What is healing? And Why is it so important?
What is healing?
Healing is the process of the restoration of health from an unbalanced, diseased, damaged or un-vitalized organism.
Healing in a real sense means to make free from injury or disease. To make an unwell health state well again, sound, or whole in order to restore health and heal the sick.
Traditionally, practicing medicine is considered a healing profession, but there's no explanation of its mechanisms beyond the physiological processes of curing.
A study which the objective of this was to determine a true definition of healing that operates through its mechanisms and identifies repeatable actions that reliably assist physicians to heal and promote holistic healing.
The method of this inquiry was a qualitative inquiry consisting of in-depth, open-ended interviews with top doctors: Drs. Eric J. Cassell, Carl A. Hammerschlag, Thomas S. Inui, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Cicely Saunders, Bernard S. Siegel, and G. Gayle Stephens. Their perceptions on the definition and mechanisms of healing were subjected to established theory content analysis.
The result of this inquiry suggested that healing was associated with an underlying background of wholeness and spirituality. Healing is therefore determined as an intensely personal, subjective experience of reconciliation an individual ascribes to distressing events with his or her perception of wholeness.
Conclusively, healing may be operationally defined as the personal experience of transcending suffering.
Modern medicine claims legitimacy to heal through its scientific approach.
The approach of science and medicine has made physicians intervene greatly by understanding diseases, applying treatment to effect cures, preventing illness, and to eliminating disease. With such success, physicians who are trained as biomedical scientists have focused their attention on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease rather than healing. In the process, healing became more about cure, not care, and the physician’s became “curer of disease” rather than “healer of the sick.”
Healing in a holistic sense has faded from medical attention, thus patients are turning to alternative medicine and lifestyle to gain holistic healing for treatments and general well-being.
From holistic healing to energy healing, people are going where they can get real results for their issues.
What is energy healing?
According to Dr. Mel Borins, a Toronto-based physician and author of A Doctor’s Guide to Alternative Medicine: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why, “The concept [of energy healing] is that our body is made up of energy pathways,”.
“It’s the belief that there’s more to us than just the physical — that there’s a spiritual side of us, or that there’s an energy that extends beyond the body — and that by applying hands, like in therapeutic touch or in reiki … we can manipulate the energy that’s radiating from the body.” he added.
Several forms of energy healing have been common practice in many cultures for centuries, Borins said. In traditional Chinese medicine, for example, it is believed that energy passes through a meridian system in the body, and ailments can be healed by accessing and manipulating this energy.
While many doctors in the western world may not suggest energy healing as a solution to a health problem, alternative treatments are growing in popularity across the world. According to government data, complementary and alternative health-care therapies including things like reiki, acupuncture, yoga, reflexology and chiropractic treatment are gaining support as an effective option.
In addition, according to a recent report, westerners like Canadians are becoming increasingly interested in alternative treatments. Research shows massage and chiropractic care are the most popular therapies for holistic healing, but there’s also increasing interest in energy healing since 1997.
Alternative medicines and therapies are also something people turn to when they have problems that medical doctors seem unable to help them with.
People are becoming more aware and concerned about side effects that modern medications and modern approaches brings.
As people are seeking for meaning in their lives, something that seems mystical or ancient holds promise for people who are looking for that meaning.
Do not ignore medical advice.
While complementing medical treatments with natural remedies like energy healing promotes "healing", completely ignoring medicine is risky. In certain cases, people have died after refusing modern medicine or treatment and insisting on natural approaches only.
The best is to work with a trained physician with a background in holistic healing and natural treatment. Or get your diagnosis with your doctor and then make a visit to a healer.
While natural remedies are often safer and more effective than most modern medicine, it’s important for people to be educated on what’s actually safe and effective and what’s not in terms of treating health issues.