Healers, Heal Thyselves: Finding Ground in Groundless Times
I started writing this blog post with a litany of all the things happening in the world that scare me and break my heart. Then I stopped. We've all recited that list a thousand times already, as though naming the terrors helps us find the answer to "what should I do." But here's what I'm learning: reciting the horrors isn't the path forward. Stopping the perseverating is.
The news comes fast and furious these days: a relentless stream that leaves even those of us living in peaceful places feeling unmoored. Here in beautiful Portugal, far from the direct chaos, I found myself exclaiming "Oh crap! I almost forgot my appointment!" three times in one week. My spouse noticed something was off. Then I completely miscalculated a time zone difference for the first time in five years.
Even at this distance, my nervous system is dysregulated. And here's the thing: my job is to co-regulate. I'm supposed to provide a peaceful, safer space where people can breathe easier, think easier, and feel easier so they can reclaim their rootedness, their alignment with love, their sense of aliveness.
If you're a care provider, whether you're a spiritual companion, therapist, minister, massage therapist, bartender, or house cleaner, you know exactly what I mean. We show up to help others find their center while our own ground feels like it's shifting beneath our feet.
The Oxygen Mask Principle
You know the airplane safety instruction: put on your own oxygen mask first before helping others. It's not selfish: it's essential. When the world feels like it's tilting off its axis, those of us in caring professions need to double down on our own grounding practices.
How do we continue to hug children, cook good meals, notice the sun and stars and breezes and trees? How do we show up wholeheartedly for our day-to-day tasks when everything feels urgent and uncertain?
The answer isn't to push through or tough it out. The answer is to tend to ourselves with the same compassion we offer others.
What Feeds Your Soul?
Take a moment right now. Ask yourself: What do I do to care for my soul? Your heart? Your wholeness?
Whatever comes to mind: do more of that.
Maybe it's listening to activists who've been in this struggle for decades, who know strategy and can guide you toward effective action. Maybe it's diving deep into wisdom teachings: Pema Chödrön speaking about living with fear, or whatever spiritual resources anchor you.
Maybe it's simpler: turning off the TV and cell phone and sitting under a tree for an afternoon. Diving into the water at your municipal pool. Scheduling an extra spiritual direction appointment. Singing at the top of your lungs. Playing with a cat.
"Punkin", an orange cat crouched in leaves, photo by Hawthorne Post
Permission to Turn Toward Sustenance
We live in a culture that glorifies the helper who gives until empty, but that's not sustainable, and it's not actually helpful. When we're running on fumes, we can't offer the presence others need.
So here's your permission slip: Turn toward whatever sustains you. Not as an indulgence, but as a necessity. Not just for yourself, but for your family, for the people you care for.
And here's something crucial: many people don't have access to the things that help them ground and heal. We can't expect folks to bootstrap their self-care when they're struggling just to survive. If you're one of those people, it's more than okay to ask for help. Reaching out isn't weakness: it's wisdom.
The world needs care providers who are grounded, resourced, and present. It needs
healers who have done their own healing work, who continue to do it daily.
The Radical Act of Self-Care
In times of chaos, caring for ourselves becomes a radical act of resistance. When we stay connected to beauty... to sunlight filtering through leaves, to the taste of a good meal, to the comfort of an embrace... we're maintaining our humanity in the face of forces that would strip it away.
When we tend to our own nervous systems, we create ripples of calm in an anxious world. Every time we choose presence over panic, groundedness over reactivity, we're offering a gift not just to ourselves but to everyone whose life we touch.
So healers, heal thyselves. The world needs you: whole, grounded, and fully alive.
Beloved, you are whole, holy and worthy,
Rev Amy Beltaine
This Justice and Spirituality series is ©2025 Amy Beltaine, all rights reserved. You may freely reprint any blog post, website, or print resource. Simply include the following attribution, and if you print online, make the link at the end live.
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