Excerpt from "The Healing Curve: A Catalyst to Consciousness"

We human beings are bursting with powerful potential. We are filled with an unremitting joy. Unfortunately, we’ve mostly lost touch with this part of ourselves, and achieving joy is now synonymous with the bland and deadening notion of avoiding suffering. If we sit still for too long, we experience the judgments, fears, and worries that I experienced both at the seminar years ago and in my house during those three days of inactivity. The most common solution to deal with these feelings is to go, go, go. Distraction has become a way of life, and over the years we have created grander and grander methods of distraction. Yet, there doesn’t seem to be a correlation between our level of distraction and our ability to maintain a peaceful and joyful existence.

In the name of being happy, we have become a society of doers. We have even turned the state of “being” into a process by endlessly creating and recreating our self-image. Who are you? You can communicate that to everyone through fashion, music, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and probably some others I haven’t heard of yet. Even the quest for relaxation is a form of doing. People play golf or get a massage or watch TV or read a book.

All of this doing leads to very little being. Our minds never receive the training required to bring peace to our lives so that we can simply be. So, when we are not distracted with our daily occupations, our minds are left fumbling, not knowing what to do. Anyway, I know mine is. The point is that if we don’t train ourselves to enjoy stillness, we begin creating situations just to avoid the quiet, to distract ourselves from the quiet. Maybe we’re workaholics or shopaholics or alcoholics or runners or cyclists or drama queens. Have you ever seen these people who always have something dramatic occurring? They are totally focused outward, never finding the time to be still and go within. Maybe we constantly have music playing or the TV on “just for some background noise.” It really doesn’t matter what the distraction is. The point is that precious few of us have frequent moments of total stillness. And this is a shame, because stillness is essential not only to a pleasant existence; it is essential to healing. Healing is always a return to your divine nature, to your true self. Eckhart Tolle tells us: “Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.” How can we reach this powerful stillness within? We must pass through the fear, the worries, and the judgments to arrive there. We must face ourselves in the quiet moments, recognize the signs of imbalance, and start digging.

Sara Chetkin was born in Key West, Fl in 1979. When she was 15 she was diagnosed with severe scoliosis, and spent much of the next 15 years traveling around the world seeking healing and spiritual insight. These travels and explorations are the basis for her first book, The Healing Curve. She graduated from Skidmore College in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology. After graduation she moved to Somerville, MA and worked in various cafes and restaurants, while pursuing an education in herbal medicine as well as in spiritual studies at Delphi University in McCaysville, GA. In 2004 she began a master’s program at the New England School of Acupuncture, and in 2007 earned a Master of Science in Acupuncture and Oriental medicine. She is a Ro-hun therapist and an Ordained Minister with the Church of Wisdom, Delphi University. She lives in New York State with her husband, Brecht, and their son, Adrian.

The Healing Curve: A Catalyst to Consciousness, published by Rainbow Ridge Books, ISBN 978-1-937907-8, is available on Amazon.com, BN.com, and bookstores everywhere.

Sara’s website is http://www.thehealingcurvebook.com