***Networking As Healing - Part 1.

Networking is often seen to be an activity that promotes the sharing of ideas, activities and sales of products and services. Looking at the concept of networking as energy, networking is an energy exchange. It may be conducted with altruistic or business motives. The altruistic or business perspectives are ours. The benefits can be either or neither. Networking can be a natural accompaniment to any gathering where participants come together and exchange ideas, share their feelings and experiences, and provide mutual support. This discussion focuses primarily on the deliberate networking that can be a specific motive for initiating the gathering of people with kindred spirits, shared interests and common goals. Mary Ann Wallace, MD, suggests, "Networking has an added dynamic - a forward intentionality. That is, we tend to network en route to someplace - for a reason in the future - creating a loosely defined structure with directionality that is unique and beyond 'just' a gathering. Networking, in and of itself as a dynamic, provides a healing forum by creating 'the space' within which a healing energy is generated. In that space, issues for healing can surface, and the greater energy generated - with intention - can serve as a healing 'medium' as it were. Every interaction we have provides this opportunity - but networking, because it has the energetic of intention around an issue or commonality to start with, can be particularly powerful." In the spectrum of wholistic healing - addressing spirit, relationships (with other people and the environment), mind, emotions and body - networking can be a deliberately healing activity. Healings may be promoted through: nnGatherings (from small, intimate meetings to major conferences) that nnDisseminate information on healing methods, innovations, research and theories [1] Disseminate information and invite discussions on healing needs (e.g. health care and environmental challenges; social challenges of poverty in material and educational realms); n nBring together caregivers practicing similar or diverse healing methods and traditions for exchanges of ideas and experiential learning;[2] Generate ongoing relationships among participants, with healing exchanges on personal and professional levels. Healings may include mutual support - particularly for complementary/ alternative therapy practices that are as yet not fully accepted in many places; feedback from respected colleagues that sharpens the focus of questions or raises new ones, and provides a diversity of answers on issues one brings to the group; and always the healthy awareness that there are many and diverse ways of understanding and addressing problems.[3] Generate publications of minutes, proceedings and professional papers that carry the energies of a gathering beyond the confines of the networking meeting itself; Alert the media and the public to new ways of conceptualizing and addressing health, illness and other issues; Create a healing, noetic space/energetic to move projects forward. n Publications that n nProvide forums for sharing new ideas and practices;[4] Stimulate discussion among readers; Invite feedback and inputs from readers. n Websites that nnProvide forums for exchanges;Stimulate discussion and invite interactive learning through nnInformative and enriching static content; [5] Discussion boards, and notice boards for events; [6] Publications that share new ideas and practices; Web content that is instructive, such as questionnaires that give participants feedback on their responses (e.g. personality inventories; surveys of participants' preferences relative to validated, standardized choices of established groups[7]); n nQuestionnaires that gather information (e.g. Charles Tart's TASTE site that collects reports of personal spiritual experiences;[8] Gary Craig's site that shares an impressive array of physical and psychological responses to Emotional Freedom Technique[9]); nnOffer networking for direct healing through the creative arts, including poetry, music, art, humor and the performing arts[10] The granddaddy of all networking sites is of course Google, which brings together information on all of the above n nSeveral examples will illustrate a spectrum of healing aspects of networking groups, detailed in Parts 2 and 3 of this article.