Energy Healing Explained
With more and more celebrities embracing it and sharing the results on social media, it may seem that energy healing is a well-timed new phenomenon, the perfect antidote to a year of pandemics, lockdowns and misinformation.
However, energy healing has, in fact, existed for thousands of years, in some of the world’s oldest cultures. Evidence of energy healing has been found in Ancient Egyptian scrolls from as far back as 1,500 BC. When you hear someone talking about their blocked chakras, they are referring to a system written about in the Vedas text nearly four thousand years ago.
Energy healing has many forms across many different cultures, but its central principle is that energy healers work to balance the flow of energy within the body, usually by working with the body’s energy field through a hands-on approach, in order to bring their patient back to equilibrium.
What are the benefits of energy healing?
Energy healing has many benefits, ranging from natural pain relief to curing physical disease. It has a significant and positive effect on the nervous system and it has been known to help patients with ailments like muscular aches and headaches.
The benefits of energy healing go well beyond the physical. Energy healers note that energy healing can bring a patient back to feeling like themselves – something which is easy to lose sight of in today’s hectic world. It can also positively influence your mood and play a role in healing relationships.
Styles and types of energy healing
Some of the better-known forms of energy healing are acupuncture and massage, both of which are often prescribed in conjunction with Western medicine.
These four forms of energy healing are extremely popular. All of them have incredible benefits:
Reiki
Emerging in Japan at the end of the nineteenth century, Reiki is an energy healing therapy which is all about energy transfer. In a nutshell, a Reiki practitioner will lay their hands on or over their patient in order to target specific areas of the body where the energy may be blocked.
Some Reiki practitioners will use crystals to supplement the procedure, which can last for up to ninety minutes. One of the key results of Reiki is that it is said to be able to speed up the body’s healing process.
Breathwork
Another form of energy healing which is similar to yoga, breathwork seems deceptively simple, in that it is quite literally a series of breathing exercises. However, the benefits of breathwork are huge: it can help a patient overcome trauma and increase their self-esteem.
There are many different types of breathwork, including Shamanic Breathwork, Holotropic Breathwork and Vivation. Whichever variety a patient chooses, they can be sure that breathwork will help them release negative energy and blockages.
Sound therapy
Many people will opt for a relaxing sound bath as part of their energy healing journey. Don’t worry: this does not involve taking off any clothes or submerging oneself in water. Instead, a patient is submerged in sound, usually given off by musical instruments such as gongs and singing bowls.
Sound therapy can help relieve stress and send you into a state of deep relaxation. It can also be tailored to the individual’s needs, with instruments sometimes placed on different parts of the body in order to combat specific illness or injury.
Unblocking/rebalancing the chakras
Many people will be familiar with the concept of the seven chakras, which are believed to be energy centers in different parts of the body. When too much energy resides in some chakras and not enough in others, stress and illness can be exacerbated.
Chakras can be unblocked and rebalanced through yoga, breathing and meditation. Some energy healers will use specific crystals in this practice too, in order to channel their energy alongside the body’s natural stores.
Feeling skeptical?
There is no denying the fact that the concept of energy healing is often met with cynicism or dismissed as ineffective. However, scientists are seeing the benefits now and energy healing is often offered in hospitals alongside Western medicine and in more personal experience it has amplified my own healing.
The realm of energy healing has endless possibilities. Once you find the right form of energy healing to suit your needs, it might just change your life.
I invite you to explore this more deeply in a 1:1 private breathwork session or through attending The Unfolding Healing Circle held every full moon with a group of beautiful soul sisters.