When the Path Gets Hard: A Metaphor for Healing and the Power of Support

I believe that we are always healing. Our body is always healing and shifting, our hearts heal and forgive and expand to hold more, our minds paving new thought paths. Healing is constant. I’ve heard a lot “healing is hard!”. And yes it can be, but it doesn’t have to be. It takes effort.

I believe that you can heal yourself. Your body is a intricate and amazing thing. It’s healing you all the time. Many things in our modern lives get in the way of it’s efficiency but yet it still plugs on, always working in your benefit.

Healers and guides can offer modalities to help you on your healing path. But it is important to remember that NO ONE can heal you FOR you. You can’t outsource your healing, your inner work, your personal growth or evolution. Your healing is your responsibility. But the best thing is… you are super duper capable!

When you are invited to explore a new aspect of yourself or a new modality. A new path for your own growth, you already did big work. Then comes the realization that the tools are tools you can aquire but the ability to do the work, the labor, is already within your ability.

But if you don't know HOW, that's where people get stuck. The HOW to use the tools, the how do I even FIND the tools? At those moments, it can be helpful for you to reach out to a helpful hand or a new perspective.

When I work with clients, it's not always because they are asking me to heal them. I’d hope not. I would have to explain the concepts above.

It’s when you reach for my help but are eager to explore for yourself, try for yourself, and there is an openness in your energy that allows me to share my guidance. It’s so collaborative when I am met with that open energy, that curiousity. Because I know that there is no search for a bandaid but a path forward.

I am so here for that! To open doors, to introduce new concepts, to help “break your brain”. Updating patterns and energy that don’t fit you anymore. Assisting in disrupting the illusions and celebrating your power with you!

I want to guide you through a little imagery about life, asking for help. Something Spirit has shared with me, a medaphor type of thing.

Imagine

You are planning to go on a hike. A hopefully long one but for an indeterminate amount of time. You don't exactly know the route or the challenges along the path. Or even where it will end up. You know hazily that you’ve walked it before but not like this. Not in this form, with this same landscape. You don't know if you have the tools you need and you aren’t even sure what you are bringing with you but you are SO EXCITED for the opportunity to go on this hike. There's going to be so much to see! So much to experience!

As you stand on the starting line of the hiking trail, you can see support on the sidelines all around you. There are familiar faces, familiar animals, soul family. You even see a large scaled head in the back of the group. Eyes on you, almost like it’s waiting for something.

Everyone is so eager to watch you as you take that first step, that first breath forward. The sideline support cheers you on and starts to walk with you as you go, matching your pace. They share encouragement and you see their support. In these early steps on the trail, they are your biggest companions.

This first part of the trail, you can see your sideline support at all times, the sides of the path are relatively clear, the path is pretty flat and even. There might be some pebbles but your new boots are tough and you can't feel anything uncomfortable under your feet.

Eventually as you get further along, there are now more bushes along the sides of your path. It's a bit harder to see your comanions. You can hear them cheering, sharing words of advice and encouragment as they walk through the brush to the side of the paths. You are breathing steady yet, easily stepping over small sticks and moving around small puddles.

After a while you feel more able. More capable of this path. You've walked for a while now and your boot are worn in, a little scuffed but relaxed around your feet. Your pack is heavier from all of the beautiful stones you've gathered as you've walked. You have flowers sticking out of every pocket, sitting in your hair, tied to your pack. You carry gifts from visitors you've met along the path. Visitors that were also hiking. Their paths merging with yours, staying for as long as their path led them a similar way.

You think about how your supportive companions were walking with you alongside the path before. Where are they? The path you are on is now sheltered by tall and dense trees on both sides. They offer structure to your path. They hang, giving you shade from the sun. When it gets dark, you feel a little frightened. Those times in the dark when it’s time to rest are where the noise of the world around you can get louder and sometimes you skip sleep to walk. The gravel drowning out the noise.

You wonder when it got so loud, when you became scared of the dark? You can’t remember when. The night held you in rest so easily before. Maybe when the trees blocked out the sun a bit more or when the other hikers on your path left. You feel alone a bit more often. You look behind you and remember the easier parts of the path, but the path disappears behind you as you walk so you know that the only way is forward through the trees. There is no going back in time. When you get quiet and calm, you can sometimes still hear your companions through the trees. The same words of encouragement. It’s these words that you try to remember.

Your path moves along and you reach the first incline. A few branches have fallen but you step over them and continue on your way. You don't know anything other than the fact that you have to keep moving forward. Still gathering beautiful things. Mushrooms, flowers, stones. But the path is a bit harder now in places. Your body feels a bit sore and your breathing is louder. You wish you could see companions on this hike or had someone to carry you up the path for a bit. To walk for you.

You have to take every step yourself. Something deep within you knows this as truth. But you do wish there was help. You thought you had support from your companions once but it was so far back the last time you saw them that if it weren’t for the occasional sound of them, you wouldn’t think they continued with you.

Your steps slow when you reach a huge fallen tree. Your feet come to a stop in front of it and you look up. It's huge and it’s blocking your path. You have to do something about this. There doesn't seem to be a way around it and you know that your path moves forward. There's only forward.

Gosh but you’re tired. You haven’t gotten good rest. You wonder how much longer this path will be but you did enjoy it so far. You've seen so many beautiful things. This tree however is a problem. You don’t know where to start, this seems impossible. You fight with the idea of being stuck. Maybe you should just sit here and wait? Someone else might come along to move it.

Hmm. But you don’t want to wait. You want to keep going. Gosh this is frustrating! You kick a rock into the tree and yell at the sky.

Sigh. Looking at the tree, exhausted, you whisper into the woods, "I don't know what to do. Please, I need help."

Suddenly hands come flying out from the bushes, pushing through another human. The person stumbles forward almost falling onto your path and though surprised, you greet them with relief. Maybe they are here to fix it!

The person rights herself and sees you. She introduces herself, tells you that she's a healer, a guide along the path. She said her path went this way and seems to have crossed with yours. That she is here to offer help if you’d like it.

You feel relief! This healer can move the tree! Maybe she’ll hack it up, maybe burn it? But you don't have the tools to work with fire yet and anyway, it scares you. You don't know what to do about removing ginormous trees so you put it in the her hands.

You sit down on your path to take a break and watch what she does.

The healer looks at the tree, closes her eyes, and is silent for a time. She finally opens her eyes and turns to you, "Alright, are you ready?"

Your eyebrows pinch, “Ready for what?"

She looks at you with a soft smile, "My Knowing tells me what we need to do to get this tree moved for you and get you forward on your path again but I can't do it all. I can guide you through it but you have to do the work."

You are hesitant. It feels like you’ve thought of everything but you guess you can try what she says. The tree is really big and you’re tired. It seems impossible. A little overwhelmed you ask, "How? How are we going to move this? I have no tools and I am too tired to climb over it and I can't go around. What if it rolls on me? What if I get hurt? It's impossible."

This healer gazes at you and smiles. She has heard this before. She has helped many hikers. She knows what it's like to think the same thing. She’s also had her obstacles. Many hikers she meets need her help for the first time. There is always some fear in them. Some exhaustion. Sometimes the feel defeated, desperate for her help but so weary.

She looks at them understanding and compassion because she too is on her own path. Her path brings her to these hikers. Her companions show her and tell her where to go and she trusts them. Even when she gets pushed through the bushes.

She's willing to help the hikers if they accept her help but they have to try. She won't push them. She knows what it's like. Her path has been challenging too but she found her companions again long ago, even after feeling they were lost. She knows that this hiker has companions of their own. She wonders if the hiker sees theirs. She does.

She knows what it is to want help and the desire to have it be easy. She knows what it's like to be tired. To believe there's no way forward. She has met hikers that haven't been ready to do the work and she’s helped them as much as she can before moving on. She's met hikers that haven't wanted help when offered, choosing instead to sit stuck. She remembers the first time a healer met her along her path when she needed help. She too didn't quite believe what to think but she tried and she trusted. Now she's able to help others.

The healer looks at you and says, "I can help you by giving you tools, show you how to call on your companions, help you rewrite your thoughts to serve you, ways to reclaim and remember your power. You had the support already to move this but didn’t know how to ask. I’ll show you."

You don't know what this woman is saying. She sounds a little nuts. Maybe she's been in the woods too long. She seems to believe though in what she's saying so you decide to trust her and accept her help.

"Ok, show me then. I'm ready."

Her eyes go bright and her smile goes wide. "Let's get started.”

Sometimes we reach a place on our path where we become convinced that what we need is for someone to remove the obstacle in front of us.

Someone to tell us what to do, to carry us, to make the path easier.

But often the greatest gift a healer, mentor, friend, guide, or teacher can offer isn't rescue. It's helping us remember what we've forgotten.

It’s to show us how to hear our own wisdom! To see our companions and spiritual team and ask for support.

How to trust ourselves and take that next step.

The companions never left the hiker. The path never ended. Even the tree wasn't truly there to stop them. It was simply the place where they were invited to learn something new.

Maybe there is a tree on your path right now or you’re tired. Maybe you don’t feel the support around you and you want to. Maybe you need help moving an obstacle or working out a way for your path to continue through it.

If so, I hope this story reminds you that support doesn't always arrive in the form we expect. Let life surprise you, let yourself be led to new people, tools, lessons.

And remember that the strength you need is already within you, waiting to be remembered.

Keep walking.

Walking Together

One of the reasons I love this work so much is because I KNOW you carry the wisdom, strength, and support that you’re searching for.

Sometimes you’re simply too close to an obstacle to see it.

Whether through Akashic work, mentorship, intuitive guidance, or conversations with the animals that share our lives, my role is much the same as the healer in this story.

To help you remember.

If that kind of support feels aligned for where you are on your path, I’m here to connect. Think of it like an open gate on the side of the trail.