Healing is not a great mystery – everyone has healing energy and the ability to help heal themselves and others. Everything in the universe is energy, from a star to a rock to a speck of dust. Your body and mine are both energy, as is the plastic waste in the sea. Energy is not destroyed, it just takes different forms. Problems arise when there is an interruption to the flow of energy and too much accumulates in a particular place. In the environment, this excess gives rise to pollution and imbalance, and in the body to congestion and disease.
Healing is dealing with excess energy
When we are ill or simply out of sorts, it often feels as though we are lacking energy in some way rather than having too much of it. We may feel lethargic or headachy, or there may be pain or soreness. Whatever the symptoms, there is inevitably a blockage or blockages somewhere in our system. If a river is flowing well, everything along its course is fine but if something blocks that flow, silt builds up and flooding occurs in that location. Elsewhere, there may be a shortage of water. Our energy or qi is rather like that – too much in the wrong place throws everything out of balance.
Giving it back to the Universe
When too much energy has accumulated, it does not stay still, hanging around until someone invites it to a party. By its very nature, energy is always moving and, like water, will always find somewhere to go. If there is no outlet, it will form unwanted complex patterns and it is these that can cause health problems, possibly severe, over time. As the body is energy, the essence of healing is to create the right conditions to allow the excess to return to the environment – the Universe – and restore balance.
The healing power of the mind – and a smile
The flow of energy, qi, in the body is directly affected by our awareness, by our thoughts and by our feelings. In traditional Chinese health systems, it is said “the mind leads the qi”. It is difficult to feel cheerful in every waking moment, perhaps, but the more positive we are, the healthier and happier we are likely to be.
A very easy thing we can do is to smile more often. Smiling helps to open the energy channels in the body and release little blockages. Breathe in, smiling to your body; breathe out, letting your smile extend beyond your body. Try it for a minute or two. It is so simple but is extremely effective at making us more receptive to healing energy.
It goes without saying that the world at the moment is sick and that there is need for healing on a grand scale. Medicines and vaccines will play a major part in dealing with the pandemic, of course, but at some point the underlying causes need treating, too. In most cultures, it is a tenet of traditional medicine that when conditions are right and in balance there is good health. When there is imbalance, internal or external, there is potential for sickness, and the world has been seriously out of balance for a very long time. The governor of balance is our consciousness, whether that be individual or collective.
Healing is in essence a process that harmonises and unifies. The world has always been troubled with the opposite – divisiveness – and this has manifested so very clearly in world politics in recent times. Divisiveness is a symptom of the ego, or sense of a self that is independent of others. It is this which creates poverty, racism, selfishness and every other human ill. To restore balance, the human race needs to move towards unity, both within itself and with the world of which it is a part.
What can we do? One of the ego’s best lines of defence is to blame. When we judge or criticise others, we put ourselves apart from them. Watering the seeds of separateness within ourselves, the cracks in our consciousness grow. This view on life informs everything we think, feel, say and do. Instead, we need to heal the cracks, and love is the wonderful glue that helps to do that. When we notice our thoughts turning judgmental, we send out loving kindness instead. It’s actually not that difficult, so even if we are obliged to stay at home, we can still radiate wholeness and goodness. That’s healing.
