Editor's Musings

Volume 5, No. 1, January 2005

COMMON DENOMINATORS ACROSS HEALING MODALITIES
 
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
                                                                           - Buddha.

Is it possible to identify commonalities across the hundreds of variations on the themes of healing?

Between Acupuncture and Zen, your problems may be addressed at many possible levels within the wholistic spectrum. Each modality has its unique characteristics and blends of elements to address your ills - through body, emotions, mind, relationships (with other people and environment) and spirit. One or more of these healing approaches may have precisely the key you are seeking to help you resolve your problems - or may miss the mark in some way that leaves you with minimal response or no benefit at all.

Most of the complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) therapies make broad claims to help many of the same problems. Evidence is beginning to accumulate to show that many of these claims are accurate.

Despite their differences, I am impressed that we can identify several common elements among these therapies - having experienced and studied many of them, and having reviewed the available research confirming the efficacy and effectiveness of a broad spectrum of CAM studies (Benor 2004).

Here is my distillation of the essence of healing interventions - common elements that are found across the spectrum of modalities:

Several exercises are described in this editorial. They are intended as light introductions to the various therapies, not as an instruction manual for doing deep, transformative work on yourself - which is best done with the assistance of a trained therapist.

GENERAL HEALING FACTORS IN THERAPY

Facing issues/ not running away from dis-ease or disease

Making a firm decision to explore your problems is the first step.

Often, we run away from our difficulties. In an initial crisis, avoidance may be a constructive approach.  This leaves us more energies to deal with a current situation.

Coming out of the bathroom, Brenda was shocked to find her 3 year old daughter, Sue, unconscious at the bottom of the stairs. Sue had a knot on her forehead from the obvious impact of her fall, and was bleeding from her shin where a broken bone was protruding through the skin. Brenda picked her up and ran to her car, arriving at the local emergency room in record time. She collapsed in a sweat after placing Sue on the hospital cart.

The staff found no fractures, and Sue woke from her concussion a few minutes later. Fortunately, after several weeks' recuperation, she was none the worse for her mishap, a testimony to the natural recuperative powers of a young body.

Looking back on these events, Brenda was amazed at how matter-of-factly she had done what was necessary at the time to deal with her daughter's injuries. She had no memories of any emotional reactions until she handed Sue over to the hospital staff. Then, she was flooded with fear, guilt ,and anger at herself for not having prevented Sue's tumble down the steps. Ordinarily, she would have cringed at the sight of such injuries, but in these circumstances she had no emotional responses whatsoever at the time of the accident.

Shutting off feelings in an emergency like this allows a person to be more clear-headed and to do what is logically necessary. Had Brenda been overwhelmed at the bottom of the stairs by her feelings (as she was after arriving at the hospital), she might not have dealt as well or as quickly with Sue's injuries.

In other situations, avoidance may reduce immediate distress, but may leave residues and scars from the emotional traumas. In these situations, avoidance helps us not feel the tensions of our stresses, but does not resolve our problems. Even worse, we may end up investing enormous energies in pretending that these memories and feelings are not locked away inside us, continuing to run away from these buried traumas.

Many therapies offer us opportunities to stop running away from our memories and to face the issues we have buried inside us. Just by doing so, they bring us to a place of healing...

Full editorial in International Journal of Healing and Caring - On line,
January, 2005, Volume 5, No. 1 - Click here for subscriptions details.

You may quote from or reproduce these editorial clips if you include the following credits and email contact:
Copyright © Daniel J. Benor, M.D. 2005 Reprinted with permission of the author P.O. Box 76 Bellmawr, NJ 08099 www.WholisticHealingResearch.com   DB@WholisticHealingResearch.com