Energy Medicine Through Body Movements

There are many ways to take care of our physical health: excellent nutrition, regular exercise, and proper rest.  There are also many ways to take care of our mental and spiritual health: meditation, living purposely, and thinking positively.  This article will explore the energy medicine work of Donna Eden, who combines body movement with spiritual and mental health concerns to give us a readily accessible and functional tool for maintaining health and healing ailments.

What is Energy Medicine?

In her “Little Book of Energy Medicine” Donna Eden writes, “energy is the medicine and energy is the patient.  With energy the medicine, the natural, vital Life Force that is your birthright can be harnessed and directed to cure your ills and to uplift your spirit.  With energy as the patient, you can restore energies that have become weak, disturbed, and out of balance and heal your body.”

It is her belief and through her practice that she teaches “flow, balance, and harmony can be noninvasively restored and maintained within your body’s energy system by

• Tapping, massaging, or holding specific energy points on the skin
• Tracing or swirling your hand above your skin along specific energy pathways
• Practicing exercises or postures designed to bring a feeling of calm and renewal
• And, surrounding an area with healing energies”

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She finds her inspiration and ideas from many different traditions, including “yoga, qi gong, shiatsu, and acupuncture”.  What is great about her techniques is the fact that they can be done regardless of your age or level of athleticism.  She has a number of videos on YouTube and here is a great one to start with:

Managing Anxiety, the Benefits and Limits of Energy Medicine

In 2009 I had a breakdown, a severe panic attack driving down the highway trying to get to a friend in need.  The attack literally “came out of nowhere” and threw me into a state of general anxiety disorder for over three years.  In that time, I tried many different spiritual, psychological, and physical practices before I sought a synthetic drug solution in the form of an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor).

As was finally explained to me after my third visit to the hospital, my body got flooded with serotonin when the first panic attach struck and my body would not stop producing the chemical without some kind of block from an external source.  In the time between the panic attack and the use of the SSRI, I learned Tai Chi, did yoga, and found Donna Eden’s work.  While her techniques did not “cure” me, they helped, and I could feel the effects each time I applied them.

I stopped using the SSRI in 2014 and have been drug free in my anxiety management, mostly with the help of Donna Eden’s Energy Medicine practices.  When I feel my stress levels rising, I go through the following movements to calm my energy and keep myself from falling so far out of balance that I break (like I once did).

What Do I Do?

I stand and place my hands by my side, palms in.  As I raise my arms outward and away from my sides, I rotate my palms so that they are palms up to the sky.  As I move my hands together over my head, I bring my hands palms down, pulling energy from the heavens into my energy field.  I do this movement three times.  When I am in my stressed state, the first pull down always causes a shutter in my body, as I literally push the stress down.

After I have done three movements pulling energy from the heavens, I reverse the motion by starting with my palms up as I move my hands from my sides, in front of my body, to bring them together and pull energy up from the earth and into my energy field.  Pulling energy from above and below helps restore my balance. After I do these two starting movements, I mix in other movements as I feel guided to do so.

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What Energy Medicine Is and Is Not

In the book she writes, “Diagnosis and treatment within Energy Medicine have different meanings than they have within traditional medicine.  The focus is not on symptoms or illness; the focus is on keeping the body’s energy system strong, vital, harmonious, and healthy.  In Energy Medicine, you ‘diagnose’ or assess the energy system, not the illness. Symptoms provide clues about where the energy system needs attention.  Likewise, treatment is not the treatment of symptoms or illness; it is the treatment of the energy system.”

I shared my story to illustrate just this point.  Energy medicine did not cure my illness, but it did help me through the healing process, and now it helps me keep my system in balance, making me much more confident that I will not need the SSRI again.  But if I do, I can also speak highly of that tool, which, when properly used, is very effective.

Why?

I wanted to write this article and share the work because of the unprecedented times we live in and the unrelenting stress we all face regarding the pandemic and the monumental changes affecting so many aspects of our lives that we took for granted… like attending school in person each year.  If you decide to explore Donna Eden’s work, then I am sure you will find they help with your energy field.

I know from experience that you will either “feel it” or you will not.  These techniques are easy and gentle, but remarkably effective.  When I do the movements to address my stress, I can feel the movements “move” the negative energy in such a way that it dissipates rather than collects and builds into something extreme.  The stress “pools” in my energy field and settles in the upper part of my chest.

I feel the stress settle there and… well… “stress” my energy field.  It feels like pressure on my chest.  When I move the energy around as directed that pooled energy that is building up to unhealthy levels gets flushed out of my system before it becomes toxic.  If you find some of Donna Eden’s techniques that address your concerns BEFORE they overwhelm you, you may be able to prevent a very unpleasant result in your future.

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