The Healing Circle. Dr. Robert MD Rutledge
Setting Your Intention – A Visualization
Start by connecting with the sensations in your body.
Bring your attention to your feet planted firmly on the ground.
Feel the sense of gravity and the weight of your body on the chair –
allow yourself to take up this space just as you are.
You can straighten your spine so there’s a sense of strength and solidity
at the back, and yet feel a soft openness at the front of your chest.
Feel as though the crown of your head is being drawn towards the sky.
And relax.
Take a few moments to focus on your breathing. You can ask yourself
“How do I know I’m breathing?” ..... watch with curiosity.
Watch your abdomen rise and fall. Or feel the sensations of the air going in and out of your mouth/nose and upper airway. Slow down and be curious.
Now begin to generate a feeling of compassion and peace in the middle of your chest. You might think of a loved one or of a little child or of a time when you felt great love and caring for someone special in your life.
Continue to generate the deep feeling of loving-kindness in your heart. You may think of your heart beginning to warm up, like the element on the stove – beginning to radiate an orange or golden energy of deep love that begins to fill up your whole chest.
Take a few moments to generate these deep feelings of compassion and caring.
Now imagine that you could direct this loving energy towards yourself.
You could direct it towards some physical ailment, or a part of your body that needs healing. Pause and feel it.
You could direct this loving energy towards an emotional or psychological problem. You could say “May I find healing to this issue.” Pause again.
You could direct this loving energy to a relationship in your life that needs healing.
Extend this sense of peace and love out to a family member or loved one or someone in your life that needs healing – at the level of body, mind or spirit. Pause and wish this for them with all your heart.
Then direct this golden heart energy to everyone else in the world who has been affected by cancer – both those with the diagnosis and their loved ones.
Now, with this limitless source of compassion, set an intention for yourself and release it into the universe.
Chapter 3
What is Healing?
We have what we seek.
It is there all the time, and if we give it time,
it will make itself known to us.
Thomas Merton
Friday evening. Fifty people sitting in a giant circle are listening attentively at the beginning of the weekend retreat. Most have been given a cancer diagnosis; others are their loved ones. They have traveled from near and far to spend this weekend together. Most have left behind busy lives, others long days spent on a couch. Some arrived early, happy to break the routine of retirement; others rushed in at the last moment from work or family responsibilities.
Some have been recently diagnosed, fresh out of surgery, their dressings hidden under brightly coloured blouses and sweaters. Others have traveled many arduous miles along the cancer journey. Some are bald or wear wigs and scarves that attest to ongoing chemotherapy. Others look perfectly well. Women and men, young and old, well-attired and casually dressed, all are waiting, a little nervous but excited to begin.
The people sitting in the circle on Friday evening are looking to us as the “experts”– the ones who will teach them how to heal their lives. In fact, the power lies with them. With lifetimes of experience, everyone in this circle has vast resources of wisdom and the potential to transform within themselves. Through their openness, their resolve to empower themselves, and their courage to walk into the unknown, they can discover their own path. They really are the experts in their own lives.
Tim, a therapist and spiritual teacher, honours the group and begins by explaining the meaning of healing:
The word healing comes from the same root word for ‘wholeness’, ‘health’ and ‘Holiness’. Healing means to move towards wholeness. To heal doesn’t necessarily mean to be cured of cancer – although that is always possible. As you heal your life, your physical health can improve dramatically and you can increase your chances of recovery.
Wholeness has to do with reclaiming all aspects of yourself – your body, mind and spirit - and bringing all these parts back together. When you heal you can connect more deeply with everyday life and something bigger than that - something that we might call spirituality. As you move towards wholeness, you begin to experience the depth of who you really are.
We each have tremendous wisdom for healing and transformation but sometimes we don’t have time to access it because life is so filled with details. We get caught up in stress and distraction and forget about wholeness and our capacity to heal.
This is why a retreat is a precious opportunity for us. It is a time when we can open up a door within ourselves to see what is there, to let in some fresh ideas and new possibilities. We can briefly step out of the rushing stream of our lives to find an island of peace and stillness, a place for calm reflection.
I believe that the moment we come through that door and enter into this circle of chairs—what I call a healing circle—we are entering into a sacred kind of space and time, a time where we can slow down enough to get to know ourselves more deeply, and a space where we can truly connect with others in a way that is real and satisfying. The healing circle is a space, like a gentle container, where we can practice loving ourselves and reclaim our already existing wholeness. The retreat allows us to uncover that treasure which is the healing power within our own human heart.
Jackie has been listening intensely but doesn’t understand the part about “reclaiming her already existing wholeness.” She is a 45-year-old mother of three who worked full time as a nurse when she was diagnosed with breast cancer ten months ago. A loving woman who was used to “taking care of everyone else,” she bravely marched on through chemotherapy, wearing the smile of optimism for everyone to see.
Now two months off treatments, the suppressed worry and stress, coupled with her physical exhaustion, have left Jackie raw, irritable, and on the verge of tears. As she looks out at the others in the circle, her stomach aches as she thinks about the possibility of recurrence. She worries about how her husband and kids would cope without her and feels that she is a terrible burden on her entire family. As fears play in her mind, she struggles to make her distressing thoughts and painful feelings go away.
Tim continues his introduction by asking the group questions that are also on Jackie’s mind: “How can we be whole and yet feel so broken? Where is our wholeness when we are in so much distress? How can we find that deep well of peace when our life appears to be shattered?”
John sits up straighter in his chair when he hears the word “shattered”. In the prime of his life, his leukemia has forced him to walk away from an executive position in a software firm. He is frustrated with how weak he is after months of chemotherapy and feels disoriented by the total loss of his identity as a successful businessman and head of a family. Fair-weather friends have disappeared and family conflicts have created awkward silences and emotional distance. He feels that his whole life has been ripped away from him— he feels ‘shattered’.
Jackie, John, and many others in the circle have come to the weekend because they want to be cured of their cancer and they want to feel happy again. The retreat offers a simple and effective way to work toward these goals, but at times its