The Healing Path

We are ever-evolving beings, and what is right today may not be right for you tomorrow.  As we travel our healing paths, what feels right will change.  Take time to constantly check in with self to see if the tools you are using and the teachings you follow still serve you.

If you have not yet found tools that raise your vibration and aid in your healing, here are a few ways to discover them:

Tools for the mind:  Find books that make you feel good for having read them.  Perhaps you feel better when you can escape with a fiction book, and before you sleep, you may want to pick up your favorite spiritual teacher’s book.

Tools for the body: Discover this by paying attention to how you feel when you eat certain foods.  Do you feel physically off or does your body feel good?  Are your emotions affected by certain foods? 

Tools for the Spirit:  Meditating, listening to audios and reading books by spiritual teachers first thing in the morning, and last thing before you sleep, helps you set the tone of your day.  If you don’t have someone you follow, explore free videos and resources to find a tool that fits. Look for those teachers that make you feel good, inspire you and provide relief.  When a resource stops being effective, it is time to change to another.The healing path - a sand path with stones stacked at the front.  Next to is a crystal ball, crystals and a stack of books

Part of healing is releasing the judgement and blame about how you got to this place.  This release allows room for healing.  Forgive yourself – you are not the trauma.  We cannot change the past but we can choose how we get through each moment, then move into creating those moments.

Allow yourself the right to heal.  Only you can decide what is right for you and only you can release yourself from past responsibility, and instead, allow yourself the gift of healing.  You do not have to have earned the right to heal, or have made up for past actions to have a wonderful and happy tomorrow. 

Just your presence on this planet means that you are deserving of healing, well-being and happiness.   We don’t need to allow past trauma to control our future actions.  Healing is a process, one step at a time.  We have good days that feel easy, and some days that feel hard.  On the good days, celebrate yourself, and on those days that don’t feel good, have a toolbox of resources you can turn to.  Using the tools will give you relief in the moment and allow you to feel what you need to.  As you move along this path, you will notice more days where you feel good, than those that do not.

Breathing is a great free tool you always have on hand.  Practice deep breathing to recenter your being, clear your mind, and if you have the opportunity, move into a meditative state of mind.

Today, choose one thing to add to your healing toolbox that makes you feel good most often. Share and let me know what you have chosen.

Many Blessings,
Santa

RUNNING THROUGH DARKNESS
MEMOIR OF A SPIRITUAL WARRIOR

BY SANTA MOLINA-MARSHALL ‧ RELEASE DATE: MAY 3, 2022

This debut memoir chronicles a woman’s spiritual exploration and growth as she overcame a disturbing childhood and helped others heal.

Brought to America from the Dominican Republic as a youngster, Molina-Marshall should have led a happy life. Her father was a diligent worker, and his large family wanted for nothing. But the author recounts that her dad had a drinking problem and was a serial philanderer. Molina-Marshall’s long-suffering mother left him for a woman. Then it was all downhill for the bright, 12-year-old girl, who was shuttled between foster care and relatives. According to the author, she was sexually abused by the husband of one of her siblings. This resulted in Molina-Marshall becoming alienated and moody. By 15, she simply tried to survive. In her favor were grit and a restless intelligence. She quit school, rented a room, and found a factory job. Time went by, and for a while she was happily married. Yet when her husband left her, her life truly began. She turned to religion for answers but decided that blaming God for her woes was a cop-out. 

In this absorbing and moving memoir, Molina-Marshall’s vivid storytelling is fearless. She frankly discusses the truths she discovered and the indignities she suffered. These admissions are disclosed with a touch of resignation and plenty of bite. However painful, everything she experienced was a lesson, and she bravely realized that she was part of the problem: “The fear of being hurt, rejected, or abused often led to me feeling lonely and misunderstood. No one knew the agonizing pain I felt being trapped in my thoughts and anger. I was becoming my biggest threat.” 

The author skillfully recounts her intricate spiritual journey. To deal with her psychic wounds, she searched for an inspirational system. Her open-mindedness led her to the interfaith concept—cherry-picking from various religions and spiritual movements, yoga, and Indigenous beliefs as a way of finding peace. Along with her female partner, she built a therapy practice, making use of every spiritual element that aided her and others. The road was bumpy, and she found that women of color in same-sex relationships were not welcomed everywhere. To do good works—and finally live on her own terms—she effectively overcame bigotry.

An engrossing, cathartic account of empathy and success through determination and confidence.

Pub Date: May 3, 2022   |    ISBN: 978-0-578-38315-6  |   Page Count: 264    | Publisher: From Trauma to Triumph  |   Review Posted Online: June 13, 2022