To have these rights, we must

• develop good listening skills;
• have a tolerance for the ideas of others;
• provide and accept feedback so that we each can better respect each other;
• gain an acceptance of ourselves with an awareness of both our faults and our positive potential;
• demand them when others seek to deprive us of them, or, we teach them to abuse us;
• be honest and open so that others may trust us and so we may be consistent;
• choose to be a Healthy Adult.

Being assertive is about accepting one's place in the larger whole and sharing so that everyone, including oneself benefits in the longer-term. Without assertiveness, relationships are superficial and communication is selfish, deceptive, manipulative, and proud. All of these non-assertive attitudes and behaviors promote distrust, frustration, anxiety, anger, abuse, violence, and killing --- all of which promote illness.

Healers choose to be assertive for several reasons:

• It is low anxiety and health maintaining;
• They accept the importance of themselves in what they do;
• They don't have the time to waste by using deception and manipulation;
• They recognize that they cannot assist someone who doesn't want assistance;
• They value the joy they receive from participation in the healing process;
• It is the best human communication option to develop harmony.

If you haven't taken a course in assertiveness, Now may be a good time.

Centeredness and Focused.

This is a term which we often find as a core concept in meditative practices such as Tai Chi and Yoga. In Sentics, it is best described as a state of No-emotion. Still others may refer to it as a trance state or prayer state. Essentially, it is a state of consciousness in which one quiets the conscious rational mind.

One blanks out, shuts off, confuses, or distracts the constant mental chatter which one may have in order to become aware of and part of a consciousness which some call "Unconscious" and others may refer to as Intuitive. Confusion arises for it is neither of these very different states. Yet again, others refer to it as " Spiritual".

Centeredness is an intensely alert state of mind in which one is strong within oneself --- not responding or reacting to any of the active emotions such as anxiety, anger, happiness, grief .... One is open to receive and ready to interact with the energies and intelligence around oneself.

Delores Krieger uses the following words to describe her experience and understanding of the state:

"Centering refers to a sense of self-relatedness that can be thought of as a place of inner being, a place of quietude within oneself where one can feel truly integrated, unified, and focused. It has been described as the source of our conscious awareness of our involvement in life; however, it is a personal space ... it is structured ... the act of centering does not involve an exertion of effort ... is a conscious direction of attention inwards ... a feeling of confidence ... of creativity ... an insight into oneself ... a very stable position ... aware of energy flowing ... feeling of boundless quietude ... secure in the control of one's energies ... (not) involved with the difficulties of the patient ... the primary concern is the (client) ....

... pervaded with the overwhelming and joyous knowledge that all of existence is a unity and that I was one with it and the same as all else about me."

How easy or difficult it is for you to reach a state of Centering and remain in it will depend upon the qualities of your Basic Personality, the energy block induced character patterns, of which the Oral Character is one, the duration and frequency of one's practicing it, one's cultural perspective, one's motivation, and one's practice environment.

The more materialistic (physical) your identity traits, the more difficulty you will have in relaxing and quieting the conscious mind. That includes such traits as possessiveness, pride, stubborn willpower, Projection, desire for achievement and recognition, lack of self-awareness, non-assertiveness, and, a lack of any of the other characteristics mentioned below. You can do it. Find out what you are working with first. Then choose as to whether you are up to the challenge and ready for the rewards.

Committed, Passionate.

Commitment is a choice to stay with something despite the negatives so that the positives can be appreciated. That demands at least 3 factors. If you are unsure of what the realistic potential of the positives are, they are imaginary. If they are unlikely to ever come, and don't, you will eventually lose your optimism, become negative, and stop --- or, become ineffective. The positives are something you you should get from every participation in what you do. If it is a case of soldiering through for some reward at the end of a long battle, chances are it is not worth the effort.

As a healer, I feel joy many times during my sharing of a session. I feel reverence during every session preparation. It takes my effort and knowledge to ask the questions to get the answers I need. Those answers expand my knowledge and give me the potential to be part of a miracle when shared with the client. If I don't do my part, I don't get the benefit. Some of the benefit is immediate. The other part often comes during the shared session. A further benefit may come much later when I discover or am informed of the progress of the individual since the session.

There are few guarantees.
I know the above potentials are present because of the number of times I have provided sessions and the outcomes. Even in the odd situation in which I am not able to share a prepared session, I know the Guided information is accurate because of the many former times it has proven to be so. I also know that there are certain desires and wants that will not likely be met in the short-term and perhaps even in the longer-term. These include the political freedom to promote myself, the financial freedom never to have concerns about how the rent will be paid, the equality to be accepted for who I am rather than to experience the fears, insecurities, non-assertiveness, and projections of others, which can include my clients.

Realities are not always what they seem to be.
I lived much of my life in Ontario, Canada, often assumed to be a location of political freedom. Yet I know of other healers who had large formal practices with the total support of their clients who were prevented from continuing their healing endeavours legally, and/or pushed out of Canada, often to the USA. I knew these individuals personally.

I am not a benefit to those I help by being used by the conventional medical establishment as a public example of their power to suppress effective forms of healing which they find threatening. Dr. Jerry Green, Dr. Carolyn Dean, Dr. Krop --- are just a few of the victimized. So, I limit my work largely to referrals. Other proficient healers that I know do likewise. The public get what their sanctioned authorities encourage, and, allow them to have.

It takes commitment to provide a valuable service which helps others but which one is forced to risk one's freedom to do so. An avoidance of this reality would not be practical. I enjoy assisting others to improve their health. I have no motivation to fight legal battles instead of encouraging harmony.

It takes commitment to follow Spiritual Guidance and delay my appreciation of the out-of-doors, which I love, because the planning of a session, its delivery, or the programming of this page is deemed more important at this moment. From past Guidance and choices, I have a certainty in the validity and relevancy of that Guidance for it has always proven correct and beneficial when time played out the conclusion. The benefits are always greater than I could earlier imagine. It takes commitment to see it through.

Commitment and Passion are often different aspects of the same thing.
Passion is doing something not just because you like doing it but because it will make a difference in the world in the longer term. Just doing what you like because it provides a personal satisfaction will eventually become dull. There are only so many ways in which you can get satisfaction doing something for yourself. There is a finite limit of how well you can provide that satisfaction before you cross the line into obsession. At that point, It is controlling you.

With passion, there is no limit to the number of ways in which satisfaction will come to you for you are addressing everyone, not just yourself. That "everyone" provides you with a constant challenge of discovering and providing new or better ways of doing what you do. That "everyone" means that you cannot make the outcome a sure thing because the others you chose to work with must also choose to work with you, and, must be capable of sharing in their recovery --- or willing to learn how to. Passion is what can change choice into commitment. It is a guarantee of reward that is as everlasting as your participation.

Concerned for Others.

A healing concern is a doing for others because you want to.
It is not an act of expectation, of role, or for payment.
This should not be mistaken for being sympathetic with another or feeling pity for them. The concern mentioned here is a feeling which is supported by a number of the other traits including centeredness, honesty, sensitivity, spirituality, motivation. There is a large degree of self-awareness, self-acceptance, and variation of personal experience at work here.

If you cannot identify with others and feel compassion for them, as you will have had to feel for yourself humbled by your past, then your concern has little depth. In that way, a deep concern for others requires empathy: our ability to see and feel ourselves in the shoes of the client because we can identify their experience with something similar in our own lives.

If we have been emotionally distant by a trait of projection in the past concerning the experience of others, our awareness is of little benefit. We have sacrificed the opportunity for sharing with others and benefiting and growing from their feedback by assuming that what we think we would have felt in their position is what they have felt. Much of the time, these assumptions are incorrect and our sympathy helpful only in keeping the ill person ill. Such assumptions can even add pain to the wound and encourage its magnification through suppositions which promote the negative or frustrate the positive.

If we have been emotionally deadened by energy blocks or social training in the past concerning the experience of our former failures, disappointments, fears, pride, and successes, our awareness is of little benefit.

Truly honest concern requires a memory of feelings without traumatic compulsion. It requires an alignment of those feelings and circumstances with those of the client. It requires communication with the client to affirm through feedback that what we can best identify with as their possible feelings is indeed where they are at. If we can reach that point of empathic exchange we can offer confidence and optimism. Then, our concern is translated into healing.

Experimentative.

A healer must be willing to acknowledge an infinite variation of factors in the client they are next to interact with. There will be a selection of processes, actions, tests, and movements which will tend to become more used than others. It will become noticed that by providing some context of order to these variable, one's efficiency improves and with that one's effectiveness. Yet unless, the healer is always willing to try something new when difficulties are encountered, or , when insights propose opportunities for improvement, the healer will simply become a technician, a follower of procedures.

I have continued to extend and improve the process of healing which I use by expanding the number of questions I asked of Guidance. This has expanded the potential amount of information which I can share with the client in addition to what proactive measures they can take to prepare themselves so that replacement energy blocks are not formed to familiar stresses in the future. This adding of steps, levels, and specifics has continually increased the personalization, directness, and relevancy of each session. Had I not risked to question further, I would never have known that such information, beneficial to the client, was obtainable.

There is risk in experimentation.
The experimenter fundamentally takes joy in learning and recognizes that there is an inevitable downside in that most often one fails many times before succeeding. Typically, a good experimenter has made the effort in the past, often in fear of the penalties, criticism, or rejection of the social authorities who seem to abhor individuality in favor of orderliness and reward obedience in the limitation of innovation.

Risk can be minimized by one being assertive, honest, reflective, sensitive, and spiritual. Others may not like the options provided to them. An option in a situation deemed important to be resolved is better than a blank stare or a statement of resignation. It is the right of the client to choose or deny the option. It is the responsibility of the healer - experimenter to inform the client of any benefits and disadvantages associated with the option.

The successful experimenter must often create a situation of low risk in which an otherwise risk-assumed activity is engaged in. Once one has seen the benefits in this "personal" environment, one is then more confident in sharing it more publicly. While more fundamental to the pioneer who is defining a new approach to healing, all healers could benefit from this sense of expanding one's boundaries in order to expand one's effectiveness. A failure to attempt experimentation is an acknowledgement that one cannot improve further. Is the current level of development of the healing process being used so proficient that no one goes unserved and unwell? Is anyone so perfect as a healer that they can do no more? Should anyone be so afraid?

I have experimented on myself first in many instances as the necessity, opportunity, and the Spiritual Guidance were present to make the possibility of success highly beneficial. I released my own energy blocks to regain my health and save my life. I developed skills and awareness to provide myself with positive coping skills thereby avoiding the building of new blocks. Awareness of the disastrous influence of energy blocks on my own life and the great pain, loss, and disappointment which they brought to me and those nearest to me, I chose to help others avoid those negatives. I had to find the way first.

When I started, I was informed by the authorities that there was no solution. Experimentation allowed me to find and refine such a solution. The limitless perspective of experimentation allows me to keep my mind ever open to new possibilities and new revelations. It increases my experience of joy.

Feedback, Invites.

Healing is a dynamic of participation and sharing with another person.
Sharing is not endlessly giving what You think the other person needs or wants. That, is Projection. The healer who neither accepts or requests feedback is the healer who is so self-obsessed that the client would benefit from the same routine procedures provided by any one of a number of practitioners. The description of symptoms in words is often so general between the client and the physician that any number of 50 factors may be contributing to the imbalance. Only by requesting and giving feedback, other than by the use of Spiritual Guidance, can one further define the nature of the complaint and the relevant specifics of a possible remedy. Anything else is pure speculation.

Healing should not be a speculative enterprise.
The healer should have a solid perspective of what they can and cannot do, and, as to what they may be able to do under extended circumstances. Anything less is a waste of time and energy for both the healer and the client. Asking for feedback demands assertiveness, listening skills, humility (to say if you don't yet understand), centeredness (to not jump to conclusions with assumptions and expectations), empathic concern (to try and understand in the most direct manner), and, self-confrontation (to know oneself and how not to interfere). Feedback is a sharing of power between the healer and the client. No sharing often means no healing.

Honest and straightforward.

This is easier said than done in a culture in which social values have long been that one should not say anything which might upset another person or hurt their feelings. This is totally non assertive and we see the disasters because of it. Children grow into adults-as-children because no one has ever given them the sad truth about their selfishness, projection, or lack of self-discipline. Great amounts of misunderstanding and needless disharmony also result. This is anti-healing.

The healing answer is to be honest, and tactful.
Tactfulness is telling the truth with consideration for the other person's feelings. One has to be careful here to use empathy and not projection. Also, sometimes, whatever has to be said cannot be said in a kind way. Other times, a person may request that they be told bluntly because they simply don't understand the tactful way you are trying to break the news to them. One also has to be careful here in that persons with some energy blocks will simply not hear what you are saying about a particular issue no matter how often or how you say it, until, they release the blocks associated with clouding their perception.

In the psychic industry, the reader or clairvoyant is bound by a trade rule to only tell the client what is positive that they see. No one wants to be beheaded for being the messenger. They may also provide a caution about the possibility of something happening and what steps their client may take but this is also an art of tact. It all comes down to a question of what can you caution a client about so that they can change a negative into a positive by being proactive. For the psychic, they will receive impressions of what their client is capable of dealing with. If the client will not understand or will not take any action for their own benefit, then, to the humility of the psychic, such information has to be withheld. Sharing it would only result in anxiety within the client and further disadvantage them.

In the negative, the client might hold the revelation of the possible future disaster as the responsibility of the psychic when it actually does take place. This superstitious reasoning victimizes the psychic making them guilty for the actions their client did not take --- so, better to keep quiet. This still leaves the psychic having to cope with the negative information about which they can do nothing constructive. This is why some persons with psychic gifts fear their skills and avoid them. This is also why some who have practiced the profession, leave it. Being honest in a constructive way is an art.

Honesty, for a healer, goes beyond the perspective of a psychic.
Through sensing, testing, and feedback, a healer will become aware of the healthfulness of their client. The healer can guide the client through a number of experiences or skill sets as a prode to building awareness. If the healer is using Spiritual Guidance, these references, actions, or comments will be given to them as optimal health enhancers for their client. The healer cannot force feed their client --- only offer assistance, and provide it when it is wanted and accepted. This also means that the healer must withdraw their services when they are no longer wanted, appreciated, or beneficial. It may even be the case, as I have found, that it is best for the client to go to another health enhancement service before I can assist them.

Being straightforward is a dynamic that has no formality.
There is no best phrase or tactic or sequence to use that I have ever found. The healer cannot take a long and careful communication path to determining the mood and capability of the client and how they May receive information which informs them of possibilities to improve their health by avoiding predictable disasters. There can be a fine line between causing anxiety and causing frustration --- both of which can lead separately to anger and acting out.

The responsibility of the healer is to be involved.
To deny something which could be prevented is an avoidance of healing, so, the healer is called upon to have the courage to share what may be thrown back upon them. If they have attempted to share, they have done their best. Sharing takes 2 or more participants. If the others choose not to share, it does not diminish the positive act of those who do offer.

There is risk in being honest and in sharing.
The other person may misunderstand, or, they may not like what you are offering. The other person may befriend you, avoid you, gossip about you, become more trusting of you, love you, or hate you. In a culture in which most people have energy blocks and most adults are adults-as-children, the negative often rules out. The healer recognizes that they must either be part of the cure or part of the disharmony. Neutrality is cowardice. The negativity begins with not being honest. So, the healer must be courageous and be as honest and straightforward as their client allows and encourages --- perhaps even to an ever stretching of those boundaries towards the constructive.

Tolerance, flexibility, and growth are a part of being honest.
If you are honest with yourself, you have to admit that you are not perfect. If you are not perfect, you do not have all of the answers and those you have may be incorrect. You may not have all of the information that is relevant or available. You may not have understood the question accurately as it was expressed.

Unless you are willing to be humble and seek truth first before acceptance, you are just standing still. Admitting that you have changed your mind, as it applies, invites those around you to acknowledge your growth and to grow themselves by examining the changes you have made. You prove to them that you are human and that as part of the human condition one must continue to grow in order to become and remain healthy. Tissue that ceases to grow, and regenerate, dies.

Humble.

A healer always wants more of what is positive for their client than the client does themselves. This is inherently so because the healer is more aware of the significance of the the symptoms and indicators of healthlessness which the client has than the client can realize. The healer sees the positive potential that the client may never have yet experienced. Yet, the healer can only work with and offer the client improvement. That improvement will come as a combination of what the healer does and what the client does. If the two do not work as a team, progress will be slow, perhaps, even backwards. This recognition that ultimately, control rests in the hands of the client is humbling for the healer.

A healer must recognize their limits.
They are not here to save the world or to save their client. Saviors need victims. Victims remain victims until they gain the freedom that comes from learning the skills and adopting an awareness to become independent and self-directed. A healer cannot be the client; cannot learn skills for their client; cannot take the bitter pill the client must take to recover. A healer can only find the solutions and offer them to their client. If the client is willing, then they can proceed as a team. If the client is not willing, the healer must humbly back away.

There will always be others whom one can help.
A person who is not ready to improve their life today may find the motivation and the courage tomorrow, or next year. It is they who must decide what they want for their life. The life of a healer is to offer and to assist wherever the offer is accepted for as long as they are capable of participating and for as long as their participation is desired.

Inner Strengthened.

Coping with external negative stresses constructively is sometimes only possible if one has a strong inner self. As a healer, you may be exposed to strong negative energies within your client and these can be radiated towards you in the case of someone who Projects their attitudes and perceptions.

If the healer does not maintain their own sense of health, they are diminished in their ability to assist others. This is a matter of degree. One does not have to be in perfect health to assist others but allowing oneself to be grossly weakened is an obvious invitation to disaster. A healer helps others recover from and avoid nervous and physical confusion (breakdown) rather than falling victim to same.

Centering is a long known tool of healers and a focus of many meditative practices. Centering helps to both preserve the strength of the healer and to exclude the negative energies of others. My experience of centering is that it represents for me a union of the Sentic emotional states of "no-emotion" and "reverence". It is a state which must be experienced for descriptions tend to end up using contradictory words. Centering is a form of relaxation in which one expresses one's inner sense of security, acceptance, freedom, intimacy, control, and solitude. This is inner power.

Centering is a skill which most of us in the constructed world of civilization must learn. Surrounded from birth by an environment which stresses more of what we should not do than what we can learn, we quickly develop attitudes of resistance, defensiveness, fear, insecurity, abandonment. Add to this energy blocks which we have inherited together with those we build from our own inabilities to cope and we end up carrying much negative energy which has us concentrate our conscious and unconscious energies on physical and social survival at the expense of inner spiritual strength.

Weak inner selves leave us needy and co-dependent, unable to cope with solitude, self-sufficiency, self-responsibility, and, self-acceptance. To become strong, we must learn the behaviors and practice the attitudes that take us there. That may take years of courses, study, and practice. The duration of our apprenticeship depends upon how far we have to travel and our ability to learn, rather than to Project, and, to be humble rather than stubborn.

Like being in a meditative or self-hypnotic trance, I am keenly aware of my surroundings and myself yet I have a distance of consciousness such that I am not emotionally participating in them. I have no assumptions or expectations, no demands or preconceived agenda. I am self-confident and optimistic. I am expressing no needs, only desires. That excludes much of the anticipation and frustration so common to other forms of human interaction. It allows for a great openness to external energies while remaining in a kind of inner sanctuary.

Identifying too closely with the client can inject the healer with the negative energies of the traumatic experience which has encouraged the ill health of the client. When I am preparing a session, and particularly when I am sharing the prepared results with the client, I have the capacity to "touch" the experience of the client to further define it if this is of benefit to raising the awareness of the client. It is always my choice to do so or not, and, as to how deeply to enter into the experience. If I remain centered, I have little difficulty in coming close to the experience, then, pulling back and leaving it totally. But the danger is a reality and if foolishly dealt with could lead to a block building process in the healer. Awareness and humility are the keys to keeping the balance.

Inner strength develops with self-awareness.
One discovers little without experimentation. One appreciates little without having integrated negative and positive experiences into a reality of wholeness. Inner strength is learning to distinguish the relevant from the irrelevant. That is seldom easy in an environment in which many institutions and almost everyone around us seek to impose their concepts of what is relevant upon us --- often leading to contradictions and conflicts.

Persons with inner strength know where they stand on issues and are not afraid to reconsider those stands when provided with new information or feedback concerning the experiences of others. Inner strength enables the healer to maintain a focus once they have chosen it.

Intuitive.

We observe and sense a thousand percent more than we are conscious of.
Our brain core, also known as our Reptilian Brain, keeps a record of all of this "experience" and indexes it while we sleep. The result is that we feel "impressions" of what a correct answer or productive strategy might be when the situation presents itself. We have a feeling of certainty and of knowing that, for a reason we are not consciously aware of, our impression is correct. If we find that we can follow those strong impressions of ours to often successful conclusions, we come to trust them and act on them with little other consideration. They become a form of secret and personal intelligence.

Intuition may have spiritual sources, or, it may simply be our Reptilian brain giving us its best feedback. Only Spiritual Guidance can confirm or deny whether the source is spiritual from beyond us, or personal from within us. Each form is highly different in its capacity for accuracy and its relevancy. Spiritual Guidance is correct 100% of the time. The best personally sourced intuition is correct 75% of the time. You can build faith on either but it is prudent to exercise caution with the personal. If the receipt of either by one's consciousness is twisted by the influence of one's energy blocks, accuracy can plummet and with such one's confidence and faith can evaporate. Twisted Spiritual Guidance can fall to an inaccuracy rate of 100% and twisted personal source intuition can become 75% inaccurate. It is all a matter of how much interference and how thick the fog is which are intervening.

Frequent practice of almost any process of skill delivery relative to sensory feedback yields an intuitive outcome. This is the basis of a form of animal intelligence which has been categorized as "semiotics". More sophisticated than superstition, which correlates one action with another, semiotics integrates patterns of non-verbal language with actions which are rewarded. Eye blinks, head movements, breathing changes, facial expressiveness, heart rate changes suggest meaning which is either confirmed by reward or discarded.

The healer develops an heightened awareness which enables him or her to be sensitive to the potential for correlation between certain representations of energy and procedures which are effective at modifying those energy patterns for the benefit of one's health. This is more obvious with some forms of healing than others but the element is possible in each.

Motivated.

The lifestyle of a healer is quite unlike that of the regular citizen.
That difference requires a strong commitment to what one is doing in order to avoid the social and physical distractions of the surrounding materialistic society as well as the negative energies which radiate from those who would rather you just be "normal" and "predictable". I have always found that it was necessary, and beneficial, to put my Spiritually Guided direction first before personal desires. Doing so looks after the latter in ways better than expected but in a timeframe relevant to reality. Other healers that I am aware of seem to choose a lifestyle which is similar. It often involves self-sacrifice, patience, and self-discipline.

Why one chooses to be a healer is most important.
Perhaps like myself, other healers find themselves drawn into the experience rather than initially choosing it. I had to develop healing skills in order to heal myself and survive. The more I succeeded, the more I discovered. More challenges presented and I developed more skills and recovered more completely. Reflecting on the difficulties that I had gone through and the great losses I had experienced from the different aspect of my ill health, I wanted to be there for others as no one had been for me. Even more, as much pain and grief as I had experienced, I wanted to do what I could to assist others in avoiding or overcoming their pain and grief ... to share the hope with them that I knew was real. These are personal realities and choices which are made daily.

If it is what God wants me to do, I am more than happy to do my best at it.
It was with God's grace and direction that I recovered from a number of life threatening health problems and it is with the Spiritual Guidance that I get from God that I experience the Joy of learning new revelations daily and sharing in miracles often. It is a gift that I chose, on a daily basis for years, to develop with the assistance of God. There is not an obligation to share such a gift but a love to do so, as expressed above. This is so totally foreign to what I had experienced earlier in life, and to what most people experience in their daily lives that one may have to be a healer to fully appreciate it. There is no compulsion or force or expectation. With that freedom, one must be deeply motivated to make such a daily choice.

Motivations which are not there for healers I know or in myself include expectations or obsessions with making a large income, competing for high level job status, owning a large house, having social prestige, having self-respect by "saving" others, feeling important by helping "underdogs", exercising political power, having a large net worth, consuming great amounts of mass entertainment, or spending considerable amounts of time pleasuring myself with exotic trips, expensive hobbies, fine clothing, fast and sporty cars, stunning companions, or compulsions of choice such as marital affaires, drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. All of these detract from respecting another individual as an equal. No respect equals no sharing. No sharing equals no healing. Healers see themselves as part of a whole rather than as separate from. They trust that others, when healthy, can be the contented and loving persons which God intended them to be. That is a motivation that never reaches burnout.

Optimistic.

OPTIMISM is being positive with an awareness of the present reality in terms of its opportunities, its challenges, its difficulties, and, the knowledge that one has coped before and will cope now. That is, there is a positive attitude which is built on experiences of having faced difficulties and found solutions. If one lives life in the present and without the self-imposed boundaries of status, authority, power, role, institution, cultural and familial expectations --- there will be continued demands for us to interact with others to find and carry out constructive actions which provide successes for others, ourselves, and they and us together. Unfortunately, few individuals in highly organized societies are given this freedom and few choose it. It is just so much easier, and child-like, to do what is expected of one --- and Not grow up to be independent, strong adults.

True Optimism grows from courage, spiritual strength, reverence, centering, self-awareness, feedback, and participation. The true optimist doesn't run from problems, discussions, arguments, conflicts, or disasters. They are focused on resolving whatever the issue or factor is into the most positive outcome that can be found with their participation. They are not interested in allowing others to make their decisions for them. It is their life and they are fully willing to take the responsibility for its gains and losses. For they know that only by making errors and sustaining losses will they grow in the strength of knowledge, awareness, and skills. No one can give that to them. They must earn it, and they accept that reality. A true optimist faces the negatives, accepts them, and works with them to convert them into positives, or, to diminish their negative influence.

For greater detail or further consideration, the Earthtym page on Optimal Attitude expands more on what is here.

Paces oneself.

Extremely important and extremely difficult for some healers is the necessity to maintain a balance within one's own life. Strong motivations conflict with this when there seems to be so much to do and so little time to do it in. The Basic Personality of the healer may also provide conflict here with the individual simply not being inclined to think of themselves in a primary way. A Basic Personality which is high in innovation and positive to change will also find it difficult to maintain a daily routine of meditation, exercise, nutrition, and sleep --- without which, weakness is invited. A strong commitment sometimes also stretch one's limits to a near health breakdown point. Ultimately, the healer who does not stay well is a healer who cannot help others. In some manner, the healer must pace themself or fall victim to physical, emotional, or spiritual burnout.

Spiritual Guidance is the best option for pacing oneself.
I have been very fortunate here and well be it as I have all of the conflicting negatives mentioned above. All I have to do is Ask God and I know what I should be doing, for how long, and when. That sometimes means working much longer than I think I am capable of. It sometimes means taking a half day or day long break to simply get groceries, go to a movie, relax, hike, swim, read, or visit friends. It may mean changing my diet for a day or every day. It may mean increasing my meditation or rest breaks, or, missing them for a day. But not everyone has such a benefit, and, I still have to remember to Ask!

Having a caring companion who is a Healthy Adult is the next best option I could expect. That is someone who is there to provide a helpful reminder from time to time. Not someone who will "mother" you, nor someone who will nag you. Simply, a person who acknowledges your tendency to become distracted by all of those other positive facets which enable you to be a good healer and a willingness to assist you in this way because you have asked them to do so. We are talking about equals again, respect, and partnership.

Reflective.

Reliable feedback from within is important for the healer but can also be difficult for anyone. It demands honesty, humility, and time. A good memory helps, as does experimentation, centering, self-confrontation. Optimism is essential. The only way that we can improve is if we recognize that there is room for improvement. More than others, we should be aware of what we can and what we cannot do as well as what we could likely learn to do. We are intimate with ourselves. We are with ourselves all the time. If we make a mistake, we can ignore it, or note it. What we take note of will decide how good we will become at who we are and what we do.

We need to do reality checks to maintain a balance of our own perceptions.
Asking Spiritual Guidance for feedback is most ideal but not a skill developed by many. Doing spot checks on oneself to determine how one feels at different times of the day, practice, or with different clients is another way of assessing oneself. Asking for feedback from support staff and associates can also be helpful in knowing how others perceive what you are doing and how you do it. It provides an opportunity for you to correct misinterpretations and recognize any areas in which the movements, gestures, or wordings which you use may lead to misinterpretations or irritations.

A challenge is to keep such feedback in perspective.
The fact that one person complains, or applauds something, should be considered with caution. Thank those who offer or respond. Consider their feedback as part of a greater whole. Others may be Projecting their own communication problems onto you. Making the corrections they suggest may actual diminish your effectiveness.

Reflection includes asking for feedback and then considering such feedback in private.
One should be careful as to when to respond to feedback. It is sometimes most helpful if we allow others to have their say without trying to defend ourselves. We invite their continued feedback, and honesty, when we acknowledge them. Their honesty may be an expression of how they feel or how we have influenced them, and, may have nothing to do with the appropriateness of our expression.

A client who is pessimistic will tend to hear everything said as negative. Your selection of wordings will not change their perception. One must try to be sensitive as to when to acknowledge, when to go further and clear up any misinterpretations, when to note that an improvement will be made, when to choose to ignore, when question further, and when to leave for personal review.

Relaxed.

How you appear to others can influence how they react to you, especially if they are Projectors. Appearing relaxed is not always the same as being relaxed. Being concerned is another characteristic of a healer, as is empathy, yet, the facial expression often accompanying these can be misinterpreted as "anxious" by someone who is anxious themselves, predisposed to being panicky, hyperactive in their emotions, or projective in their perception. It is a fine line between what one sees and what is interpreted as the opposite in these cases for many people are poor in their awareness of non-verbal behavior and many are also poor in Asking for feedback.

An unavoidable problem sometimes arises here for the client may be so reactive that even if you preface your comments in any fashion, they will re-interpret them with your facial expression to be the opposite. That is, if you try and sooth them with comments that what you are about to tell them is not urgent and simply some information to assist them in the longer-term, they may immediately turn this into suspecting that you are going to tell them something which is urgent --- because that is how they have been taught to express urgent matters. As the healer may not know the client well enough to anticipate this conversion of communication, there is little that one can do to avoid it short of not communicating at all. For a healer, it is not an option to conceal information which can substantially assist the person over the longer-term.

Do be aware of whether you are relaxed when you are with a client.
If you sense that you are not, before meeting them, do yourself and them a favor by delaying your meeting a few minutes to take time to become relaxed. You should have developed skills by this point which enable you to become centered in moments. Use them. If something is making you anxious as an activity to be done that is pending, do it, or schedule it, and get it out of the way. If you have misgivings about meeting the client, reflect for a few moments to determine why this is so. Resolve to eliminate these misgivings with your motivation, commitment, and optimism --- be compassionate.

Be humble, assertive, and self-confrontational enough to acknowledge reality.
If you decide that you simply cannot work with a person, acknowledge this to yourself and resolve to send them to another healer. No healer can work with everyone. I cannot work with someone who does not want their life to improve. They will work against me rather than with me at every step of the way. This is a waste of my time and energies as well as theirs and it weakens me as a healer which sacrifices what I can offer to others. It is sometimes the best that you can do to pose some questions to the client which encourage them to begin searching within themselves.

You might ask them what they would like to have improved in their life.
You could ask what they expect to derive from your services. You could suggest that they do any of many health improvement activities and return to you again later in the future. Examples of such activities include taking classes in meditation, Tai Chi, going for acupuncture or chiropractic treatments, getting an assessment from a homeopath, and many others. Perhaps by raising their self-awareness, they may come to want something better for themselves and then be ready to begin healing. You cannot force someone to get well.

Relaxation is also part of one's pacing.
A healer may sometimes find it difficult to moderate what they do with others with what they do for themselves. Often, a healer must be a healer for themselves as well as for others and this awareness is imperative for their efficiency. It is a question of quantity or quality. You can either see a lot of people and help them with a low level of effectiveness, or, you can opt to see fewer and have those few progress substantially rather than minimally. In the latter case, you leave yourself with some time in which to look after yourself.

You cannot always count on others for support.
It is best that you be self-sufficient first. From there, any support you receive from others is a bonus, not a necessity. You are then assured of having the ability for centering, the time for concern and honesty, the openness for intuitiveness and sensitivity, a spiritual perspective, and, the inner strength to maintain your healing qualities.

Self-confrontational.

The ultimate challenge of honesty is one of self-confrontation.
It is the opposite of Projection in that it questions the assumptions and expectation we have of ourself. If we have the courage to critically examine ourselves and take responsibility for our part in the development of our lives and the lives around us, we can then grow in awareness, self-acceptance, compassion for others, sensitivity, humility, assertiveness, inner strength, and spiritual perspective. We are just wishful thinking if we expect that those other tools will somehow blossom into our reality because we "deserve" them. They can only develop when we have a keen sense of reality with its many facets.

Considering the views of others about us is part of self-confrontation.
This means being critical of praise and cautious with rejection. If we are honest about ourselves, we should be able to accept and acknowledge graciously positive comments received for a job well done. We should also be able to detect flattery and be assertive enough to invite the other person to encourage our improvement by noting to them where we would like to do better next time ... defining specific points.

Our Ego (Personal value perpective) and SuperEgo Social values perspectives) do not like this humbling and they will work better as part of our identity team to improve on these points behind the scenes if they know that those other parts of our identity are going to reveal their deficiencies publicly until improvement is made. We either manage our identity, or, we leave it fragmented and weak. The opinions of others will have a degree of relevancy. It is our challenge to determine whether that degree is large or small.

If you don't have a strategy, your effort may be wasted.
How will you know whether you are competent, adequate, or terrible? To evaluate, you need a guideline, a yardstick. Consider the trait, factor, or issue you wish to reflect on. Construct an image of what constitutes each level of performance ... in the reality of the world around you. You may set your sights higher, or lower, but first find the norm that most other people expect.

Now, use your memory, or an experience journal or diary, to recall your use of the trait or your level of participation at differing times. Compare that real experience to what you have constructed and projected as possible and preferable. What level of performance are you at? Now, carefully decide if you are currently happy with this level or not. You can always modify your expectations later. If you are satisfied, reward yourself. If not satisfied, use the results as a motivator. Either way, you win.

Sensitive.

How much you are aware of must be kept in balance.
Too much awareness can arise from reactions to words, images, or experiences which have been traumatic in the past. Too little awareness often means that a great amount goes on around us, which others are aware of, which completely passes us by. A balance is what enables us to remain interactive and Healthy. That balance comes from the knowing that there must be a balance and out taking care to try and maintain it.

The Healthy Adult is much more aware of his or her surroundings and interactions than most people. Unencumbered by the fogging of perception given by energy blocks and free of the domination of Projection magnifying and implanting meaning --- one can be aware of much happening on a number of levels of perception all at the same time. Not to temper this is to become confused or disoriented by the shear quantity and intensity of it.

This is why I choose to keep my life simplified.
The more material possessions one has, the more distraction one has to maintain them. The more social contacts one has, the more distraction one has to entertain them and be entertained by them. The greater the selection and quantity of food there is, the greater is the anxiety of choice of what to have and the greater the attraction to having too much, or, of using it as an excuse for more constructive forms of relaxation. The more assets I have, the more I must be concerned about keeping them and justifying them.

It is never a case of all or nothing.
It is a matter of how much helps what I do and when does that amount begin to interfere with my ability to center, my time for feedback, my sense of humility, my spiritual perspective, the quality of my reflection, my necessity for pacing. These characteristics will in turn influence my motivation, intuition, degree of experimentation, commitment, and, sensitivity. Healers often live lives of simplicity, compared to the norm.

Overawareness also derives from Hypersensitivity.
Persons with many energy blocks, or, with a trait of Projection tend to react to everything and everyone in their environment. Inevitably, for them to cope at any level in society, their interaction becomes stunted, by necessity. Personal relationships demand the best of communication and since this is most lacking, such are the first to suffer. North American relationship breakdown statistics confirm this. Avoidance of family and relationships through avoidance of intimacy beyond the physical, the role-centered, and the socially acknowledged --- is common. Managers often know their staff better than their spouses and children, or, think they do, or, hope they do. Unfortunately, avoidance of reality only diminishes one's ability to assess reality and encourages disasters which further accentuate one's overdramatic perceptions. Healers get rid of their energy blocks, and, keep them away.

Insensitivity arises from an over-emphasis on the rational logic of our consciousness. Trained by our cultural myths about science, history, nationalism, human godliness, and materialism --- we come to accept and expect that emotional expression is uncertain, inaccurate, and problem producing. In its place, we substitute the god of linear cause-effect logic which simplifies all of life down to the infantile level of two values: right or wrong; up or down; in or out; hot or cold; on or off.

We forget our mistakes because they are too humbling for our pride, and, we expand our successes by having nothing to compare them with. We are trained and imprinted to be insensitive. We aggravate this further by denying and avoiding the skills we would need to feel fully, communicate honestly, share freely, and reform problems creatively into solutions. Tuning out to everything that is not what we want it to be is a commitment to be a failure and remain a failure. Healers learn to be and experience and work with all that they can possibly manage.

Sensual.

If we express sensuality, we build and sustain our capacity for a sharing love, empathy, compassion, respect for oneself and for others --- all of which contribute to health, and, all of which guard against the development of hypersensitivities and energy blocks.

Pro-survival characteristics of persons with positive sensual experience and positive sensual attitudes compared to those without include these:

1. more curious, less fear-driven;
2. more relaxed, less tense;
3. better able to learn coping skills;
4. increased problem solving ability;
5. more self-confident and pro-active;
6. heavier weight of brain;
7. more advanced neural development;
8. skeletal and body growth are more advanced;
9. more efficient immunological system;
10. faster recovery from traumas, accidents, ...;
11. greater emotional stability;
12. better at learning and retention;
13. sexually more responsive.

Touch is the first sense which we are known to develop.
We are not alone. All species of animal studied so far seem to indicate that they also develop their sense of touch before birth. Touch depends upon the growth and development of the largest organ we have: our skin. It is our skin which "sees" for us before we are born and conveys the reality of our surroundings to our brain. A healer extends this sensuality to hear with their heart, breath energy, feel responsiveness, project optimism, bask in reverence, relax in no-emotive weightlessness, and interact with sharing.

If we are sensually deprived as infants and children we are certain to develop energy blocks which force us to behave and rationalize our actions as if we were motivated to seek forever more, a Need for --- what we had less of. This is particularly true with sex addicts who crave intimacy constantly, Not for the intercourse --- but as a means acceptable to their identity and training to pursue and obtain the benefits of sensual expression. A healer has reduced or eliminated their energy blocks and has balanced their need for sensual expression through many forms of close interaction with themselves and their environment. They appreciate and desire, rather than need, and so are left with the fluidity of choice.

The Quality of Intimacy between one's caregivers (mother, father, brothers, sisters, sitter, maid) and oneself implants the feelings of the family and larger social culture about intimacy and sexuality into our SuperEgo. If those around us model behavior and feelings of disgust or lack of respect for their bodies and for pleasurable contact, we will also develop such feelings --- not from experience or personal trauma --- but as infused collective heredity. This is why healers align their private lives with others who can be sensually expressive and why a healer may opt to be alone and self-sufficient rather than be weakened by the negative energies of a sensually deprived person being close to them.

The presence of positive sensual pleasure limits violence.
This is one of the healthful outcomes of the practices of a healer. What a healer does sensually stimulates and sooths the energy fields, emotions, intellect, and/or spirit of the client. Such sensuality is directly and honestly shared so that their can be no misconnections of misalignments in the outcome. Individualism is acknowledged with the client being encouraged to gain a greater understanding and respect for themselves and others.

In an EMOTIVE (assertive, band organized) society, sensual participation by consensual choice, offer, and opportunity is usually a shared, relaxing, reciprocal appreciation. You cannot feel alone, abandoned, avoided, or a victim --- if one or more other persons are physically being attentive to you and you are assisting them. It is difficult for a person to feel anger and rage, and be violent, when hugged. The relationship between a healer and a client is one of sensuality with no sexual involvement nor connection. It is this "touch" which helps keep the healer strong and helps the patient become stronger. One does not give to the other so much as the one by helping the other also benefits.

I had to learn the art of sensual touching before I made any great progress towards healing myself. Until I could begin healing myself, I had nothing to assist others in their healing. A person who has experienced sensual touch will always be enthusiastic about being involved in a short 20 minute exercise of shared sensual touch. They know it is not the hand holding, grasping, pushing, poking, manipulative touch so common to members of "organized" cultures. Those individuals fear the possibilities of the quality of sensual touch and will often make excuses for not participating in an exercise which could expand their awareness to include something they cannot describe nor provide yet are sure they know enough of.

Healers are unafraid to experience all there is to life and know that sharing is a higher quality experience than giving or taking. The sensual toucher receives physical, emotional, and spiritual joy from their touching of someone else through the responsiveness of the other person. They can feel, with equal joy, the joy they bring to others, and know, the benefit they are providing.

Spiritual.

The spiritual perspective I note here can only be my own.
I see a similar one in, and read descriptions of similar experiences from, other healers. I see and feel myself as a part of a whole, not a part better or less than others or separate from others. Even as I want contentment for myself, I recognize that that degree of contentment will be gained with greater ease and maintained with greater permanence if those around me are also healthy and whole.

I acknowledge the extremes of pain and disappointment and failure which I have experienced and, while I would not like anyone else to have to experience the same, I also acknowledge that each person has choice and can choose an easier or a difficult path. I can encourage, mentor, and assist but their life is their responsibility. Part of growth sometimes demands the experiencing of illness so that we appreciate more from the life we have left.

What God wants for each of us is to be fulfilled and content.
I have learned that from personal experience. Usually, we believe that we can make better decisions than God. Otherwise, we would ask for and follow the direction of God. Or, we believe, as we have been taught, that someone else must take the place of God and direct us. Even when we blow it, we seldom admit to our failures. And our human mentors cannot be expected to take responsibility for their part.

If you are not popular, powerful, pompous, political, pagan, and parasitically co-dependent --- don't blame Them. They will tell you that it is Your fault --- you are not following their advice closely enough. If their guidance was so perfect, how is it that humanity keeps making a bigger mess of the earth and our relationships to one another? If you are not a slave to all of "them", who stands to lose? We do not have so much ill-health around us because society, with its current norms, is healthy.

Choosing "What God wants for us" demands courage, commitment and strength. It took a great amount of emotional pain for my Ego and my SuperEgo to get on the team and work in support of my Personal Spirit's desire to follow spiritual guidance. It took a great amount of physical pain for my Unconscious (Reptilian Structure) to get on the team and support my Spirit.

My physically-centered identity perspectives kept hoping that they would get their way by adding their noise to the spiritual guidance signals coming my way. And every time they had Their way, They lost! Those expressions of my Identity wanted security, acceptance, wealth, satisfaction, ease. Instead, spiritual guidance gave me knowledge, tolerance, compassion, empathy, cures, self-acceptance, accomplishment, a continuing and growing ability to help others, LOTS of change, and LIFE!

ALL of those "benefits" are focal points of my Basic Personality. Spiritual guidance never asks you to deny your Basic Personality - your true individuality. There are as many different basic personalities in the world as their are persons alive. My life is NOT an indication of what a Spiritually Guided life would be for you. Find out what your Basic Personality is and you will find what you and God have to work with to bring more positive energy into the world. If you have nothing to show at the end of each day, week, and month --- which contributes to the will and glory of God, get prepared. You'll be back in another lifetime, with fewer advantages next time, until you get on track. Or, you can opt for eternal contentment in a spiritual realm.