You can't turn on a TV or pick up a newspaper without seeing a grim headline about our economy. Unemployment in Oregon is one of the highest in the nation. More job cuts are on the horizon. The banks are barely lending to anyone, and people are losing their homes to foreclosure. Reading these stories, it's pretty easy to come to the conclusion that everything is going to hell in a hand basket. But is it?

As an energy healer, I tell clients after a session that they may experience what we call a "healing crisis." When you get the energy moving in the body, and you clear stagnant, negative energy, you can expect that the body will exhibit the effects of this. When negative energy comes out, you might feel physical symptoms a few days later, such as fatigue, or even a brief fever. Or the effect may be emotional:  you feel like crying, or repressed anger comes to the surface, needing to be released. These are all normal and natural healing responses.

The same thing happens in our social systems. If things get too far out of integrity, the system becomes "sick" and needs to heal. Clearly, a lot of things in our economy have not been operating in integrity. From the Enron scandal to the financial crisis, greed, dishonesty, and corruption have been the rule of the day. We have been living in a society where the good of the community is no longer considered. Corporations have the same legal rights as people, with the result that the needs of the people are often trampled by the needs of the corporations. In other words, our economy reached the point where the good of our nation's citizens was barely a consideration at all.

A sick body will work to bring itself back into alignment. In order to do that, the diseased tissue must either die or heal. We can see this happening now. Some corporations have fallen. We are in the process of watching an entire financial system fail. True, medics are trying to save this system, but they are applying band-aids to something that requires a fundamental shift. In order for the financial limb to heal, it must change. It must bring itself back into integrity, and it must support the highest good of all the people of this nation, and not just the powerful few. A healthy economy serves and benefits us all.

Change can be difficult, of course. Some companies will fail. Some companies will change themselves successfully. New companies will come into being. Old systems will fade away, to be replaced by new ones that are better suited to a modern age and a new way of thinking. We are in the midst of this great change, and from this perspective it looks like chaos. We feel out of control. We feel scared.

Know that there is an "other side" of this process. A healed economy, a healed nation, a healed world. We have the capacity to confront our challenges and to solve them. In order to do this, however, we must shed our fear.

The economy, our government, and the way we live day to day is changing because we are shifting our consciousness. We are creating this change that is so necessary to our well being and our future. We know that the body is sick, and we're tired of it. Hallelujah! We're finally tired of it. We want to be part of communities that support its people. We want to find a way to ensure that everyone's basic needs are met. We're tired of wars without end. We're tired of debt. We want to know our neighbors again.

So we are healing our economy, in spite of what the headlines would have you think. This is the healing crisis, and for a lot of people, it doesn't feel good. But it's making people think and reconsider what their priorities are. Some people are not going to find the same job that they used to have, and they'll have to be open to what their new job might look like. Where are the new opportunities? Perhaps we have to create those opportunities for ourselves instead of relying on a large company to do it for us. Perhaps this healing is really about us taking our own power, instead of giving it away to government, banks, and corporations.

How do you take back your power and ride this wave of change? How do you overcome crippling fear? Remember who you are. If you believe that any circumstance, job, government entity, or person can control your life, you have given your power away. Your power comes from the source of all there is, and nothing can ever take it away—only you have the power to give it away.

This does not mean that you control all of the events in your life. No one does. But find your trust. Know that the Universe—God—is rooting for you to succeed. Know that you are supported. Things may happen to you that knock the wind out of you, but there will be a gift in it. Find it if you can. Be open to what "opportunity" looks like. Opportunity knocks on our doors every day. The trick is to recognize it and seize it.

Related articles:

• Redefining employment
• Expand and accept your abundance
• Take back your power
• Fearing the worst

Originally published 6/9/2009