From NYC to Japan: How I’m Healing Myself, As A Healer

As a young boy I felt different from people around me. 

There’s a photo of me where I’m just sitting still, observing the scene, while everyone around me is busy doing things. 

I was wondering to myself:

“Where am I? How did I get here?” 

As a kid, I was completely curious about the nature of reality.

I started questioning: 

“Where am I?” 

“What’s really going on?”

During one of my trips to India as an adult, I was given a Sanskrit name, Anand Nirav. 

Anand means joy, and Nirav means quiet or calm, like the stillness you find at the center of a cyclone. 

I’ve always felt this to be a truthful description of how I feel: 

I’m still on the inside, and there’s all this swirling going on around me that I can’t really relate to, but which seems to be the consuming reality for most others. 

It feels as though I’m in neutral gear, when everyone else is in drive. 

For a long time, I didn’t have words to describe why I felt like an outsider. 

I thought maybe there was something in my DNA that made me different – that I was programmed one way, and everyone else was programmed another way.

Today I know that I’ve always been an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person), like many healers. 

Highly Sensitive Person is a term coined by Elaine Aron to describe people with very finely attuned nervous systems. 

HSPs are often more sensitive to environmental stimuli like noise, light, and smells, more perceptive of emotions, more intuitive, and more prone to overwhelm and burnout. 

Most people in caring roles and healing professions, like health coaches, are HSPs…

… and most of the healers who need healing are HSPs. 

I didn’t cross paths with many other HSPs until starting the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and meeting other healers like myself.

Since launching the Heal the Healer movement this year with my book and live event in NYC, I’ve been leaning into prioritizing my own healing, as a healer, more than ever. 

I’ve reached down and thought about my deepest needs and desires… 

I’ve doubled down on self-care… 

… and I’ve actualized a lifelong dream of mine that’s deeply contributed to my healing: Living in Japan.

I’ve been able to pause my role as business leader and community builder to really focus intimately on healing myself. 

As director and primary teacher at IIN for 30 years, then CEO of Knew Health, it was impossible to prioritize my health in the way I needed to. 

But after writing the book and teaching the course, I looked in the mirror and realized I want to walk the talk. So I packed my bags and for the past few months I’ve been mostly living in a very quiet area of downtown Tokyo, literally the peaceful quiet at the center of the cyclone. 

I’ve created the space to truly heal myself, as a healer. I exercise more regularly than I have at any time in my life. I’ve lost weight and feel great. 

When you put yourself first, as a healer, you inspire other healers to do the same.

When healers put their health first, they can help hundreds or thousands more people, more effectively, from their overflow rather than from a deficiency. 

Since moving to Japan, I’ve encountered even more people who share my high sensitivity. 

Being immersed in this culture has been incredibly supportive for me, and really deepened my own healing. 

Here are a few ways Japanese culture has supported my healing, as a healer:

1. Japanese culture is calm and quiet.
   
   Tranquility, harmony, and respect are highly valued.
   
   As a Highly Sensitive Person who spent a lot of time working in New York City, living here has been profoundly healing for my nervous system.
   
2. Japanese food is nutritious and healing.
   
   When Michio Kushi said “Food changes everything,” I was stunned and inspired.
   
   This led me to study under him, audit his consultations, and eventually travel with him across Japan.
   
   Today I feel blessed and grateful to live here.
   
3. Warm community of healthy healers supporting each other. Since being in Japan, I’ve taught a couple of classes. 

It’s a joy to connect with a community of healers who care so much about each other in the world.

Waking up in Japan has been a lifelong dream of mine, and today I’m living it.

It was a big leap, and I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but the effect on my nervous system and energy has been profound. 

It’s clear that this is my home, at least for now. 

There’s so much we can do for ourselves, as healers, regardless of where we live, but there are times when changing your environment truly can change everything. 

Here, there’s a whole different energy and pace that really suits me.

I’m walking my talk as the leader of the Heal the Healer movement, and creating space for even more synchronicity and serendipity in my life. 

Moving to Japan was a major change where I put myself first, which is crucial sometimes, as a healer. 

As challenging as it might feel, putting yourself first is in service to others.

What’s one brave step you’ll take this week, as a healer, to put yourself first and support your own healing?

I would love to hear from you on Instagram or Facebook.
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