One of the most important steps in undergoing any healing modality is having an understanding of the healing process. As we begin our treatments for any illness or symptom, we come face to face with the healing process.
Western medicine has provided us with a mostly short-sighted approach when it comes to healing. This approach has taught us that healing is something that is experienced quickly and immediately. Since western medicine tends to look at health care as simply the cessation of symptoms, it has taught us that healing is only the removal of symptoms or the condition that caused us to seek medical care in the first place. In the western approach the headache is cured if the headache is no longer felt by us. But too often this approach leads us to a cyclic occurrence of symptoms. We take our medication and our symptoms disappear and, more often than not, we need to take more medicine in order to maintain this removal of symptoms. This does not lead to a healing of our medical condition. Instead, it leads us to a continual requirement to medicate our illness forever.
In holistic medicine such as Acupuncture, the approach to healing is quite different. True Healing is the end of illness and the recovery of Wellness. This process is often complicated and requires many steps through to its completion. One of the most important things to remember as we undergo any healing modality is that there are times when the sensation of healing seems to become less and less. In the beginning of treatments many people experience quick and amazing results. As their treatments continue these results seem to taper, or level off. Many people begin to become discouraged during these times often mistaking this leveling-off as the end of any healing benefits they can expect to receive from the treatment. Actually, what is happening during these times is that the body is rebuilding and recovering at a deep level. This time of deeper healing is the most important time in any healing process because it is precisely during these times of “leveling off” that the recovery from our illness is taking place. When this deeper healing is completed we are able to take the next step in our recovery. We can take the next step towards Wellness.
When this next step is taken, sometimes we experience new symptoms or illness. An example of this would be a newly discovered muscle tightness or pain once a joint or tendon pain is resolved. This expression of new symptoms is often a deeper illness which was hidden or masked by the original discomfort. The body was unable to deal with it directly, either because there was not enough healing energy, or the illness was trapped within the body. As we recover our wellness, the body has more and more energy to direct towards other issues and traumas that have been lurking within the body. The healing process becomes more like the peeling away of the proverbial onion layers than the simple “relief of symptoms”, as suggested by the western medical model.
What is important to remember is that true healing is often a journey which begins to unravel the layers of trauma and illness that our bodies have experienced over the many years of our life. Once we achieve our recovery of wellness, we can live our lives without our illness or our medications. What we must remember is that this process of healing requires personal patience and a great deal of self-support as we peel back our layers and step into our wellness.
