Give the gift of healing

In the classic holiday tale, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, we meet Scrooge—a miserly, cold-hearted, joyless man who hates everyone. Sort of the OG Grinch. One Christmas Eve, a ghost takes him on a nightmarish tour of his past, present, and presumable future. It’s a painful journey, but Scrooge awakens a wholly changed man. This transformation is what the gift of healing is all about—a gift we can give ourselves and others all year long.

Hurting for healing

On the surface, Scrooge seems okay with his lonely life, filled with the not-so-guilty pleasures of counting his money and causing pain to others.

Yet, as the story unfolds, we realize he’s one of those hurt people who hurt people. He’s walking around with emotional wounds that need healing, just like many of us are.

This nightmarish experience seems like cruel and unusual punishment, but sometimes life uses pain to wake us up.

While unhealed emotions may feel like distant ghosts of the past, their energy remains active within our present experience. Like lava bubbling within a seemingly dormant volcano, this emotional pain can unexpectedly erupt at any time.

This energy may be buried within our subconscious but it isn’t dormant. It leeches our joy and wellbeing by causing chronic ailments, like depression, insomnia, headaches, and physical pain.

Turning pain inward

Of course, not everyone who is wounded channels that pain towards hurting others. Some of us turn that pain inward, with self-harming thoughts and actions.

Yet our brains are built for survival, so self-harm is a symptom of faulty wiring in our neural networks. It happens as a conditioned response to trauma — enabling the brain to push aside pain so we can get on with our lives. But it backfires, causing additional pain instead.

We may think it doesn’t matter because we’re ‘only’ hurting ourselves. But these subconscious scars often block our wellbeing and path to authentic success. Plus, we’re all connected, so when we hurt ourselves, we hurt the collective. That includes our family and friends, too.

Fortunately, we don’t need to wait for the ghosts of the past, present, and future to force a reckoning. We have the power within to give ourselves the gift of healing.

Rewiring with intention

It’s interesting that Scrooge receives the gift of healing through a series of nightmares.

Was Dickens aware that when we sleep, our brains go through a cleansing process—flushing out toxins from the day and memories from the past? Or that the part of the brain responsible for processing emotions and memories, the amygdala, becomes increasingly active during sleep?

Maybe so. Or maybe his witnessing of the human experience is what made him such a gifted and popular storyteller.

Today, psychologists often turn to the dream world to help their patients. Nightmares are a common symptom for people suffering with PTSD and other disorders. Obviously, something powerful happens in the brain when we’re asleep.

In a process called image rehearsal therapy, or IRT, the patient writes down the details of their nightmare then rewrites it as a story or script that resolves the crisis. For example, changing from being the victim of the situation to being the hero who survives and thrives. The patient then reads the new story before bedtime to help prevent the nightmare from recurring.

This technique demonstrates how the power of intention helps rewire those faulty neural networks—especially when combined with the theta state of sleep and dreaming.

Ghostbusting our blocks

We can apply a similar technique to our own path of healing by setting intentions for our own dreams. This can be especially helpful if we have trouble remember our dreams — or aren’t sure what they mean.

Before going to sleep, take a moment to ‘program’ the brain’s dream time by asking for clarity on something. For those who pray at night, maybe add a prayer asking for insight into a situation, past or present.

Once we wake up, dreams often disappear fast. Before doing anything else, it’s helpful to jot down the details—even just snippets, like the name of a person, a color, a location, etc. Then spend some time reflecting on the dream in a journal to foster emotional connections and gain insights. (I’ve offered a list of writing prompts below.)

Over time, this practice can help us ‘bust’ the ghosts from our past or present. In other words, help us process and heal our wounds—and like Scrooge, release the blocks to true joy and meaning in our lives.

Sharing universal truths

The tale of Scrooge is a classic that stands the test of time because it’s grounded in universal and spiritual truths: All of us carry emotional scars—and all of us possess the power to heal.

Unfortunately, when our lives are jam-packed with responsibilities, appointments, and activities, we often ignore that hot lava bubbling deep inside.

Like mindless scrolling, shopping, munching, or drinking, keeping busy is one of the ‘flight’ responses to fear—distracting ourselves from dealing with difficult emotions. We’d rather just keep them buried inside. But eventually they’ll force our hand, like Scrooge’s dark night of the soul.

Instead of waiting for a crisis, why not make it a priority to explore what’s buried inside? Rather than resisting these emotional wounds, reframe them as buried treasures waiting to be discovered.

Giving the gift of healing

Most New Year’s resolutions focus on stopping the unhealthy behaviors of our ‘flight response’ that prevent us from being present to our lives. That’s one of the reasons that nearly 90 percent of us give up by the end of January and return to habitual behaviors. We’re not addressing the emotional stuff that’s driving them.

This year, why not resolve to go deeper than that by exploring the gift of healing? By facing our demons, we no longer need to run, distract, or numb out to escape them. Worse yet, harm ourselves or others with our thoughts or actions.

Instead of the tired old shop ’til we drop to find the right gift, do the opposite. Take time to slow down, dream, and reflect this year and allow the gift of healing to arrive with minimal effort.

Happy holidays everyone!

Interested in working with a life coach? If you resist giving yourself time for reflection, you may be resisting healing that could free you from blocks in your life. Talking to a life coach can help you get to the bottom of why and clear those blocks. To learn more, visit my website at www.manifestwithmargrita.com or email me at [email protected].

Writing prompts for gaining insights from dreams

• Who do I recall seeing or who/what did they remind me of?
• Did I recognize where I was, or did it feel familiar? In what ways?
• What happened and how did I feel or react?
• Do these feelings remind me of people or situations in my conscious life? In what ways?
• What might my inner wisdom be calling on me to see/do/change?