This is a powerful presentation by Lissa Rankin, MD:advocating for a more holistic approach to healthcare. She presents compelling evidence as to the power of the mind over matter in healing and well-being. Yet, her approach is one of balance and wholeness. As a contemporary health professional, in no way is she advocating for a migration to alternative medicine. In fact, she calls her fellow professionals to a greater level of understanding of their own roles in the healing process.
Championing the cause of the unseen factors in recovery from illness, in the body's own innate ability to heal and the ways that we can support the body in this endeavor, Dr. Rankin explores the scientific literature, reviewing case studies of spontaneous remission, as well as placebo and nocebo effect data, to prove that our thoughts powerfully affect our physiology when we believe we can get well.
In her book Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, using extraordinary cases of spontaneous healing, Dr. Rankin shows how thoughts, feelings, and beliefs can alter the body’s physiology.
She lays out the scientific data proving that loneliness, pessimism, depression, fear, and anxiety damage the body, while intimate relationships, community, compassion, gratitude, meditation, sex, and authentic self-expression flip on the body’s self-healing processes.
The People Shine MIND-BODY-SPIRIT Holistic Fair offers a variety of energy medicine approaches for self-care, wellness and healing opportunities.Taking care of our body in the proper way is a process. The way that we nourish and maintain our bodies can be an emotional process as much as it can be a behavioral action. It is important to realize this. For when we delve deeper into ourselves we create the possibility for real and lasting transformation, and not simply white knuckling a behavioral change. As we become more and more aware, breaking further and further out of denial we come to not only realize how important this is for our personal health, we realize how important it is for the world.
Energy Medicine recognizes energy as a vital, living, moving force that determines much about health and happiness. In Energy Medicine, energy is the medicine, and energy is also the patient. Energy medicine is both a complement to other approaches to medical care and a complete system for self-care and self-help. It can address physical illness and emotional or mental disorders, and can also promote high-level wellness and peak performance. The body experiences opportunities for healing by activating its own natural healing energies; wholeness and thereby wellness is accomplished by restoring energies that have become weak, disturbed, or out of balance.
To accomplish this goal, energy medicine utilizes techniques from healing traditions such as acupuncture, accupressure, yoga, kinesiology, reiki, healing touch, qi gong and many, many more. Flow, balance, and harmony can be non-invasively restored and maintained within an energy system by tapping, massaging or connecting specific energy points (acupoints) on the skin; by tracing or swirling the hand over the skin along specific energy pathways; through exercises or postures designed for specific energetic effects; by focused use of the mind to move specific energies; and/or by surrounding an area with healing energies (one person’s energies impacts another’s). This also includes the use of sound, vibration, color, and light.
Energy medicine can be a part of a treatment plan for illness and pain managment; stop the onset of illness as soon as it begins, stimulate immune function, relieve headaches, release stress, improve memory, enhance digestion, relieve arthritis, neck, shoulder, and low back pain, and cope with electromagnetic pollution.
By learning simple energy techniques to keep your energies balanced and humming, you can improve your health, sharpen your mind, and increase joy and vitality. The most powerful component of energy medicine is that many of the modalities and techniquies can be performed on the self, by the self. This places much more responsibility for our own health and well-being into our own hands, however, the trade-off is that it gives us the ability to listen more closely to our body, and therefore 'catch" ourselves before full-blown disease manifests into the physical.
Word on the health benefits of massage therapy for stress relief has spread. In 2006, 39 million Americans -- one in six adults -- had at least one massage, according to a nationwide survey by the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA).
"Americans are looking to massage for much more than just relaxation," says Mary Beth Braun, President of the AMTA. "Massage therapy can be effective for a variety of conditions, including arthritis, lower back pain, insomnia, headaches, anxiety, circulatory problems, and recovery from a sports injury."
A Powerful Ally
There's no denying the power of bodywork. Regardless of the adjectives we assign to it (pampering, rejuvenating, therapeutic) or the reasons we seek it out (a luxurious treat, stress relief, pain management), massage therapy can be a powerful ally in your healthcare regimen.
Experts estimate that upwards of ninety percent of disease is stress related. And perhaps nothing ages us faster, internally and externally, than high stress. While eliminating anxiety and pressure altogether in this fast-paced world may be idealistic, massage can, without a doubt, help manage stress. This translates into:
Decreased anxiety.
Enhanced sleep quality.
Greater energy.
Improved concentration.
Increased circulation.
Reduced fatigue.
Furthermore, clients often report a sense of perspective and clarity after receiving a massage. The emotional balance bodywork provides can often be just as vital and valuable as the more tangible physical benefits.
Profound Effects
In response to massage, specific physiological and chemical changes cascade throughout the body, with profound effects. Research shows that with massage:
Arthritis sufferers note fewer aches and less stiffness and pain.
Asthmatic children show better pulmonary function and increased peak air flow.
Burn injury patients report reduced pain, itching, and anxiety.
High blood pressure patients demonstrate lower diastolic blood pressure, anxiety, and stress hormones.
Premenstrual syndrome sufferers have decreased water retention and cramping.
Preterm infants have improved weight gain.
Research continues to show the enormous benefits of touch—which range from treating chronic diseases, neurological disorders, and injuries, to alleviating the tensions of modern lifestyles. Consequently, the medical community is actively embracing bodywork, and massage is becoming an integral part of hospice care and neonatal intensive care units. Many hospitals are also incorporating on-site massage practitioners and even spas to treat postsurgery or pain patients as part of the recovery process.
Increase the Benefits with Frequent Visits
Getting a massage can do you a world of good. And getting massage frequently can do even more. This is the beauty of bodywork. Taking part in this form of regularly scheduled self-care can play a huge part in how healthy you'll be and how youthful you'll remain with each passing year. Budgeting time and money for bodywork at consistent intervals is truly an investment in your health. And remember: just because massage feels like a pampering treat doesn't mean it is any less therapeutic. Consider massage appointments a necessary piece of your health and wellness plan, and work with your practitioner to establish a treatment schedule that best meets your needs.
Sound healing is the therapeutic application of sound frequencies to the body/mind of a person with the intention of bringing them into a state of harmony and health.
Sound Healing can be transmitted to a person in a number of ways:
1) Through using their own voice
2) Through using their voice with other voices
3) Through using their own voice while listening to music
4) Through listening to another person's voice or a number of voices
5) Through listening to an instrument or instruments
6) Through listening to music or sound through speakers or headphones
7) Through Crystal or Tibetan Bowls or Bells
8) Through Tuning Forks
How Does Sound Healing Work?
Each organism has its own vibratory rate. Every object in the universe has its own unique resonant frequency. Tap a wineglass and it will emit a ringing sound determined by its size, shape and the thickness.When an opera singer vibrates a glass with her voice the singer has matched her voice to the resonant frequency of the glass and set it into vibration. As the singer increases the volume of her sound the resonance becomes too great for the forces that hold the glass together and it shatters.
Luckily, our bodies are more flexible than a glass! The cells of our body enjoy the vibration of sound.
If one 'C' tuning fork is struck and placed next to another 'C' tuning fork, the second tuning fork will begin to resonate together with the first tuning fork. The sound wave from the first tuning fork has imparted some of its energy to the second one.
If the stem of the tuning fork is placed on a metal, glass or wooden object, this object will begin to vibrate. A simple experiment can be conducted by placing a tuning fork on the top of one's head. You will find that bone is an excellent conductor of sound.
In air sound travels at 340 metres per second ( 760mph).
In water sound travels at 1,500 metres per second ( 3,350mph).
In glass sound travels at 5,600 metres per second (12,500mph).
The human body is made up of 70% water; this makes it a very good conductor of sound. Modern medicine now uses sound waves to break up kidney and gallstones in the body. The machine used is called a Lithotripter. This machine bombards the stones with a specific sound frequency for one to two hours. The patient is admitted in the morning and discharged in the evening. Generally no anaesthetic is needed. With most patients only one treatment is necessary to break the stones down. The pulverised stone is passed out of the body through the urine.
High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is now used in some NHS hospitals and private clinics to treat prostate cancer. The therapy closely targets tumours, causing much less damage to healthy tissue than conventional surgery or radiotherapy.
Every organ, every bone, every cell in the body has its own resonant frequency. Together they make up a composite frequency like the instruments of an orchestra. When one organ in the body is out of tune it will affect the whole body.
Through the principle of resonance it is possible to use sound to bring the body back into harmony hence avoiding the need for drugs or surgery.
Entrainment
In 1665 a Dutch scientist Christian Huygens, 'discovered' the principle of 'entrainment'. This principle states that whenever two or more oscillators in the same field are pulsing at nearly the same rate, they tend to lock in and begin pulsing at exactly the same rate. The powerful rhythmic vibrations from one source will cause less powerful vibrations of another source to lock into the vibration of the first source.
Systems theory states that; "the less diversity there is in a system the more energy it will conduct." It takes less energy to pulse in cooperation that in opposition. The composer Paul Hindemith said "People who make music together cannot be enemies, at least while the music lasts!"
Nature seeks the most efficient state. We see the law of entrainment in action when birds fly together in migration; they will flap their wings together and glide at the same time to save energy. Women who work or live together will often find that their menstrual cycles will synchronize.
Itzhak Bentov illustrates this phenomenon in his book 'Stalking the Wild Pendulum'. If you place a number of grandfather clocks on a wall with pendulums all swinging at different rates within a few hours all the pendulums will be swinging at the same speed!
The principle of entrainment can be experienced when one sings in a choir. If you are singing next to someone with a strong voice it is easy to sing your part. If the person with the strong voice is singing a different part to you it becomes much harder to hold your part.
If you sing a strong clear harmonious sound to a person who is sick or out of balance their body will lock into your powerful healing sound. The principles of resonance and entrainment are both at work in a sound healing treatment.
Recent scientific research has identified specific sound frequencies, which relate to different parts of the body. Therapeutic application of the appropriate sound frequencies can help disorders in those parts of the body
If a part of our body is out of balance we can retune it like tuning a piano. If a piano is out of tune, do we drug the offending key or rip out the offending piano wire? This is precisely what we do to the human body.
Rudolph Steiner said: - There will come a time when a diseased condition will not be described as it is today by physicians and psychologists, but it will be spoken of in musical terms, as one would speak of a piano that was out of tune.
Intention
Jonathan Goldman in his book 'Healing Sounds - The Power of Harmonics' says: - "When we have learned techniques for harmonic toning, the human voice is able to create nearly every frequency, at least within the bandwidth of audible frequency".
Jonathan offers the simple formula: - "Frequency plus Intention equals Healing". If we can find the right sound frequency coupled with the right intention then healing will occur.
Intention is another important principle underlying the way sound healing works. If we sing a pure sound to another person with a pure intention then healing will occur.
Every action we perform has a conscious or unconscious intention behind it. We can see the principle of intention at work when a mother sings her baby to sleep. In a Sound Healing treatment, the sound carries our intention to the person receiving treatment.
The People Shine Project is a SW Florida community service program that promotes and facilitates integrative recovery and holistic self care practices through affordable classes, groups and workshops, as well as private consultations. Our philosophy of healing is focused mainly upon the empowerment of the individual and the re-establishment of right relationship to everything, because everything is connected.
We believe that any recovery work, whether it be through addiction, depression, cancer, personal crisis or simply spiritual exploration, is a recovery of the true self and a restoration of the whole person. Recovery of the self is a life-long process rooted in good self-care, which includes reverence and respect for the whole self: body, mind and spirit, as well as the environment in which we live. We also believe this must be accomplished at the level of community and cannot be successful in isolation. Thus the need to provide the impetus for true communities to emerge is critical to our health and well-being. Yet, true community must involve a level of "spiritual partnership" in order to continue to unfold and evolve it's people into the next levels of wholeness and wellness.
Spiritual Partnership
According to Gary Zukav, spiritual partnership is between people who promise themselves to use all of their experiences to grow spiritually. They use their emotions to learn how to create constructive, healthy and joyful consequences instead of destructive and unhealthy and painful consequences. Can you imagine using a horrible, painful, can't-get-any-worse experience to grow spiritually? Spiritual partners don't squander them by exploding in rage or dissolving into depression.
Any number of people can form a spiritual partnership: two people in a live-together, have-children-together, monogamous relationship; six people in a family; or co-workers who want to use their relationships to do more than complain, compete, gossip and judge. Of course, co-workers can appreciate one another, be grateful for one another and cooperate with one another, but when they set their intentions to do that all the time, they are already experimenting with a spiritual partnership. Spiritual partnership only require at least 2 or 3 people, to be effective, but there must be the desire to grow in consciousness by all parties, or the spiritual partnership will degrade. There also must be some sort of proximity, so there is exposure to each other to learn and grow.
When two people in a relationship, and that includes friendship, or even acquaintance look at their interactions as opportunities to learn about themselves instead of change each other, they are infusing their relationship with the energy of spiritual partnership. If they are married or in a closely bonded relationship, they infuse their marriage with the energy of spiritual partnership, and eventually it will become a spiritual partnership. This can also happen with our children, friends, co-workers, the grocery store clerk and even people we meet on the fly!
A spiritual partnership is a partnership between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth. Spiritual partners use their delightful experiences together as well as their power struggles to learn about themselves and change themselves. This is a new way to live. A new way to create together. A new way to evolve together, and provides opportunities for healing, clearing, forgiveness, awareness, as well as creativity and innovation.
