Bestselling Author, Dynamic Workshop Leader, And Intuitive Healing Facilitator
Healing Conversation #193
To deeply heal anything, we have to better understand the symptoms and their root causes. If pain and illness are messages, then we need to hear, heed, and work with them. Denying, burying, or eradicating symptoms and their inherent messages with superficial healing or chemicals are typically only temporary fixes. Just as important as healing work—if not more important—is prevention. We’ve all gone to practitioners of all types and felt great afterward, but without applying new tools and new ways of being, the symptoms invariably return.
Sometimes they reappear very quickly; sometimes it takes years. If you have a back pain, for example, and you do all the things necessary to get you out of pain but don’t address the underlying causes, the pain can return in the same or even a different area. If the latter occurs, your practitioner may give it another name and treat you in the same ways that seemed successful the first time. But if those treatments were successful in the deepest possible way the first time, the odds on it returning—in the same spot or elsewhere—would have been dramatically lessened.
Typically, there are numerous causative layers that need to be uncovered, and ideally, they are worked with one at a time. Each layer has its own story and should be “read” appropriately. Each story has a theme. The most common theme among the empaths and HSPs I’ve worked with is Responsibility. A misguided and overblown (even subconscious) sense of responsibility for others is the root cause when someone absorbs unhealthy energies from other people. This overblown sense of responsibility typically began in your more formative years. Some of you literally heard, “It’s your responsibility to take care of ______ (fill in the blank)”; others assumed the burden of helping others after noticing an ill (or unhappy) parent or sibling.
If as a result of our acute feelings of responsibility we have the innate sense—or receive the verbalized confirmation—that our actions are received positively, we’re more likely to repeat them, and when repeated enough, actions become patterns. As a result of this embedded pattern, as we age we attract others outside the immediate family to whom we feel responsible—friends, romantic partners, work associates, even spouses who know we’ll be there for them. If left unhealed, this overdeveloped sense of responsibility can increase to the point that we feel the weight of social issues or even the world on our shoulders. For any individual who is already highly susceptible to incoming energies, adding unhealthy responsibility is like walking around subconsciously saying, “I’ll take your grief” or “I’ll take your anger.” Because we’ve not known otherwise, we don’t just temporarily feel what’s coming our way, we actually embody these energies. And they will stay within us, driving our choices until they are consciously uncovered and healed. — writes Dave Markowitz.
Valeria interviews Dave. He is a 2x-bestselling author, dynamic workshop leader, and intuitive healing facilitator. He teaches Empaths and Highly Sensitive Persons how to healthily protect themselves, and how to heal absorbed energies that have led to anxiousness, lethargy, heavy-heartedness, physical pains and more. Dave's book, 'Self-Care for the Self-Aware' was in Amazon's Top 20 in its category for 41 consecutive months. His latest, 'Empathipedia', expands on that work and emphasizes how energetic and emotional support, and a sense of connection with others are vital to the healing process. His work has been endorsed by Shirley MacLaine, Dannion Brinkley, Lee Harris, Paul Levy and more, and he has shared the lecture bill with Deepak Chopra.
