Reiki and Energy Healing
Have you been looking into integrative therapy methods to reduce stress, lower your anxiety, and bolster your sense of relaxation? Reiki and energy healing may be able to help! Those that practice reiki deliver energy to your body using their hands to improve the flow of your energy to support healing while assisting in balancing your energy throughout your body. Reiki also works towards rebalancing the human biofield while building one’s resistance to stress and supporting self-healing methods. While reiki is considered part of the energy healing practice there are other systems of hands-on energy healing techniques that originate within different cultures, religions, long standing traditions from folk medicine, and from ancient practices. Some of these practices come from great ancient civilizations such as Babylonia, Egypt, India, Rome, Greece, and Assyria. Some forms of energy healing include reiki, acupuncture, touch therapy, chakra balancing, crystal healing, and aura cleansing. If you’ve been looking for a different therapy approach to coincide with your current cancer treatments it may be worth your while to look into reiki and energy healing.
Reiki’s origins are from Japan with Buddist and Eastern traditions incorporated into the practice. It is said to be over 2500 years old and was rediscovered in the 20th century by Dr. Mikaeo Usui and was later taught to and standardized by Dr. Chujiro Hayashi. Modern reiki practitioners utilize gentle static light pressure touch incorporating specific traditional hand positions in order to offer energy healing to others. Reiki healing is used alongside other medicinal therapies and medical practices to promote the potential healing of those suffering from pain, illness, disease, and other ailments.
One way that reiki works towards improving one’s emotional wellbeing is through an increased release of endorphins. Endorphins are a group of hormones which enhance positive moods and are known as the happy chemical in our brains. Reiki works towards enhancing the emotional balance of an individual by increasing the release of endorphins, reducing stress and improving one’s ability to handle stress, while also reducing the impact of stress on the body.
Acupuncture is a form of holistic medicine derived from ancient Chinese medicine practices with the use of needles. The acupuncture needles produce tiny injuries to the site of insertion which stimulates your immune system to produce circulation to the area, modulate pain, and promote wound healing. Touch therapy involves chakra connection and lymphatic release. Some people use touch therapy in unison with chemotherapy to reduce some of the side effects experienced with the treatment such as nausea and fatigue while also working towards reducing stress and anxiety, promoting fast wound healing, improving immune system function, and reducing pain. During chakra balancing there are 7 major chakras that can be blocked including crown, third eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral, and root. People describe blocked chakras as experiencing physical or emotional systems depending on which chakra is affected and where in the body it is located it may impact your organs, bones, joints, and tissues. Chakra balancing incorporates breathing practices, yoga postures, and meditation to encourage energy blow and promote mental clarity. People in ancient cultures such as those found within Egypt, Greece, and China believed that crystals possessed healing properties. Crystals used for health include clear quartz, jasper, obsidian, amethyst, and bloodstone and may be used during crystal healing practices especially for those dealing with cancer diagnoses. Aura cleansing techniques pertain to the 7 different auras including physical, atral, lower mental, higher mental, spiritual, intuitional, and absolute. To cleanse your auras meditation is used and is one of the greatest tools to do so alongside positive affirmations, visualization, and smudging which is the burning of sage to cleanse rooms you spend time in and negative energy within oneself.
There are a plethora of different therapy methods used to improve your stress and anxiety levels, overall health and mental wellbeing while also improving your overall energy found within ourselves. If you find yourself struggling with some of the symptoms of your diagnosis and the overall treatment it may be beneficial to check out some alternative therapy methods such as reiki or other energy healing practices.
If you are currently a breast cancer survivor within the Wilmington NC area the University of North Carolina Wilmington is conducting a research study exploring the post-reiki biofeedback responses for breast cancer survivors and are still looking for participants. If you are interested please Click here to fill out the form or feel free to contact the nursing faculty or university directly with the contact information provided below.
• Dr. YJ Chen: TEL 910-962-0584 or email chenyj@uncw.edu
• Dr. Tami Link: TEL 910-962-7942 or email linkt@uncw.edu