What is Energy Medicine?
Energy Medicine is based on the understanding that any physical, mental, or behavioural problem has a counterpart in the body’s energies and can be treated at that level. It provides a holistic approach to healing by not only addressing your body, mind, and spirit, but also by working with your emotions, past trauma, and even your relationships.
So what is “Energy’
Over the centuries energy in the body has been given different names such as Qi (Chi), Prana, Innate Intelligence, Mana, Pneuma, Vital fluid, Odic force, and Orgone.
After many years denying the existence and importance of this energy within our bodies, science is now discovering methods of measuring it. There is more information at the bottom of this blog.
The belief among healers is that when our energy is blocked, stagnant or disrupted our physical bodies cannot function optimally. This imbalance can also lead to disease and ill-health.
Energy Medicine
For thousands of years, practitioners around the world have activated the body’s natural healing processes through clearing meridians, balancing energy, healing touch, utilising Ayurvedic medicine, shamanic practices, applying hands-on healing such as Reiki, and many other modalities.
The many different healing modalities that fall under the category of Energy Medicine may be referred to as energy therapy, energy healing, vibrational medicine, psychic healing, spiritual medicine or spiritual healing.
All of these modalities will work to affect the energy in our body and to assist us to become balanced, grounded, to tap into our innate healing power within, and to release and resolve traumas.
Traditional Western medicine focuses on diagnosing symptoms and treating you from the outside. When used in combination with Energy Medicine the results can be profound as the whole person is addressed.
Benefits of Energy Medicine
Energy medicine has been shown to have many benefits.
These include calming the nervous system, releasing trapped emotions and traumas, bringing calm and a sense of peace.
In this way Energy Medicine can help with anxiety, depression, PTSD, relieving pain and fatigue, improving sleep, it can bring more confidence, more focus and more connection to others, it can also can help clients be less reactive and improve relationships.
Energy Medicine Modalities
These are just some of the Energy Medicine approaches available:
Hands-on Therapies
Approaches such as Reiki, Chakra Balancing, Energy Healing, Tantric Healing, Pranic Healing, Esoteric Healing, Magnetic / Auric Healing, Healing Touch, Hands of Light, Body Talk and Therapeutic Touch involve the healer laying their hands on the body or holding them in the auric field around the body.
Crystals and Magnets
These can be used either on the body or close to the body to affect the energy flow.
Acupuncture / Acupressure
Acupuncture and Acupressure are an ancient modality which uses very fine needles or finger/hand pressure to affect the meridians or energy lines within the body
Reflexology
The reflexologist uses pressure, usually with their fingers, on the reflex points of the hands or feet. This affects the energy within the body.
Distant healing, intercessory prayer
The healer works from a distance either with prayer or by using intentional energy healing such as Reiki. The recipient will often feel the effects of the energy during the session.
Exercise and Movement
There are a number of systems using meditation, breath and movement to positively affect the energy within the body by cleansing, strengthening, and circulating it. They include Tai Chi, Qi Gong (Ch’i Kung) and Yoga.
Combination Therapies
Acupressure and Tai Chi can be used together to provide hands-on treatment along with Tai Chi exercises to be used at home. This allows the healing to continue.
Emotional Blueprint: This unique system uses reflexology to read the emotions that are stored within your body, in combination with visualization and journeying. This allows you to connect with these emotions, to release them and established new, more beneficial patterns in their place.
Conclusion
Energy Medicine has something to offer everyone, whether you just need to relax and enjoy some “Me Time”, or you have deeper physical and emotional/mental health concerns that you wish to alleviate.
It is an excellent complement to Western Medicine and to other Alternative Health Modalities. It is safe for anyone from young children to seniors.
Scientific Measurement of Energy
Indirect measurement of subtle energy in the body is possible through certain physiological correlates that are emerging.
Instruments to measure acupuncture activity and Kirlian photography (electrical discharge photography) are the two main contenders for subtle energy monitoring.
Acupuncture instruments are based on the observation that acupuncture points have special electrical characteristics; the points have lower resistance to electrical current flow as compared to the surrounding tissues. As each meridian is associated with one or more organs inside the body, the electrical activity of the acupoint seems to be related to the organ function.
In the second kind of instrument, based on Kirlian photography, a high voltage, low current is applied to the finger pads. The colourful discharge that is observed is analyzed in a computer and is related to organ function.
Sophisticated instruments are presently available based on these principles. These instruments are undergoing many trials and clinical evaluation so that their use can become acceptable in medical diagnostics and therapy.