Why Healing Ourselves Is the First Step in Serving Others and the World
In a world crying out for care, connection, and restoration, many of us feel the call to help. This can look different for everyone: either by showing up for our communities, for the earth, or for those we love. But there's something important that often goes overlooked: we cannot show up for others beyond our own capacity. And our capacity is deeply shaped by the state of our own nervous systems, the traumas we carry, and the level of inner safety we’ve cultivated.
“When we have trauma and chronic stress, our bodies live in a state of bracing from remembered and expected threats. Our nervous systems are often more attuned to dangers than to positive events.
— Luis Mojica from Holistic Life Navigation
When we are dysregulated—overwhelmed, hypervigilant, numb, or shut down—we operate from survival. In this state, even our best intentions can come from a place of reactivity rather than grounded presence. We may overextend ourselves, martyr our energy, or take on more than we can hold, thinking it’s service. But without tending to our own inner landscape, we risk contributing to the very cycles of burnout and disconnection we seek to heal.
Healing as an act of service
Healing is not selfish. In fact, it's one of the most profound forms of service we can offer. The more we tend to the trauma stored in our bodies, the more we learn to regulate and attune with our nervous systems, the more resourced we become. And from that resourced place, we can hold space for others without collapsing. We can respond rather than react. We can move from compassion rather than compulsion.
Sometimes we don't have the physical capacity to handle the things we desire. Relationships, money, jobs, even feeling joy — these seemingly beautiful experiences can overwhelm our nervous systems and bodies depending on our trauma histories and present-moment capacity.’’
— Luis Mojica from Holistic Life Navigation
From scarcity to stewardship
This moment in history is asking something of us. The earth is aching. Our communities are fractured. The times are calling for people who are not only awake but also fully anchored in themselves. People who are rooted in their own being enough to meet the world with clarity, presence, agency and care.
Our healing is not separate from collective healing. Every breath we take to ground ourselves, every layer of trauma we shed, every act of self-regulation ripples outward. We become steadier hands in the storm, clearer mirrors for others, and more attuned stewards of life itself.
“In order to heal others, we first need to heal ourselves. And to heal ourselves, we need to know how to deal with ourselves. Go back and take care of yourself. Your body needs you, your perceptions need you, your feeling needs you. The wounded child in you needs you.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
So let’s start where we are: in stead of moving from obligation or guilt, let’s see if we can approach this from the knowing that our well-being is literally woven into the well-being of the whole. As we then, step by step, restore our own capacity, we expand what is possible for ourselves, our families, our communities, and the world we’re part of.
Resources
Here are a two podcast episodes, both featuring somatic therapist Luis Mojica (who we love) from Holistic Life Navigation, that really speak to this theme. The first one starts with a lovely somatic meditation:
Earth Speak Podcast: Somatic Therapist Luis Mojica on Cultivating Capacity + Decolonizing the Self
Holistic Life Navigation Podcast: Navigating Capacity & Desire: How To "Stop Self-Sabotaging"
“In the absence of genuine self-love, we can only create relationships driven by need or obligation, not presence. Only when compassion is directed inward, when we have learned to be compassionate with ourselves, can compassion for others be authentic and sustainable.”
— Gabor Maté
