Energy medicine encompasses a wide range of disciplines. To answer the question, “What is energy medicine?” I look to shamanism (what is shamanism?) and my spirit guides for answers. Energy medicine begins with emotions. Energy is actually a form of emotion. So, to begin answering the question, “what is energy medicine?” we must start at the source of all energy: emotion.
Energy medicine is centered on the spiritual systems of the soul. The soul is where spiritual or emotional energy is first harvested. The soul gathers energy from the physical and spiritual worlds. The energy the soul gathers has been called many things, like chi (qi), or even “the force,” which is the energy the Jedi used in the Star Wars movies. The soul gathers energy constantly, just like how we are constantly breathing, or just how our heart is constantly pumping. The soul gathers energy from the spiritual and physical elements of magic.
The soul is able to collect and transform forms of energy like earth, fire, water, and air into the emotional energy that sustains the spiritual systems of the soul. Energy is not limited to the elements. Energy comes in all forms. Energy is simply the ability to cause a change, and change is a constant in the universe. Other forms of energy are: time, space, and gravity. Obviously, there are more types of energy and energy classes (e.g., kinetic energy, potential energy, chemical energy, electrical energy, etc.)
Energy is always interacting with other forms of energy and this interaction creates energy relationships. Understanding these energy relationships is what is known as the modern field of science, but what was previously known as magic. Science, or magic, is the understanding and/or ability to transform or change one form of energy into another. This is why in my next book, energy will not only represent emotion, but magic. Energy represents the element of magic.
Asking what is energy medicine, is like asking what is magic healing? Perhaps the concept of magic healing is why a magic man or woman was originally termed a witch doctor. Witch doctors, magic healers, and shamans have existed since ancient times. Before the natural world was broken apart and separated into finite structures and individual purposes (social classes, economic classes, careers, fields of study, gender, race, culture, etc.), the art of healing revolved around understanding relationships and cycles of energy. What is energy medicine? Energy medicine is using the natural cycle of change—harnessing the power of energy transformation—to mend the soul and body through emotional transformation.
What is Energy Healing and how does it work?
We covered the question, “What is energy medicine?” so now on to the question: “What is energy healing and how does it work?” As you might have guessed, energy healing is emotional healing. When a person experiences something like depression, which can wipe out almost all forms of motivation, and thus, make a person feel incredibly weak and tired, what that person tends to look for is energy. Where did his or her energy go? Depression often includes emotions that are the complement to joy and love, like anger and fear, which have a different effect on the energy of the soul.
What is energy healing and how does it work? Energy healing works through balancing the emotional energy of the soul. When the soul is overwhelmed with grief and fear, the soul is unable to harvest or gather energy from the universe. To the soul, the emotions of grief and fear are like holding your breath. When you hold your breath, your body is unable to take in new oxygen [oxygen is responsible for energy interactions in the cells of our body (ATP)] and get rid of waste gases. Toxins build up in the body when we hold our breath. The many systems of the body depend on continuous breaths to replenish energy and excrete waste. Our soul is very similar. There is a system in our soul responsible for taking in spiritual and physical energy [chi (qi), or “the force” if you want to call it that], and when we mentally concentrate or focus our attention on emotions that cause us grief or fear, it’s like we are holding the breath of our soul.
If you were walking around constantly holding your breath, forcing yourself not to breathe for as long as possible, and wondering why you felt sick all the time, then someone told you that you just needed to breathe more, would you believe him? Maybe, maybe not. The answer might be too simple for you. To answer the question, “What is energy medicine and how does it work?” my general answer would be to be happier. The spirit guides have made it clear that re-centering ourselves in joy is the way to align ourselves with the cycle of elevation and the healing process.
Why would a healthy person choose to hold their breath to the point of getting physically ill? Perhaps the person was scared—scared that each breath was his last. Or perhaps he believed that air was scarce or limited and that he needed to hold it and experience it for as long as he could because he may never again experience another breath like the one he just took. Grief keeps a person in a similar mindset. Depression keeps a person focused on what he or she had. Loosing something we felt we were not yet ready to let go of prevents our soul from breathing. We spiritually hold our breath and poison our souls. We walk around wondering why we have no energy, why we are getting physically ill, and why there seems to be no physical treatment that can cure us or alleviate the pain.
What is energy healing and how does it work? Energy healing is as simple as breathing or as simple as experiencing joy. Energy healing is as complicated as oxygen transfer, ATP, and waste excretion; or as complicated as joyful interactions, the healing process, and expanding from a relationship or a memory of a relationship.
Telling yourself (or giving yourself excuses) for why you can’t find joy or for why you can’t experience joy is like telling yourself you shouldn’t breathe because there is too much pollution in the air. Just because there is so much pain in the world, just because you have experienced trauma, doesn’t mean the world is void of joy or that the experience of joy is non-existent. Though it is an autonomic function, breathing requires effort, and so does centering ourselves in joy. Balance requires effort.
To stand up and remain standing, to move without falling, requires effort. Nothing is balanced without effort. Though everything moves toward balance in a seemingly effortless way, movement, no matter how simple or easy, still requires effort and motivation to achieve balance. Harmony is something inherently desired by everything. It is through this common desire for harmony that everything is connected. What we have forgotten is that harmony, like health, isn’t a destination, but a cycle.
Harmony and health are in constant motion. It is through this constant motion, this constant effort toward harmony, that we are able to share and expand the experience of joy with one another through healthy relationships. Harmony is another constant in the universe—a constant that requires effort and inspires creativity. We are able to move toward and achieve harmony through unlocking our creative genius.
We have to consistently align ourselves and move with the cycle of harmony to remain balanced. If we don’t want to move, then the last experience of harmony becomes toxic, just like if we don’t want to take another breath, the air from our last breath becomes toxic.
Saying you don’t want to put forth the effort to find and experience joy is like saying you don’t want to deal with the effort of taking another breath. Holding on to past experiences or crystalizing an idea of the future can limit our perspectives. These limited perspectives can narrow our focus so much at times that we can forget to breathe, or restrict or inhibit our natural ability to freely and deeply breathe. Narrowing our focus within our emotions does the same thing to the spiritual system of the soul responsible for taking in energy, transforming and using that energy, and expelling that energy so it can be used and transformed by something else.
To give a more concrete answer to the question, “What is energy healing and how does it work?” I’ll expand on the idea that illness is associated with emotions. For example, if you have fallen ill and find yourself lost in your emotions, more likely than not, a pill or physical treatment will not help, at least not until you first emotionally breathe again. I mean think about it—if you refuse to breathe, will a pill help you? Allow your soul to take in energy first. Allow your soul to breath by centering yourself in joy. Brainstorm things that give you joy and put forth the effort to try one or some of those things each day. Allow the energy that flows into your soul to harmonize. Once balance is achieved the spiritual systems of the soul can work together.
Energy healing is moving from a past experience and/or expanding from a crystallized idea so your soul can breathe fully and deeply again. Movement and breath are the keys to health. Through movement and breath we are able to promote the circulation of emotional energy within the spiritual systems of our soul and the physical systems of our body. Through the effort of movement and breath we encourage health and harmony through emotional transformation.
How do you use Energy Medicine?
If energy medicine is emotional transformation, then how do you use energy medicine? How do you use energy medicine to bring about balance? Perhaps we can look to nature for analogies and answers.
One analogy in the form of a question is, “How do the seasons bring about balance?” Aren’t the seasons just a form of energy, or emotional transformation? As the seasons change balance is achieved. Just because the seasons help maintain balance does not mean that the weather is always perfect. Drought, storms, freezing temperatures, and blazing heat accompany certain parts of the seasons. The weather can fluctuate to any and all extremes through the free flow of moving energy as the seasons come and go. As the heat of one season expands the possibility of life, Mother Nature takes in a breath. As Mother Nature exhales, the cold of another season contracts the possibility of life. The whole world is brought to life as Mother Nature breathes.
The Earth is a conscious thing, just like everything else. The Earth is composed of a collective consciousness (Conscious Mind), which is composed of everything and living being she supports. Mother Earth’s collective consciousness (Conscious Mind) has been elevated since the advent of biological life on the planet and has been progressing toward a higher conscious and meaning ever since.
So, how do you use energy medicine? Well, if mother Earth were to hold her breath, if she were to hold her heat and create a drought, all life and physical material would feel the consequences. We need the hot, the cold, and everything in between. The same goes if Mother Nature were to crystalize just one season. If Mother Nature didn’t want to let go of her favorite time of year then the flow of energy would be disrupted and blocked.
Balance, health, and harmony are achieved through motion and breath. Again, this may sound repetitive, but that is how the guides convey messages. We learn through repetition. The tide, the sun and the moon, the stars and the constellations, the seasons—we are surrounded by repeating lessons that teach us the basic principles of health, life, and existence itself.
So again, how do you use energy medicine? If your answer was physical movement and breathing, then you are only half right. Remember that physical motion or energy just one half of the whole. Spiritual or emotional movement and emotional energy is the complement that creates health, life, and existence itself.
Move, not just physically, but emotionally. Breathe, not just with the lungs, but with the soul. Connect everything together through healthy relationships and achieve harmony. Then, remember that the harmony you achieve isn’t the final destination. Balance takes constant motion and effort. Mother Nature generates balance through many extremes and changes. On our continual journey to maintain our own balance we will experience many physical and emotional extremes. As long as we continue to move physically and emotionally, as long as we continue to breathe with our lungs and our soul, we will always be moving toward balance. The effort alone, the motion and breath toward balance, maintains a sense of harmony no matter what physical or emotional extreme we have to endure or experience.
Does Energy Healing really work?
Well, does energy healing really work? How about another question, “Does modern medicine really work?” Both questions are a toss-up. To take either form of healing as an absolute form of healing is to miss out on many other pathways to health. Does energy healing really work? Yes. No. Maybe. Sometimes? I think the same answers can be used for modern medicine and if it really works. I believe the thing to remember is that healing and health isn’t a one dimensional concept. Focusing or concentrating on one healing practice is an injustice to health and healing itself.
Does energy healing really work? Yes, but as one of many therapies used in conjunction with diet, exercise, spirituality, mental health, and modern medicine. There is not one practice that encompasses all aspects of healing. We need to stop being so one dimensional in our concept of health and healing. Focusing on one aspect of health is like focusing on one aspect of what makes a car safe; it’s like adopting the idea that as long as there is a seatbelt then a driver is secure and safe. Well, what about the driver’s knowledge and skills to actually drive? Just because there is a seatbelt does that permit the driver to drink and drive? The seatbelt makes everything safe right? Should a driver be driving when extremely tired? Does the driver need to know how to read traffic signals?
I think that sometimes we get so used to one perspective and we don’t question the obvious because it seems too obvious, yet the details give us clues and insights on the many aspects, the many dimensions of a concept.
I believe that with all of the modern advancements in healthcare, people have put too much faith in the seatbelt of modern medicine. Instead of learning about the concept of health and paying attention to the details that would help them to ask relative questions on how to heal, people are driving under the influence, not paying attention to traffic signals, are mostly quite tired and unaware of their surroundings. Then, when people get into an accident (fall ill in some way) they complain that the seatbelt didn’t work the way it should have.
Does energy healing really work? Does modern medicine really work? Does a seatbelt really work? Yes to all three, but yes to all the research and details within each practice and concept. Stop pretending that everything will be fine because of one safety net that supposedly encompasses all of life. Stop doing what you should not be doing because you think this safety net will catch you and save you no matter what you do or how bad it gets.
Well, I can’t tell you to stop, and honestly no one should as long as you are not endangering anyone’s life but your own. Just realize that no matter what you are doing or believe in, there is no one answer, no one-size-fits-all solution. You should have the freedom to pursue the path you believe to be best for you—even if it does contradict what modern medicine says, even if it does contradict to what this article says—because freedom leads to truth and is essential to discover harmony. Just remember that whatever answer or solution you find, it is probably far from a complete understanding of a concept. There will always be change and with change comes more questions. If you find a remedy that works, just remember that the ingredients and steps to heal are always changing.
What does Energy Healing mean?
The questions about energy medicine in general can sound repetitive, “What does energy healing mean?” is similar to, “Does energy healing really work?” or even, “How do you use energy medicine?”
What we have explored thus far actually leads into the question of, “What does energy healing mean?” The cycle of questions regarding energy medicine has lead us to the concept of what energy healing means. This concept is the ability express and experience energy and emotions through motion, as well as breathing fully and deeply both physically and spiritually.
When the Earth undergoes change, Mother Nature does not hide from it. She does not deny transformational energy no matter how extreme or violent. Mother Nature embraces even the most cataclysmic events like nuclear explosions, mass extinctions, massive volcanic eruptions, ice ages that carve canyons out of granite, melting ice caps, rising oceans, or devastating asteroid impacts. As Mother Nature embraces these events, she allows the energy caused by extreme circumstances to transform her. Energy transformation, or emotional transformation, allows Mother Nature to make the changes necessary to sustain her existence and support life in some way.
Nuclear explosions and devastating asteroid impacts are things out of Mother Nature’s control, yet she isn’t stopped by these unanticipated, traumatic events that are afflicted upon her. Mother Nature finds a way to balance the most extreme and overwhelming experiences by taking the energy imposed upon her and allowing it to move through the healing process of energy healing or emotional transformation. Through motion and breath, Mother Nature finds a way to transform energy (emotion) from any source so it can be used in some way, by something, at some point in time.
What does energy healing mean? Energy healing simply means transformation—energy or emotional transformation.
Sometimes the energy that can be the catalyst for change and transformation can surprise us and come from a place that is out of our control, but like the Earth, like Mother Nature, we have to let the energy move. We should not trap the energy or deny the experience that caused an energy shift within us. We must continue to move and to breathe so we can transform that energy to allow it to be used in some way by us at some point in time. We must use energy from any source and learn to adapt and expand from it.
Sometimes though, Mother Nature is the catalyst of her own emotional transformation.
Mother Nature has emotions and her emotions are on display at all times. Just as we experience a array of fluctuating emotions throughout the day, Mother Nature’s mood is also constantly changing. The difference between our emotions and Mother Nature’s emotions is that Mother Nature doesn’t hide or mask her feelings. What does energy healing mean? Energy healing is embracing your feelings and experiencing your emotions fully and truthfully. When Mother Nature’s energy (emotions) build up, she releases them in a violent and beautiful display. Storms, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc., are all vivid displays of emotional energy being transformed and released by Mother Nature.
All energy, all emotions, are transformed and released by Mother Nature to be used by something, in some way, at some time. When energy or emotions build up, Mother Nature doesn’t just let the emotions take over and overwhelm her, Mother Nature doesn’t play victim to her own energy or emotions. If Mother Nature’s energy builds into a storm, then Mother Nature becomes the storm. If Mother Nature’s energy builds into an earthquake, Mother Nature becomes the earthquake. Mother Nature fully experiences her own emotions and allows her emotional energy to transform into whatever it needs to, so balance can be restored and the energy can be released in a way that benefits something, in some way, at some time.
For example, a storm can release a flood of life giving water to dry land. The buildup of Mother Nature’s emotions were transformed in the storm and released as a new form of energy (water) that will be used by something, some way, at some time. The great grasslands of the African plains come to mind with this analogy. There are great herds of animals that depend on the wet season of the African plains. Without Mother Nature being the catalyst of change and becoming a storm of emotional change or transformation, countless plants and animals would perish.
Like Mother Nature, sometimes we need to be the catalyst of our own change (our own emotional transformation), so we may rejuvenate our body and soul in many different ways. Instead of denying extreme emotional experiences that can build up and overwhelm us, trapping ourselves within our own storm and fearing the coming emotional change, we have to embrace the storm. Better yet, like Mother Nature, we have to become the storm so we are better able to guide our own emotional transformation. Purge what needs to be purged in order to move forward. Being the catalyst to our own emotional transformation will allow us to release the type of energy (emotions) that our body and soul can use to cultivate our creative genius and elevate consciousness (Conscious Mind).
What does energy healing mean? Energy healing means not fearing change and becoming whatever we need to be to transform our energy, our emotions, into a source of healing energy.