What is Energy Healing?

    Most people associate the word "healing" with working at the physical level to bring about a change in the body or the mind. By using medicine, herbs, vitamins, and exercise, for example, we work with the physical body to find relief from unwanted symptoms such as pain, fatigue, anxiety, or chronic illness.

    Core Principles of Energy Healing

    Another way to generate healing involves non-physical aspects of our being, working at what is known as the "subtle" level. Here, we attend to dimensions of ourselves that we can't see in any conventional sense, or are only just beginning to be able to see. When we work at these non-physical, or subtle, levels in response to unwanted symptoms and conditions, we engage the field of energy healing.

    The term "energy healing" refers to a variety of philosophies and methodologies that recognize a balanced flow of energy in the body as the primary source of health and wellness. When your energy is in harmony, you are in a natural state of physical and emotional well-being. When your energy is out of balance, various symptoms of disease, discomfort, and disorder can arise.

    Practitioners of energy healing believe that unbalanced or disrupted energetic patterns underlie all unwanted physical or emotional symptoms. In response, they use a variety of methods to work with the human energy system with the aim of returning it to harmony and wholeness. By activating the body's own innate, natural healing energies, balance is restored and health flourishes.

    Along with the physical body with which we are all intimately familiar, energy healers recognize the existence and importance of a non-physical or "subtle" body. Any disturbance or imbalance first shows up on the subtle level. If not addressed, the imbalance then manifests in the physical body. Just as the physical body is made up of internal organs, the "subtle" body consists of various energetic structures or systems.

Mind-Body Healing

Mind-body healing involves working with the mind to stimulate a healing response in the body.

    Those who practice mind-body healing work with techniques such as guided imagery, relaxation, visualization, meditation, yoga, and self-hypnosis to generate a healing response to unwanted symptoms and conditions such as physical pain, stress, anxiety, insomnia, and dis-ease of all kinds. According to proponents of mind-body healing, illness can be seen as an opportunity for personal growth and transformation, and mind-body healers serve as midwives in this process.

    Examples of subtle-body healing methodologies include acupuncture, homeopathy, chakra healing, distant healing, sound healing, qigong, aura healing, reiki, and shamanic healing.