Healing By Helping Others.

In his essay “The Servant as Leader” Robert Greenleaf included a section, called “Healing and Serving.” He writes about a conference attended by twelve ministers and theologians and twelve psychiatrists. These folks who were all involved in the ministry of healing were asked “why are we in this business?” Their unanimous answer was “for our own healing.” This concept of helping others to heal in order to heal ourselves is in essence what the Fifth Tradition is all about.

Tradition Five – Each group has but one purpose: to help others affected by dis-ease to heal.

This is the tradition that reminds us that neglecting those who still suffer is a threat to our own sanity, and that the essence of all healing is love. Love of not only others, but also ourselves. Love is about respect, tolerance, and acceptance of our ourselves and those who may have wronged us. Acceptance of self assumes the responsiblity of caring for self. Carrying the message of healing to others (who are receptive to hearing it) allows us to hear the message ourselves as we see it reflected in others. The book “How Alanon Works” concludes the discussion of the Fifth Tradition with this reminder, “When any one of us is healed, we all heal a little.”

So how do we work on healing ourselves and others?