Being a healer means applying everything at your disposal to good effect for the benefit of others. Each of us has been given a bag of tools and tricks to work with. These are the physical objects at our disposal, and the less tangible but equally important elements of our mental, spiritual, and emotional experience.

Healing, as a raw force, has a personality of sorts. It seems that it goes out of its way to teach you about different facets of itself. No matter what field of healing youre involved in, you will be exposed to procedures and approaches that fall so out of your accustomed box but are incredibly effective that you have no choice but to acknowledge just how little any of us know, and how unlimited is this power.

The greatest indication of this is coming to the discovery that people are capable of defying the odds and healing themselves. The way they do this is to become vehicles for their own healing. And how many people do you know who have "cured" themselves through means that you consider absurd?

The force called healing insists you learn that sometimes, regardless of your best intentions, you get in the way of it doing its work. When that happens, healing has no compunctions about getting you out of the way! In moments where it eases (or shoves) you to the side, it also grandstands a little so you get the point: healing is not of you, but comes through you. At times like these, the name of the game is to give it room.

In those times when it looks like everything you do, every judgment you make, is designed to (once again, inadvertently) take the person in your charge closer to death, the force of healing like a paramedic barging in to the scene of an emergency refuses to be interfered with.

At some times, healing appears to be a superior force of which we are merely pawns. And this force asks, if not demands, that we learn what it takes to give it free passage through us so that it can do its work.

Once we make the choice to apply our lives, talents and skills to the welfare of others, whether we expect it or not, seek it or not or even desire it or not, the force of healing will teach us about it on its own terms. Your job, then, simplified, is to be a channel for that force.

Sages through all time have spoken about the new territory that surrender opens up to them. They claim it is the emptiness through which all knowledge flows. They speak of it as a friend. It is based on cooperation with the forces that are, rather than fighting to mold things into the way they want them to be. Surrender opens up new possibilities.

Some people are actually able to develop the art of surrender on their own. For the rest of us, however, surrender is usually the very, very last thing we do and that only after kicking and screaming like hell!

It happens when all that knowledge of medicines, procedures, therapies and paperwork means absolutely nothing in the face of the moments with which were dealing. Its when we suddenly realize weve exhausted our bag of tricks, and nothing we know is going to help. At a loss as to what to do, knowing theres nothing left in our reserves to draw from; we throw up our hands in exasperation and surrender.

In effect, whatever knowledge or experience or beliefs we have that makes us the healer and the other the one to be healed evaporates. And thats when things get interesting.

What is actually happening? In the void where our brains have become useless, our hearts kick in, just like it does when you have a moment of unplanned connection through compassion. In that space, reserves and resources and support that we never knew we had become evident. Out of that nothing, -- that emptiness -- comes something.

Most of us go through moments like these in relation to some form of Higher Power it is God to whom we surrender. While seemingly putting us in an intractable position, It also shines a light on alternative sources to draw from. What healing is trying to get through to us in moments like these is that the seeming defeat of being at a loss can actually allow a greater force to do its work.

In a sense, surrender says, God does give you more than you can handle. When that happens, your job is to give it back!"

Most recognized healers understand that they are simply a channel through which the greater force of healing energy moves. Though they may master their craft, apply their tools, and sharpen the focus of their intent, ultimately, Healing Is, and it exists separate from the healer. It is not necessarily their conscious choice as to how it expresses itself through them.

The job of healers is to prepare themselves to allow healing to do its work by learning techniques, therapies and procedures through which the power of healing can express itself.