Spiritual Healing
Spiritual Healing: Faith or Fiction?
Many ponder the results of spiritual healing, unsure of whether it’s effective or not. Spiritual healing embodies holistic methods to health and wellness. In contrast to conventional or traditional medicine, spiritual healing offers gentle approaches to help the patient feel relaxed. Another factor in spiritual healing is the treatment of health conditions with little to no harmful side effects and connecting to the energetic body.
As the belief in a higher power is central in spiritual healing, people can access transformations of negative energy into positive. Patients of spiritual healing have reported lower feelings of stress, heightened positive feelings, better health, and lowered blood pressure. Patients also reported lowered rates of depression, as well as increased feelings of joy and peace.
Types of Spiritual Healing
Currently, there are many systems of spiritual healing that produce positive effects on the body, mind, and spirit. A recurring theme in spiritual healing is to help the body attain balance through transferring energy from one source to another. Spiritual healing includes healers who transmit light or heightened energetic frequencies to someone else for their wellness. For example, Reiki practitioners use spiritual healing when they lay hands on patients, emitting positive energy to them. This is called prana or chi both translating to energy or breath in Western cultures. Other spiritual healing methods are centered on the idea that the body can heal itself; thus practitioners lightly aid the body into healing with gentle, natural elements. Common forms of spiritual healing practitioners exercise are:
- Reiki
- Massage
- Meditation
- Theta Healing
- Reflexology
- Sound Therapy
- Creative Visualizations
- Prayer
- Chanting
- Acupuncture
- Crystal Healing
Theta healing, for example, allows the practitioner or healer to scan the body for illness or negative energy by using their hands. Massage connects a practitioner to a patient though the healing power of touch. Crystal healing is a popular form of spiritual healing which encourages treatment through the healing vibrations of crystals. Crystals have healing frequencies that can heal anxiety, reduce compulsions, depression, assisting in confidence and promoting wellness. Acupuncture uses needles and places them on specific points in the body to relax muscles and release stress.
Spiritual Healing and Faith Healing
A major component of spiritual healing is faith. Such methods of healing work by someone’s personal belief. Examples of those include believing in a higher power to heal or completely cure illnesses. Faith-based rituals like prayer, chanting, and meditation can greatly impact someone during poor health.
People who attend church have reportedly been healed after pastors have prayed over them. Situations that use subjective healing methods like this, called placebo effects, have powerful effects on the psyche. Whether or not placebo effects are truly effective is the subject of many debates.
Spiritual Healing and Substance Abuse
Adopting a spiritual mindset like Buddhist-related beliefs have helped people struggling with compulsions, co-occurring disorders and substance abuse in inspiring ways. Meditation has been proven to calm symptoms of anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, and depression. A study testing the effectiveness of meditation in treating substance abuse disorders revealed positive results in meditation helping lower the risk of depression and anxiety after treatment.
Surveys express the connection between spiritual healing and substance abuse prevention. A Columbia University study noted out of 676 adolescents aged 15 to 19, having a spiritual practice helped them resist temptation to abuse substances–specifically alcohol. In conclusion of the study, authors summated, “adolescents at high risk may be protected from substance dependence or abuse if they engage with a Higher Power.” They can seek spiritual connection and practice increased faith rather than go to drugs to fill a void. Additionally, people wanting to stay sober post-recovery can use spiritual healing and faith to encourage wellness.
Meditation as a Form of Spiritual Treatment
Recovery facilities have recently included Transcendental Meditation as a method of treatment. This method teaches the individual detachment as they chant mantas and breathe deeply. Other forms of meditation teach people mindfulness, which can encourage peacefulness after detox. Patients also have access to holistic-based treatments, like biofeedback and prayer-centered support groups.
Finding Treatment
Patients struggling with chemical dependencies have several treatment options in rehab. The first key is admitting you or a loved one needs help. Patients in rehab can gain access to medication as well as guided meditation and faith-based treatments. If you are looking to overcome an opioid addiction, or any other substance use disorder, start by contacting a treatment provider.