The Importance of Self-Care

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Seven years ago I received my first Healing Touch session. At that time, I had reached a plateau in writing my doctoral thesis and I was also stressed out due to job related issues. I had already tried other modalities, such as acupuncture, massage therapy and chiropractic adjustments, in my search for help in dealing with my stress and trying to improve my concentration to make progress on my thesis. The effect of those sessions never lasted long enough to cause noticeable changes in my stress levels and/or to improve my concentration. I remember reading the Body Mind Spirit Guide, and when I saw the ad for the Healing Touch Center, I decided to give it a try. It became a game changer in my life.

The first session was an eye opener. I felt very relaxed, and on that Saturday afternoon, I was able to start making progress on writing my thesis. I was amazed at how, for the first time in several months, I felt my stress levels decreasing, and I maintained a calm attitude at the office when dealing with tough issues. At the same time, I had mental clarity to continue working on my thesis.

It was my first exposure to the concepts of energy healing, chakras and auras. Being a Mechanical Engineer trained to work in a world where everything is measurable and every mechanical failure has a physically explainable root cause, it was hard for me to digest the meaning of the chakras and the importance of balancing them on a regular basis. For a while I enjoyed the results of my HT sessions even though I could not explain in detail why those sessions were working wonders on me. Eventually, I started to learn more about Healing Touch and the concepts in which it is based. From the beginning, I was well impressed with the level of detail and depth of content of the curriculum as well as with the number of research papers describing the results of applying Healing Touch techniques to address diverse types of illnesses.

What started out for me as a regular Healing Touch session looking for help had transformed my life and led me on a beautiful journey following the path of the healer. I am currently a Healing Touch Level 4 student that faces a wonderful challenge everyday trying to balance my left brain skills with my right brain abilities.

Reading the book “Anatomy of the Spirit” by Caroline Myss helped me to better understand the concept of chakras and their mapping with human anatomy. In that regard, Liz Jelinek wrote a very good article about chakras in the July 2012 of BMS Guide. In essence, an open and balanced chakra can be associated with a healthy functioning of the organs associated with it.

Before addressing the question of how to open and balance the chakras, in her article, “Path of Healership,” the founder of Healing Touch, Janet Mentgen, stressed the importance of self care for both the healer and her clients. She describes seven principles of self care: physical clearing, emotional clearing, mental clearing, sacred space, experience silence, holy leisure and holy relationships. The first three dimensions of self-care, physical, emotional and mental clearing are directly related to having healthy balanced chakras.

In a typical Healing Touch session the practitioner assesses the conditions of the chakras at the beginning and the end of the session. If the chakras need some work, the practitioner uses a set of hand positions that connect, open and balance the major and minor chakras. This chakra connection technique is based on the work of Dr. Joy (see his book “Joy’s Way”).

It is important for the clients to know how to keep their chakras opened and balanced. A self-chakra connection technique was developed to enable anyone to take care of their own chakras.  A visual with the hand positions is available from the Healing Touch International website http://www.healingtouchinternational.org/  select education tab on top, select self care forms, choose self-chakra connection, or from the Healing Touch Program website http://www.healingtouchprogram.com/resources/self-care  select self-chakra connection sheet. Hold every position between 60 seconds.

The self-chakra connection technique facilitates the energy flow through the chakras, opening and balancing them. This technique can be used in the morning before leaving home, setting up one’s intention to be ready to deal with any challenge at home or at work. Or it can be used at the end of the day to slow down one’s inner self and be ready for a good night sleep.

 

Ricardo H. Espinosa holds a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering and works for Ford Motor Company. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Healing Touch Center where he volunteers every Saturday

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