To heal is to become whole. The words “healing” and “curing” are commonly used interchangeably, but their definitions are different.

Curing is a restoration of health, an absence of symptoms, and a remedy of disease. It’s a return to a previous state of health. This is the aim of our health care system – to take you back to the state you were in before the symptoms or disease. Which, of course, was the very state of “dis-ease” you were in when the symptoms began (and may well have contributed to their onset in the first place.)

Healing, on the other hand, is a restoration of wholeness — not the level of wholeness before the diagnosis, but a restoration of wholeness that is new, different, and comparatively better than before the onset of disease. Healing is not the removal or cessation of symptoms, but rather an integrative process that transcends the physical; and includes emotional, mental, and spiritual vitality.

 Healing can be defined as a personal experience of the transcendence of our suffering.

Suffering, arises from our being attached to our thoughts. Whenever there is pain of any kind – the pain of aggression, grieving, loss, irritation, resentment, jealousy, indigestion, physical pain or illness; if we look deeper, we find that behind the pain there is always something else. There is always something we’re holding on to consciously or unconsciously. Typically, this is an idea, thought or narrative that we have created about ourselves.

 “I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional.” -Byron Katie

If we are able to see that the process of healing begins with summoning the courage to let go of our thoughts and beliefs (even when they seem so natural and persistent) then we are empowered to undertake the process of healing. Consequently, we may notice that all healing is self-healing and the practitioners we call on for help are facilitators of our very own healing process.

Science has not proven where our thoughts come from, but it is clear they are really just a flow of energy despite how concrete they appear. So the healing of our suffering derived from our thoughts needs to be a process concerned with the flow of energy.

Healing is a lifelong process of many ups and downs. As a part of this process it is common for symptoms, e.g. a particular pain, to fluctuate. It is also common that changes in energy flow in the body can trigger a de-toxification process which can, in turn, lead to symptoms such as headaches and nausea.

There are thousands of methods of facilitating healing and many practitioners who call themselves “healers”. When “healers” follow a set ritual or technique to produce their “healing”, I believe they are limiting the power of their process because it is expected to occur in a pre-determined manner.

The less the practitioner uses ritual, technique or attachment to the outcome, the greater the potential for healing. With the Network Chiropractic and Profound Tension Release modalities I use, the techniques become a basis from which I work. As I progress with the people I see, the “treatments” become less about the technique and more about the person. There is a weaving of the healing and curing aspects into the person’s experience. The result can be both a reduction of their symptoms and the healing of other aspects of their lives.

“If you try to fix anything about yourself, it is a form of judgment. Judgment more than anything keeps us forever imprisoned in separation. A more effective approach to healing is to allow everything to surface into conscious awareness and responsible expression and to do so with the love, acceptance and compassion that arise out of Presence.” – Leonard Jacobson