Pillars of My Philosophy
Science & Spirit
Science is the understanding of how things work, experienced through the physical realm. Spirit is the understanding of how things work, experienced through the esoteric realm. Most healing settings are either too scientific and dismiss the spiritual aspect of it, or too spiritual dismissing the science behind it. By not including the spiritual, an intrinsic part of who we are responsible for giving us a deep sense of connection and the joy of being alive is dismissed. By not including the scientific, the part of our minds that need to understand how things work in the physical realm is also dismissed. If one of them is missing, the healing process will be incomplete. Why are most healing containers either too scientific or too spiritual? These two worldviews are seemingly incompatible, and people tend to belong to one team or the other. As a scientist myself, I was guilty of the same thing. But, are they actually incompatible? Contrary to many people’s belief, I found there is a perspective that can blend both of them really well. Bridging them requires a deeper understanding on where these worldviews meet, how they are related and how they can work together to bring more clarity about the misteries of the universe and the workings of our own healing. Reuniting the worlds of science & spirit has shown me over and over again how much more effective a healing space can be, creating a space of relatability and discovery of those aspects of reality that we are less familiarized with.
It supports the questions around “what is truth?”. If we look at something from just the lens of science we will gather certain facts and data that may feel more practical, rational, logical. If we look at something from the lens of spirit, we will gather other perspectives, perhaps more in the realm of emotions and intuition, feelings over words or numbers. It’s when we can look through both of these lenses at the same time that we expand the space to explore the potential infinite truths that are unique to each person at that time. With this idea in mind we can foster more empathy in the world for the different values and perspectives each person holds, create a safe space where all perspectives will be heard and welcomed, and build dialogue around all the possibilities that lay within the tangibles of science and the intangibles of spirit. In my upcoming book, I have a whole chapter dedicated to showcasing how these two worlds can be bridged using many examples in which I use chemistry to talk about spirits, and spirits to talk about chemistry. Once it’s released, you’ll be able to get it here.
Real Healing Is Real
I like how that sounds. But I like even more the truth that it holds. In order to talk about its truth, we need to talk first about pain and the ways we deal with it. Pain is inevitable. We have experienced it and we will experience it again. We might be experiencing it now, whether that is physical, emotional or both. Pain isn’t bad. It is a mechanism of the body to tell us that something needs our attention or else it will break. If it wouldn’t be painful, we would have less of a drive to do something about it. Generally speaking, we deal with pain by resolving the underlying issue that’s causing it. A simple example: if your hand is on fire, you’d run to put it under water instead of taking a painkiller. However, if you can’t understand why your hand is burning or you don’t know that water can resolve it, the pain might be too intense and overwhelming in order for you to not go toward the next best solution: to not feel it as much, so you’d take the pill. Another way of saying this: when there is no solution, pain is dealt with by numbing it one way or the other. We do this every day. We usually try to resolve things first, and if what we tried doesn’t work, we go for numbing. For example we might go to therapy for depression and if we don’t improve, we take antidepressants, most of the times without asking the depression: who are you? what are you trying to tell me about my life that needs attention? This is because too much pain for too long is something we aren’t equipped to bare in combination with losing hope that we can actually really heal. People take sleeping pills to aid with their insomnia, marijuana or alcohol to cope with their discomfort of how life feels like when sober (a discomfort that shouldn’t be there if we would be healed) or pharmaceuticals for body and psychological pain. None of these numbing mechanisms address the underlying issues, which then persist and force you to continue numbing. I promise you: if we would know that those things can heal and know how to do it, we would not choose numbing, we would choose healing. We choose numbing because ultimately we don’t know or believe that true healing is possible. After witnessing thousands of people heal their insomnia, depression, anxiety or pains in their bodies I can assure you: real healing is real, and it is worth doing whatever it takes to achieve it.
Relatability
Facing your fears and shadows is not exactly easy. Doing so requires a certain level of trust in the process. That trust can’t be forced. Either it is there, or it is not. Why is trust so important in such a process? I define trust as: the belief that everything is going to be OK. “I’m going to face my fears now, but I believe I will be OK when I do” is exactly the mindset I aim for the people I work with to have. Trust ultimately leads to ease in letting go. “I’m letting go of that of which I’m attached to, because I believe I will be OK when I do”. Without trust, the chances of a healing process to be successful are drastically diminished, or the road to get there will be more rocky. Since trust can’t be forced or faked and it has to come from a genuine place, it has been the center of my focus to create spaces that allow for genuine trust to emerge. So how does relatability play a part on this? I’m glad you asked!
Throughout the years I realized that being relatable is one of the two most important keys for people to feel they can trust you (the other one is showcasing diligence). Being relatable means that you get me and I get you. Many spiritual circles have a big issue with this topic. If a scientist or atheist ends up in a circle where people only talk using ungrounded spiritual lingo, they might feel the space is not for them, they won’t trust their facilitator (“this person doesn’t truly get me” or “I can’t relate to this person”) and therefore they’ll have a harder time letting go, which equates to less chances for healing. The same happens if someone who only sees the world through the lens of spirits, angels, demons and energies ends up in a circle that only talks about neuroreceptors and pharmacokinetics. It is my belief that healing is for everyone: the skeptics, the CEOs, the religious, the spiritual, the plumbers, the old and the young. Each one of them must feel their facilitator understands exactly how they see the world and how they feel in order to trust that they landed in the right place. It is my absolute priority to make you feel seen, understood and accepted exactly where you are at so that you can say “I can relate to this person, I trust him!” and have a clearer path to do the healing that we all need.
Inner Gift
You, dear reader, are a gifted human being. Did you know that? No, I promise I’m not using ungrounded spiritual lingo that sounds cool and ultimately means nothing, even though for some of you might feel that way. Some of you might say “Duh, of course I’m gifted”, some of you might say “What do you mean with that?” and some of you might even say “You are wrong, some people are gifted, but I’m not because __________”. The reason why I know you are gifted is because I also know that you are traumatized. Don’t worry, we all are, even if you had the most perfect childhood in the history of humanity. From your parents not meeting all your real needs, to the kids at school who laughed at you, the taxi driver flipping you off in traffic or the last time your heart was broken, every day we become lightly or heavily traumatized. Each trauma is the creator of two things within us: a wound, and a gift. For example, someone who had the trauma of being at school and had no friends, felt lonely and as a coping mechanism dedicated themselves to studying and excelling in all the ways in which the bullies didn’t. Trauma: being bullied. Wound: loneliness. Gift: excellence in studying. This is a very simple hypothetical example. The deeper the trauma, the deeper the wound and the bigger the gift. Our mission as human being is to discover and embody those gifts fully. When we do that, a feeling that our purpose is being accomplished emerges giving us a sense of fulfillment in life. Within that sense of fulfillment, modern psychological diseases like depression and anxiety have much less room to thrive, and the desire for the bad things that happened to us gets dissipated, bringing in its place acceptance of one’s life journey. Our gifts to the world can only be fully given when fully discovered and embodied. That can happen only when we heal the wounds that came with those gifts. This is why nothing is more important than healing ourselves.
This is how a summary of all of that looks like:
Trauma happens. Hello wound, hello gift! Oh gift, I’d love to really get to know and embody you, but I can’t yet because you came together with a wound that is still there. Let me go heal it and will be right back.
Hi wound! I’m depressed and I wish that my trauma wouldn’t have happened. Let’s heal you… OK done! Oh wow, I’m now actually OK with things the way they happened.
Hello again gift, I can fully embody you now. My purpose is being accomplished, my sense of mission in this world completed. Interesting, I now feel fulfilled and for some strange reason my depression and anxiety are gone. Hurray to healing our wounds and embodying our gifts!