Future-Proof Your Life with the Healing Arts

Remember Blockbuster Video? Remember Kodak?

What about tram conductors or the man selling peanuts at the football?

For most of us, they have long ago been buried in the haze of time – and it doesn't matter how nostalgic we become, they are unlikely to ever come back.

According to experts, we have had three major industrial revolutions to this point, and a fourth is beckoning.

Each revolution has seen an upheaval in the jobs people do, and as the 21st Century comes alight with technological advancements, we may well find that more jobs than ever become obsolete.

Uber drivers. Truck drivers. Taxi drivers. If you're a driver of any sort, trust me, you're going to be out of work. Just like videos and video stores of the past, driving jobs are going to go – almost certainly within the next twenty years.

Yep, with the arrival of autonomous vehicles, that's one profession I wouldn't be investing in.

Same for translators, pilots, bricklayers and thousands of other occupations.

Already, humans barely fly the larger passenger planes, and while AI translation isn't yet great (unlike the bricklaying machines), it is only a matter of time before they far surpass anything mere humans can do.

And what about when robots are perfected? How many jobs will they replace? Everything from supermarket workers, ushers at the cinema, security teams, hamburger flippers, doctors, physios and farmers.

Heck, maybe they will even give painters and – gulp! – writers the boot. Already, computer programs can pump out basic non-fiction pieces, so why couldn't they also one day become adept at penning blockbuster screenplays and novels?

We might not want any of this to be the case, but I'd say it is pretty much inevitable. The only question is how long it will take for these professions to be replaced (or, at the very least, crowded out).

So if you are thinking about investing in learning, if you are thinking about investing in a career, then it will pay to make it future-proof. Because imagine spending years and years gaining the skills for a new job only to find it becomes obsolete.

That's why when we ponder what we might do in the future, it will pay to think about the things computers and AI can't do.

And that's where – drum roll – we might consider the healing arts.

What Machines Can't Do

There is something about human touch that is warming to the soul – something about it which, when combined with the energy of love, chi and goodwill, is magical.

We've all had – and given – hugs without feeling. And we've all given and received them when they are combined with true warmth and affection. The two are poles apart.

You can't fake such things, and this is something that even the most advanced, future robots will never quite get.

They might provide us with intellectual support. They might say the words we so desperately want to hear. They might even wrap their arms around us in an embrace. But they can never give us a hug suffused with the energy of affection. They can never connect to us in a way that touches our soul.

The Isolation of the Digital World

It's one of the ironies of the modern-day world that despite being able to connect to almost anyone, anywhere, at any time through technology, we are growing more isolated.

We are both more connected and less connected than at any other time in history.

What's more, the average person spends so much time immersed in a digital world, so much time bombarded by electronic sensory stimuli, that they have become alienated not only from their body, but also a deeper awareness of their being.

On top of that, they have also grown so used to the frenetic pace of life that they struggle not to grow bored unless they are continuously stimulated.

Even children are not immune from this. In fact, most of them grow restless and irritable if you take away their TV, tablets, phones, computers and the like. Teenagers, in particular, tend to go bonkers if their electronics are taken off them when they are at home.

Yet to truly feel on a deep level, we need to slow down, if not on an outer level, at least within ourselves. We need to rest in an awareness of our being. This, however, is something that is alien to the majority of people today.

In my Reiki 1 courses, I discuss how certain parts of the body typically store certain kinds of emotions. For instance, the liver and spleen often store anger-related emotions.

Interestingly, our language forefathers understood this and thus created expressions like:

"I was livid" and "I'm going to vent my spleen."

It seems near-mystical today that someone could feel where the body stores emotions. But go back in history, and without all the bombardment of sensory stimuli, we probably had enough calm and quiet to notice such things.

Maybe we had an argument during the day with a friend, sat down in front of the hearth at night, and with nothing better to do but gaze into the fire, we'd grow aware of a discomfort in our liver/spleen.

The fact that this seems so remarkable today tells us just how much we have lost touch with our body, and on a deeper level, ourselves.

We struggle to go beyond the surface noise and connect to the being that resides within us, and on top of that, we find less and less time to connect with others – or the world around us – in a non-digital form.

Meditation, Reiki, Chi Activation, Pellowah, etc. Connect Us to Our True Selves

As I said, when we meditate well, we connect to a deeper part of our being. When we don't find the time to do that, when we allow ourselves to get lost in the toss and tumble of external stimuli, we intuit that something is missing in our lives.

Maybe that is one reason why depression and anxiety are at record levels today.

We know so much more than at any other point in history, and yet the majority of people are alienated from their inner core.

That is why we need the healing and meditation arts more today than ever before. That is why they will become increasingly important as technology advances.

They help us journey inwards. They help us connect to our true Self. They help us float in the beauty of the unadorned present moment.

And it is when we tune in and calm the waters of our mind and body that we start to feel complete just as we are.

Instead of surrendering ourselves to the froth and bubble of external stimuli, we go within, rest in awareness, and simply delight in the peace that lies at the heart of our true Self.

Normally, we feel we need to do something, or have something, or be someone, to feel as though we are enough. But when we go deep into meditation, when we go deep into our healing arts, we feel whole just as we are.

What's more, with the healing arts, we learn to help others tune into this deep part within themselves.

We take them beyond the digital, beyond the 9-5, beyond the life of never-ending stimulation to a place of calm and plenitude. And it is in this place that they so often awaken to a forgotten part of their being, to a place where, finally, it is enough simply to be.

We Will Always Seek Balance

The more technologically advanced we become, the more our world shoots off into the realm of virtual reality, into the realm of the digital and robotic, then the more important it will be to learn to tune into ourselves and connect deeply to others.

The healing arts foster this connection to ourselves and others. They excel in building these connections. So the deeper we travel into the 21st Century, the more important and cherished they will become.

They will be an antidote to the alienation of our modern-day life. They will grant us sanity, calm, and wellbeing amid the hurly-burly of a digital life.

They will give us inner balance, so we can delight in the wonders of technology without being ripped away from the core of our being.

The Healing Business Is Good!

My optimism for the future of the 'healing business' is no wild hypothesis. In fact, the global health and wellness market reached a value of US $3.31 billion in 2020, $4,712.5 billion in 2021, and is predicted to grow to $12,850.3 billion by 2031.

Even in my time as a professional healer/teacher (16 years), I've seen the industry grow at a wondrous rate.

What's more, the healing arts are not only something that will grow in popularity as technology advances, they are also something we can continue to practise as we age. So where people in other industries will need to retire, healing professionals can continue to work on and on and on.

Even better, their work will be good for their health, good for their emotions, and good for their clarity.

It will be something that they love to do, year after year after year.

So if you are looking for a new career, if you are looking to transition into something new after you retire from your current job, then working as a professional healer/teacher might just be what you are looking for.

Yes, it will take time (most likely 4+ years of dedicated work) before you can earn a full-time living from it.

Yes, there will most likely never be a guaranteed paycheck.

But it will also be something that is good for you, good for others, increasingly important in a modern high-tech world, and something you can do long after you are 'meant' to retire.