Finding A Balance Between Individual and Collective Healing

As someone who has done a fair share of personal development and healing, I have my own perspective on how to approach that healing work. On the other hand, I also see vividly the wounds and fractures that exist within our communities.

When healing is needed on an individual and collective level, how can we find balance between the two?

Is one kind of healing easier than the other? Do we need to be healed as individuals before we can heal our communities? Or, is community a critical part of healing that needs to come first?

As with most questions, the answer usually comes back to balance and awareness. So let’s dive into it.

My Calling Towards Community

Throughout my academic and professional careers, I continuously found myself drawn back to communities.

In anthropology, I learned how different cultures and communities may function. Most importantly, I came to understand that each community would have different norms, expectations, and habits. I was also taught that unless we do the work to understand the norms, expectations, and habits of that community — to understand the culture that shapes their perspectives and choices — we cannot respectfully and effectively work with that community.

When I transitioned into public health, less priority was placed on trying to understand the specific cultural elements of the communities we work with. However, there was always that element of seeking to understand their values as a way to find alignment with health initiatives. Naturally, healing communities in this field centered around the physical body (sometimes expanding into the environments people live in), despite acknowledging the deep impact psychological and emotional health can have on a person’s health and decisions.

Integrating these knowledge backgrounds into climate adaptation was an important learning experience for me. Now, my focus was primarily on community relationships with the environment, and the ways we could all seek to build resilience by preparing ourselves or making conscious decisions in our community planning. Maybe this would look like building a community garden, promoting emergency kits, or educating communities on how climate change is driving dangerous weather patterns.

I was always called back to community

In each of these fields, I had the option to change my perspective. I could have gone to work in business, or with larger organizations with a much broader focus on these topics.

But I didn’t.

I wanted to work in that small lens, and work directly with the people who were impacted by the systems and patterns that I had been learning about.

In these years working directly with communities, I began to notice a pattern that was surprising to me.

The “community” concept that I had been looking for — a community built on active relationships, care, and commitment to serving that community — was very difficult to find in my work. So many of the people I crossed paths with were overworked and overburdened, to the point that even if they did want to support their community, they often lacked the time, money, or energy to do so.

There was also a block I’d encounter frequently in individuals. Anytime I would speak to a topic that was seen as “divisive” or “political”, conversations would shut down. While I’m sure many would deny it, this wasn’t because our values or beliefs were irreconcilable, but rather because the emotions that those topics tend to bring up are uncomfortable. I encountered so many people who just did not have the tools to process the emotional sides of these topics — their response was to shut those topics down, often aggressively or condescendingly.

This opened my eyes to a new need for community healing.

How do we build and restore community connection that allows for the processing of complex emotional responses in a respectful and caring way?

I was stumped. Surely, the same people who became defensive around [insert politicized topic of choice] would be equally opposed to a “sharing circle” to talk through their emotions.

And I was left with another question.

How can we pursue community healing when so many individuals have not started their healing journey?

Dialing My Focus Back To Me

Alongside doing all the work I’d been doing with communities, I was also going through a massive personal upheaval. I too was burnt out, disconnected from my emotions, and reactive to the divisive topics that felt like they were everywhere.

The truth is that while I was seeing the reactivity and emotional wounding creating blocks in others I spoke to, I could feel that same emotional reactivity rising in myself in response.

The truth is that there was a lot of healing I needed to do on a personal level. I had to confront limiting beliefs about my energy and wants. I needed to sit with myself as I uncovered the lack of self-worth that had driven some of my choices.

In diving into this personal healing work, I realized something else.

I could not work with communities in the way I had always imagined if I did not learn how to sit with and process my emotional responses to difficult topics too. I could not run a business if I constantly fought with myself about my energy levels out of fear that I would burn out and be “done”. I could not expose myself authentically to an online audience (let alone clients) if I continued to let my limiting beliefs drive my choices. I could not build something transformative if I didn’t even know how to root into myself to find stability first.

I had seen a deep need for community healing. That need required a new type of consulting work and collaboration, built on a bedrock of emotional intelligence and relational skills.

To become the person who could help fill that need, I had to take a long, hard look at myself. I had to be honest about the ways I was holding myself back, and the chances I was too scared to take because I feared the growth that would come with it.

The birth of Elements of Self

In a tidal wave of upheaval and transformation, my community focus had very suddenly shifted to an individual focus. That individual was me.

I was the kind of person to read every self-help book I could get my hands on. I also find a lot of comfort in my spirituality, and love expanding my horizons by reading about a wide variety of practices and beliefs. Reading was my safe place in so many ways, so in the midst of this upheaval, that’s exactly what I did.

I learned about Zen Buddhism and the importance of finding my breath and presence in the moment.

I explored various understandings of personal power and the responsibility we each have to claim that power.

I deepened my understanding of how to build healthy habits for long-term well-being.

And routinely, I noticed how the four elements emerged as pieces of each of these lessons.

So, I began to work with these elements myself. I would directly ask the water (air, fire, or earth) what it wanted me to know. I would practice awareness and observe the behaviours of these different elements.

Time and time again, the traditional correspondences were affirmed by the lessons I learned just by watching how the elements themselves acted. Water would flow, but if it moved too quickly and in too great of quantities, it would leave scars on the land. What could this teach me about my emotional overwhelm? If air is trapped in a room, it becomes stagnant. Allowing fresh air to circulate can freshen a space. In what ways was I letting my thoughts become stagnant? Starting a fire means it needs to breathe. How have I suffocated my creative spark in the past? And finally, earth is a master transmuter and decomposer. The decay of organic matter is a necessary part of the circle of life. What did I need to let fall away in my material life, so something new could be born?

Beyond observing the elements and the lessons they were teaching me, I needed to embody them. I needed to sit with my feelings of emotional overwhelm and learn how to let the flood pass. I learned to recognize when my thoughts were stirring up a frenzy in my mind, and how I could find calm. I remembered that to build a lasting creative fire, it needs to be consistently fed and supported. I needed to care for my body and restore it with nutrients so the rest of these lessons could continue to grow.

It was in this deeply personal healing work that I came to gather the lessons and wisdom now shared in my video course, Elements of Self. It transformed my understanding of self-care in my life, and reconnected me with a balance greater than I am.

In this work, I also learned that our journeys are spirals. When we return to a lesson or interest we had in the past, we return with a new perspective. As I dove into creating my video courses focused on this individual level of healing, community has once again emerged as a poignant theme.

Balancing Individual and Community Healing

Over the past year, I dove into my healing journey in a big way. There were days I wished someone on my path understood the entirety of the lessons I was learning. But, most of the time, I walked this path alone.

I continued walking it because I knew that the person I was becoming (who I will always be becoming) is needed in the community space.

And yet, having done the work and walked the path over the past year, I’ve found myself encountering resistance to jumping back into community work. There was always a voice in my head shouting, “Why would anyone listen to you about this work — if they don’t want to do it on their own, how will doing it in community be any easier?”

In truth, despite resonating deeply with the learning and unlearning I had done over the past year, I have still been scared to bring this knowledge into community spaces.

My solution, to keep moving forward on this path, has been to create materials that individuals can access. To walk with my audience members on the path of Elements of Self, uncovering their values, and other healing techniques I’ve used on my journey.

But, I know that is only one half of the work I have been called here to do.

The importance of communities built on relationships, reciprocity, and responsibility has skyrocketed in my lifetime. The healing work needed around topics of division is critical to building these communities. That means we collectively need to relearn how to not just honour our emotional responses rather than invalidate them, but process those emotions so we can make decisions grounded in both empathy and logic.

And there is a balance here.

I did my healing work in isolation. It was deeply vulnerable work, and while I did crave community at times, I understand now it was my path to walk.

Not everyone is meant to walk that healing journey on their own.

As we build communities centered around collective healing, there needs to be space to allow for individual healing to emerge in a way that honours their journey and authenticity. It is through this healing process that these communities can become stronger, and we can move towards collective strength through interdependence.

In truth, I don’t know what this looks like yet.

I am excited to now be working with like-minded community builders on this shared vision, and I am thankful for the ways they have shone a light on any limited beliefs that may still be influencing my perception. I hadn’t realized that there was a part of me that still expected others to walk their healing journeys alone before they could join a community, just because I had to walk the isolated path. This isn’t the case.

In fact, it brings me back to the light at the tunnel that I was always walking towards.

I chose to walk my path in isolation, so I could help others sit through the discomfort, overwhelm, and fears as they walk theirs. I chose to learn how to practice awareness with my pain, so that I wouldn’t flinch as others expressed theirs. I dove into working with my shadow, so I could remind people that it’s not something they need to be afraid of.

I chose my healing journey so I could continue to support community healing.

This time, it’s just in a new way.

The Vibrant Path

When I started my journey with Vibrant Systems, I was still very much influenced by the consultants I’d had as mentors in my career. They are amazing people, capable of working with existing structures in a way that supports empowerment and transformation.

However, diving into my healing journey and stepping into my authenticity has called me to accept the fact that the Vibrant Path is going to look very different than the strategic planning, logic models, and evaluation plans I’ve been exposed to.

My lens is different.

Rather than working with existing structures, I am called to help build something new. I am called to help people find balance between their individual and collective healing. I am called to support the building of new kinds of communities.

The Vibrant Path seeks to help my audience deepen their connection to self, connection to others, and connection to the environment. It is rooted in the fact that connection is our reality. Connection is also our strength.

If you resonate with this message and the work I do, I encourage you to check out my YouTube Channel to see more of my content or sign up for my newsletter.

Let’s make your story a vibrant one!