Galing: Our own ability to heal

In the Tagalog language of the Philippines, there are one word that can be spoken about that has multiple meaning such as the word that we are going to discuss today that has important relevance in Healing. If you are going to take the Hilot Binabaylan Certification class, one of its first lesson is about the definition of terminology that you are to encounter while practicing hilot as we all the true meaning of our Craft which is Hilot.

The first meaning that we are going to discuss about the word “Galing” will pertain to the place of origin.

For example:

“Galing ako sa Bahay para kumuha ng makakain.” in English it is translated as: “I went home to get some food to eat.” In this sentence , we can see that the word “Galing” describes the speaker’ where about which tells that S/he went home. Now. let us see another meaning of this word through this sentence:

Tagalog: “Ang Galing mong Magluto ng Adobo.”

English: “You are great in cooking adobo.”

At this sentence the word “galing” describes the persons ability to cook, thus the meaning of the word “Galing” here pertains to the level of mastery of our ability which is on its highest level. The next definition of the word “Galing” will be described on the following sentence which can be found with a Suffix:

Tagalog: “Magaling na ako. Wala na akong Sakit!”

English: “I am better now. I am not sick anymore!!

On our last sentence, the word “Galing” describes the persons health condition. It shows that in this sentence that the speaker has recovered or relieved from illness.

As a General Principle, we firmly believe that an individual has their own ability to heal themselves. As practitioner of the healing arts and science, we are just a catalyst and facilitator of healing. We integrate the healing wonders of nature that can be found in our surroundings from the 8 directions of the world. We use this gift of nature to make the sick person whole again thus we say: “Magaling ka na!” or “You are now Healed!”