The Power to Heal Yourself
by Donna Thomson
The field of medicine has changed dramatically in the last few years. Increasingly, people no longer automatically visit their local GP when sick, nor do they sit back and take the doctor's word as gospel. With the invention of the internet, people have more access to information and resources than they've ever had before which can be very empowering. This article is all about the power you have in relation to your healing - but it's much more personal than you may at first realise.
Conflicting information
It can be quite frustrating for a newcomer to alternative healing methods to know what is the 'right' information, especially in regards to healing with such things as crystals, sound and colour. This is because much of the information out there varies from one author to the next and some even conflicts between sources.
Using crystals as an example, the existing information has largely been recycled from one author to another for decades and without substantiation. So much of the information is in fact inaccurate. Now we're starting to see more crystal intuitives come forward - people like myself who actually verify for ourselves how the crystals work. This information that comes from real experince tends to conflict with the older inaccurate information. However, it's not uncommon to find that the information shared by crystal intuitives can differ too. How can this be?
It happens because people share what works for them and expect it will work the same for everyone. Not many people have looked deeper into the basis of healing itself - which starts with the individual. Instead, they've looked at the tools such as crystals, colour and sound, and tried to match them to a range of situations and ailments to apply to the majority of people. While this isn't a bad thing in itself, it's important to realise that what works for one person may not necessarily work in exactly the same manner for someone else. Here's why...
You are unique
My own theory is that we should all have open-ended theories! Or more to the point, our theories should be based on what works for ourselves. You see, each individual has a unique make-up. Just the fact alone that we each look different, talk different, think differently, have different experiences, different ailments, strengths, weaknesses and so on, proves that we could not possibly be exactly alike. I'm talking on a basic energetic level. If you think of yourself as an intricate energetic being and each miniscule quality that makes you YOU will give you a unique energy make-up. To illustrate (pardon the pun), imagine that we could each be represented by a colourful abstract painting representing ourselves as energy - no two paintings would be alike. Therefore, doesn't it make sense that what YOUR mind, body and spirit needs to achieve harmony and healing will be different to other people?
Defining 'healing' and 'dis-ease'
When 'healing' is mentioned, people tend to think of fixing physical ailments. However, when I speak of 'healing', I first think of the person being made up of energy (as mentioned above), from the physical matter we are made of, to the emotions, thoughts and even spiritual dimensions of the person. Each of these aspects of a person is, in essence, energy which constantly vibrates, flows and changes. A holistic view of the person is therefore as an 'energy system' and matters that affect our physical health are usually due to an imbalance originating in one of the higher levels of our energy systems such as the spiritual, mental or emotional levels. As we go about our lives, we encounter many things that can lead to some sort of blockage or imbalance in our energy system - some sort of 'dis-ease' which filters down to physical level.
Ancient cultures discovered that our energy system consists of a number of energy centres called 'chakras' (which means spinning wheels of light or colour) and each of these chakras relates to a different aspect of our whole being - you can read more about chakras in the Healing & Wellness classification. Basically, these chakras reflect the seven colours of the spectrum (rainbow) and resonate at different frequencies. When all of these energy centres are balanced we are 'well'. So when I talk about 'healing', I refer to restoring balance or harmony in a person's overall energy system.
Access to healing on all levels
It's no longer necessary to wait until you have physical symptoms appear before seeking healing or balance. Today there is increasingly more knowledge and resources being made available which deals in treating the 'whole person', hence the rapidly increasing fields of alternative medicine and complimentary therapies. In fact, these therapies look at preventing imbalance and dis-ease, so the individual is given greater responsibility for their own health, via the foods they eat, their environment, their own attitudes and emotional actions and reactions. You can use regular relaxation techniques to maintain harmony, and use various techniques and therapies to restore imbalances before they catch hold and cause greater issues.
In homeopathy, for example, the practitioner will take a full case study of a person to understand all the different factors that make the individual's situation unique - which may help identify root causes of ailments rather than simply treating the symptoms. Ten patients could come in with headaches as a symptom and each of those ten people would likely have different causes, requiring different treatments - e.g. headaches could be caused by stress, dietary factors, poor posture, underlying emotional issues, electromagnetic emissions from electrical equipment, a build-up of negative energy in or around the person, have psychic causes, be due to deteriorating eyesight, or be caused by environmental factors such as pollutants. So again, you can see how individual each of us truly is.
In contrast, modern medicine has taken our power for self-healing away from us. For decades, people have looked to doctors as 'gods' who know everything, but we are starting to see more often just how 'human' doctors are and there have been some horror stories of incompetence surface via the media in recent years. This is not to say that we should not go to doctors or that they are all 'bad'. You may have noticed the trend over the last few years that is about encouraging people to empower themselves - to do their own research and realise that they have choices in their treatment. This is the key movement in healing - empowering yourself.
Intuition is your guide
I have a natural connection with crystals and have always instinctively felt that we should each use our intuition to guide us in using crystals. If you've read any of my articles on crystals you would know that I'm always recommending that people use their intuition rather than relying on what is written about each crystal. I've found that this is also the case with colour and sound healing...in fact any type of healing. It's for this reason that I always hesitate to recommend a particular crystal to someone for a particular purpose. Rather, I prefer to state what I have found works for me and suggest a range of crystals that are useful for a particular purpose so that the individual maintains control of their own health and healing. By suggesting a number of crystals which seem to have similar energy or qualities, I give someone a place to start. From that point, I fully encourage each person to feel for which of those crystals feels best for them to choose and use.
I believe this is the essence of 'self healing'. YOU know yourself best. Your energy make-up is unique. YOU will be able to best determine which crystal (or any other healing tool such as colour or sound therapies) will work in harmony with your own energy to create balance. Just by feeling for what is right - trusting your gut instinct, you can match up the right healing tool for yourself at any point in time. This works even if you don't know exactly what is wrong with you because energy healing works on a subtle level and your energy will seek the energy of something else (such as a particular colour) to restore it back to a harmonious state. So your inner 'knowing' will help you identify what you need and when, just because it feels right.
Our spiritual purpose
The ideas in this article may not be new to you - you might be aware that we are energy beings; you might know about chakras and balancing your energy system; you might use various techniques and tools to help you achieve wellbeing. But I wonder if you've considered just how important it may be to learn to heal yourself? It's the insight into this importance which led me to write this article.
I've always felt my purpose is to help others learn to help themselves. This matches up with my intention to bring understanding about crystals in general, but to encourage each person to take responsibility for what they use and how they use it. So what does this mean for you?
The guides have indicated on many occassions that it's each person's purpose to connect with their true selves. It's easy for us to seek direction and to seek answers from other people. It saves us having to sit still and really look at ourselves and within ourselves. If it were easy to do, we would all be doing it and the world would be a much more harmonious place. I feel that we are each working towards that self-knowledge and part of that is learning how to restore our own balance - to listen inwardly, to acknowledge our true selves and to empower ourselves.
Self-healing
Imagine that we could each be more aware of ourselves on an energetic level. We would feel a little out of sorts, so we would stop and take a few moments to listen to our body, mind, emotions and spirit. We would question the cause of feeling imbalanced in some way. We would then use whatever techniques and tools we feel drawn to, to restore a sense of wellbeing.
Of course it's not really that simple. People may have deep emotional issues to work through to restore balance or they may need to work on the way they perceive things - e.g. they may need to use affirmations to create positive expectations in their life instead of negative ones.
Self-healing requires that you are in tune with yourself, including how your own energy works and indeed how the energy of the universe works. So in the above example you would realise that your thoughts create reality and therefore it would only do you a disservice to have negative thoughts, as you would draw negative outcomes to you.
What about healing practitioners?
If we are to learn to heal ourselves, does this mean we don't need other practitioners? No it doesn't. Practitioners in any healing-related field have made it their purpose to specialise in techniques and tools for healing. If you had to start from scratch to learn about the many resources available to you, it would interfere with other aspects of your life. Some people are born to heal and it's these people, whether they work with allopathic or alternative medicine, who can 'be' your resource for healing.
Good practitioners will tend to show you how to use the techniques and/or tools for yourself. They will lead you to discover things about yourself that may be the underlying cause of particular symptoms. Good practitioners know that they simply facilitate healing rather than control or give the healing. In fact, some healers refer to this as creating a 'healing space' that allows or encourages healing to happen during a session. They understand that they are more of a facilitator of healing and realise the important role that you, as the patient, have in your own healing. To illustrate this - if part of a person doesn't want to be healed for whatever reason (perhaps they subconsciously like the attention they receive while ill), then no matter what the practitioner does, the healing will not happen - at least not long-term.
So it may be wise to reflect on your own attitudes and beliefs about your power to heal yourself.
Some of the key points I'd like to sum up from this article are:
- We are each unique in our energy-makeup - therefore what restores harmony and wellness for one person will be different to what does the same for another person.
- We should have an active role when seeking healing - researching, questioning and using our own intuition to guide us.
- Our underlying beliefs and attitudes will affect our healing experience, including whether we can be healed or not.
- Healing practitioners should empower you with tools and techniques to heal yourself - this may be as simple as creating awareness of something that is causing a blockage or imbalance in your energy system, allowing you to deal with it and move forward.
- Our greatest ally is our true self (our spiritual self) - we must listen to and acknowledge our truth and then we'll have all the answers we need - including how to achieve our own wellbeing.