And is it possible? That is the big question facing our country.

As individuals, we seek to heal when we are ill. And understandably so. Experiencing illness is typically uncomfortable in both the physical and emotional realms. In the body hidden toxins, food sensitivities and immune challenges, and the resulting inflammation disrupts the body’s channels of distribution and communication.

The consequence is symptoms that disrupt our quality of life. Pain and fatigue are two that come to mind.

The harmony within a community or throughout a country can also be disrupted. We are currently experiencing an unprecedented climax of political and cultural discord. At its root is fear, division, mistrust and hatred, and they are eroding humanity and destroying the fabric of our society.

The notion that we need to heal this country is tossed out like it is something you can click to order. But how?

In each case, there is a disharmony in the system. Communication has been disrupted. The obvious solution is to restore communication. Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy to do that.

When it comes to helping our clients with their health, we simply find the find and handle the disrupters; toxins, food sensitivities, malnutrition, etc…

Disharmony in our society is quite a bit more challenging.

As people battle away on their keyboards, each trying desperately to get their point across, the divide widens. Healing and unity seem unreachable as we search for the glue to piece our culture back together.

My good friend and colleague, Dr. Wayne Leyshon once said to me, “People just want to be gotten”. People are desperately wanting to be heard and understood. They are trying to communicate their message about how they feel, and what their experience is.

The skill that allows for the facilitation of communication, connection and healing is empathy.

I call it a skill because it doesn’t always come easily for many of us.

Empathy requires being able to understand the experience another is having. We must be able to feel what it would be like to be in another’s shoes. This can be challenging, especially if life’s stresses have hardened our willingness to be vulnerable.

When we feel understood and acknowledged, we can begin to trust. This allows us to drop our defense and facilitate the experience of a true human connection.

If we want to experience wellness and healing in our body, we must learn to listen to the signals that it gives us and remove the barriers to its natural healing ability.

We all want to heal, and we all want to heal this country. In either case we must learn to listen. We must listen to our body’s signals and we must listen to and hear each other. And when we begin to understand each other, we will have the opportunity to heal.