Transform Your Healing Perspective Today

(bright music) Headspace Studio. (soft music) Hi, welcome back to Radio Headspace to Wednesday and to this moment. It's Dora here. So the other day I caught myself responding to something that usually would've sent me into a spiral, but I responded differently. I was able to stay centered and even playful. Shortly after I took a moment to reflect on what had just happened. I responded differently to a situation that would have thrown me over. I still experienced the same thoughts, emotions, and sensations towards the situation, but my response was completely different. This moment had me asking myself, is this what healing is? Am I healed? And is a changed response, and the ability to recognize that change what healing is? If there's anything I've learned over the last decade, it's healing is not a pursuit. It's not something of perfection. It's not a performance or punishment. So often we can strive to heal and try our hardest to be the best that we can be. We want the entire world to know that we're doing the work. And if you're anything like me, sometimes we feel resentful because we're the only ones in our family doing the work, but what I've found similar to what happened in that moment is healing can be found in a changed perspective and having patience with ourselves and being committed to this lifelong practice. And there's an emphasis on lifelong practice. Similar to understanding the mind and meditation, this is a journey that will be on for an entire lifetime. For some that's liberating, and for others, it's kinda scary. When we let go of the idea of what healing should be and commit to the process, we start to realize that each and every day there's something that we can learn about ourselves. And in each and every moment, we're being given an opportunity to choose and respond differently to life. Every Wednesday I teach a community meditation class at Black Being in Inglewood. It's a one hour class dedicated to healing and practicing in community. We meditate, talk, laugh, and sometimes cry. One evening I decided to share on this topic of what's healing with the class. I asked questions like, why do we do it? What's the importance? And what does it mean to heal? The room was filled with such beautiful conversation and curiosity. For some folks in the room, they had never stopped to consider why they were on this path in the first place. For others, they felt as if they had no choice. Some people described healing to be found in community, while others found healing and being in solitude. What stuck with me was what one person had shared where they had likened healing to a scar on their arm, and how in the beginning it was painful and over time, once they tended to the wound, it began to heal. It never quite goes away, and it's a part of you...