The World Needs Us Now More than Ever
Healing Touch 365 - art design by Cat Miller
You (Healing Beyond Borders) “are the evolutionary vanguard for the transformation of human consciousness.”
~ Dr. Kyriacos Markides
Dear all,
I wanted to share with you information about the upcoming 2022 Healing Beyond Borders Virtual Energy Healing Conference. This is our organization's 26th annual conference and the theme this year is Moving into Presence: Embracing the Future. The conference will offer an unprecedented 78.5 Continuing Education (CE) hours! For those who are Certified Healing Touch Practitioners, this exceeds the number of hours needed for recertification.
While I am not serving on the Conference Planning Committee this year, as a member of the Board of Directors I get regular updates on the progress of our stellar program. The number and variety of speakers is quite astounding! I am tremendously grateful to the planning committee of our current president Gina Bondurant; vice president Christine Stewart; board members Victoria Cornelius, Carol Schoenecker, and Christa Voorn; executive director Lisa Anselme; education coordinator Carrie Niewenhous; and nurse planner Barb Schommer. Having served on this committee for several years in the past, I know the amount of effort, thought, and care that goes into planning the conference each year.
This year, our conference is fully virtual. While many of us would love to gather in person to celebrate together, the virtual conference has advantages that a traditional in-person conference just can’t match. Mainly, the multitude of speakers, sessions, and CEs for the price just can’t be replicated at an in-person conference. And, by virtue of technology, we’ve access to the materials until the end of the 2022 calendar year. If you’re anything like me, you simply can’t take enough notes and digest all of the information during the conference period. The ability to go back and review and synthesize the information throughout the rest of the year is a wonderful bonus.
Many of you know the financial impact a successful conference has for our organization. It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the finances of many individuals and organizations hard, particularly non-profit organizations. Participation in our annual conference is an investment not only in our own personal and professional development, but that of those in our community and beyond. How so? Well, I’ll give you some examples.
For over a quarter century, our organization has supported the heart-centered work of our students, practitioners, and instructors by maintaining and sustaining our lineage and the professional history of Healing Touch and our gold-standard portfolio certification. Without our organization, that reputation and wisdom is weakened. Being a member of Healing Beyond Borders supports a collective voice for healing, compassion, and service globally. Through collective action, we’re able to support, endorse, and encourage change in how people support the well-being of others. Our collective voice and engagement supports the vision we all hold dear: to spread healing, light, and love worldwide and create wholeness on Earth. That’s a tall task for anyone to attempt individually. Collectively, we continue to make tremendous strides toward this goal.
For example, last year, Lisa Anselme and I were asked to become inaugural members of an Advisory Council of Healers for the Consciousness and Healing Initiative (CHI) led by Dr. Shamini Jain. Healing Beyond Borders has been a part of CHI since its inception through the collaborative relationship shared with one of our instructors Rauni Prittinen King. Several times since joining this advisory council, other members of the council and CHI have lauded Healing Touch and Healing Beyond Borders as “doing it right.” We continue to stand as an example of how to weave together the art and science of healing with strong ethical standards and heart-centeredness.
During my time in the role of president, I often said, “the world needs us now more than ever.” That continues to be the case. The Attributes of the Heart and our Core Values are desperately needed in everyday life. I am grateful to have tools and skills gained through my Healing Touch education and practice and through engagement with Healing Beyond Borders to help me in actualizing those concepts of unconditional love, compassion, healing presence, innate harmony, and joyful service in my life. But just as importantly, I am grateful for the collective wisdom, strength, and presence of our organization and community that is engaged in this work, too. None of us have gotten to where we are alone. While individualism in the U.S. and other Western countries seems always to get the lion’s share of the attention, it has always been collective action and cooperation that has allowed any of us to thrive, whether that be individually, as a nation, or as a human society. Again, our collective voice and action as a vibrant organization is central to this given that, to quote Dr. Kyriacos Markides, we (HBB) “are the evolutionary vanguard for the transformation of human consciousness.” Being a member of HBB and engaging in conference is one of the ways we support that transformation.
Each of us can share with and promote among our networks the information and excitement about our upcoming conference. It is a vital resource for all of us in so many ways. I encourage you to share with your students, community, colleagues, and friends the information about the conference and what it means to you, our community, and the work we do. And if any of what I’ve written in this long-winded email can be of use in doing that, please feel free to pass it along or share as you see fit. My goal in sending this email is to spread the word about the conference so that as many people as possible can attend, engage, and learn from the experience that is being crafted for us in October.
Thank you for all you do in your daily lives to make the world a more loving, compassionate place for us all. Thank you for all you do to support others on their journeys.
With blessings and gratitude,
Joel
Joel G. Anderson, PhD, CHTP, FGSA
Immediate Past President