The Medicine of Being Seen

 The Medicine of Being Seen

There is a deep, ancient part of us that knows: healing doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in the witnessing. It happens when another human being looks at you ,really looks ,and doesn’t turn away. It happens when someone says with their whole body, “I see you. I hear you. I am here.”

We live in a culture that prizes independence. We are taught that strength means carrying our pain alone, swallowing our grief in silence. But the truth is, the deepest healing always happens inside of relationships , in the spaces where we are allowed to be raw, messy, vulnerable. Where our sorrow is not something to fix or rush through, but something to be with.

When I sit in circle, in ceremony, in prayer, even around a kitchen table with people I trust , I remember the body’s memory of belonging. We are meant to be held. We are meant to grieve together, to dream together, to heal together. No medicine is more powerful than the medicine of being witnessed without judgment.

Healing requires a container: a strong, sacred space where our stories, our tears, and our wildest hopes are safe. Without that container, the soul can easily harden in self-protection. But when we are held with tenderness ,when our pain is honored instead of shamed , something begins to soften, to unwind. The heart remembers it is not alone.

Witnessing is an act of devotion. It is an act of love. To witness someone else’s healing , and to allow ourselves to be witnessed, is to weave a web of connection that is stronger than any one person’s will. It is how we create the conditions for true transformation. It is how we remember who we are.

This is why communities of care are sacred. They are not luxuries. They are necessities. They are the soil from which real healing grows.

If you are in a season of your life where you feel alone in your healing, know this: you are not meant to walk it all by yourself. There are hands waiting to hold you. There are circles you belong to, even if you haven’t found them yet. Keep trusting. Keep seeking. Your healing is holy, and it deserves to be witnessed.

And if you are in a place where you have strength to offer , become the witness for someone else. Hold space without needing to fix. Listen with your heart wide open. You might just find that in offering that gift to others, your own wounds will find a deeper healing too.

We are each other’s medicine.

~Shanti Freedom Das