotivated
- Attracting energy suckers or energetic vampires
- Feeling burdened or rejecting healing gifts
- Healing for the ‘wrong’ reasons
Cure:
Giving up healing as a form of validation
When you have a natural talent or gift for something, it can be easy to use it as a form of validation. This means that you use it as a way to enhance your self-esteem or self-image in order to feel important or worthy.
There is of course a beauty and need in being a healer, however your healing work should not be a way to validate yourself to others.
This usually manifests as you gravitating towards relationships or friendships where your primary purpose is to ‘save’ them from someone or something.
If you find yourself in this trap, the good news is that you can easily work your way out of it using positive thinking, affirmations and by diverting your attention inwards.
You are enough and you do not need your healing gifts to validate who you are or to make you feel any more worthy. Your healing gifts simply add to the beauty that is already within.
Setting boundaries
As a healer it is extremely important to set boundaries. This means that at times, you are going to have to say no to people and events.
As a healer saying no often comes with a lot of guilt however, it is crucial if you want to be able to maintain and respect your gifts.
Constructing boundaries as a healer are often intuitive and the more you begin to trust your own inner voice and wisdom, the more fluid your boundary setting will become.
However, if you constantly find yourself being used as a doormat or you have a hard time acknowledging your boundaries, take time out to be clear about what you are willing to accept and then stick to your ‘formula’ until you can develop a rhythm.
Self love and honouring your gifts
As a healer, you must understand that your gifts are powerful and treat them with respect.
This also includes learning how to love and acknowledge your gifts by using them on yourself or being grateful for your talents.
While self-healing is almost always harder than healing others, it is definitely something to practice in order to enhance your own gifts.
As a healer, you should also spend time each day clearing out your own baggage and fears in order to not only serve others but also yourself.
Also, at any time as a healer know that it is your right to put your gifts on the shelf and take a rest and relax whenever you need.
Learning how to receive
When it comes to healing there must be an exchange. It doesn’t always have to be financial, but there always needs to be some form of acknowledged energetic exchange, even if it is just pure energy and joy in your heart for doing the work.
Too often however, healers find themselves giving and giving without receiving because there is a stigma around this kind of work that it should be compassionately given without expecting anything in return.
While there is some truth to that, if you heal regularly or have chosen to do it as an occupation, you have to become comfortable in receiving in return in order to bring about the flow of abundance and to stop yourself from feeling drained.
The most important thing with this is to set your intention- why do you want to be a healer? And then work out from there what an appropriate exchange should be.
The good news about healers disease is that it is totally curable with some dutiful action and awareness.
Healers are a gift to this world, and the more we can protect them from falling into this pattern, the better for everyone.
“I will never forsake myself ever again. I will never let myself down, treat myself like a doormat or make myself small so others can feel big. I have learned that this is the biggest gift that I can give, not only myself, but also the planet…”- Anita Moorjani
