Perhaps you are thinking about vitamins, minerals or calorie count as you eat and are lost in a mental world rather than savoring the taste and enjoying the sensual experience of eating. Perhaps you’ve started stretching, but rather than enjoy the pleasurable sensations in your body as you stretch, you are all caught up in how far you can go. The result is that you strain and force your body rather than nurturing it. Are your self-care endeavors fear-based? Are you straining or forcing yourself in some way? Or are you genuinely enjoying your self-care activities as you feel yourself nurturing your body, mind and spirit? Above all, self-care has to be done gently, with love.

Seven Essentials of Self-Healing

1. Self-awareness: Including awareness of our bodies, emotions, thought patterns, and the spiritual dimension of ourselves
2. Knowledge: Including knowledge of our body; the role that our emotions and beliefs play in the functioning of our bodies; and of ways to bring greater health to all these levels of our being
3. Motivation: A strong enough desire to have greater health and well-being to motivate us to take action
4. Self-love: The ability receive and to care for ourselves with kindness
5. Courage: The courage to move out of our comfort zone and experience the feelings we have as we change
6. Self-authority (or self-responsibility): Being responsible for our own decisions regarding our self-care as opposed to relying solely on the opinion of authorities
7. Self-care: Taking practical steps to heal is essential, but without the first six essentials we won’t do this in an effective, consistent way
8. Different Ways of Healing with Energy / Alternative Healing
   Alternative Healing may be defined as any method of healing that varies from traditional Western Medicine practices. Many of the healing techniques that are accepted and effective in other coun- tries have not yet been adopted in the Western countries. For example, Herbology is standard in Germany, and Acupuncture is widely practiced in China, but neither is fully accepted as yet by Western Medicine. This atmosphere is changing, however, as a growing number of Western doc- tors are starting to realize that some of their patients are healing faster and more effectively when they do utilize these other methods (in spite of frequent objections by their doctors). Increasingly, Western doctors today are at least tolerating their patients’ use of Alternative Healing, and some are actually recommending them. Many people are now educating themselves as to the variety of healing methods that are available to them and are combining the best of both worlds.
   There are as many diverse ways of healing with energy as there are forms of energy. Movement and emotions alike create energy flows, producing power over all things. Harnessing this energy is as versatile in healing as it is in producing power in any other form. Yoga in its many diverse forms is one way of energy healing. It utilizes different motions creating energy flows affecting our own personal energy fields, auras, chakras and meridians alike. Reiki is a form of energy healing. It is an energy practice combined with meditation that can be done by a practitioner or learned and performed on yourself. Vibrational therapy includes, but is not limited to music, sounds, colors, meditations and mantras. All of these things are vibrational energies that emit and can be felt even without the ability to see or hear. A sound vibration can be experienced by the deaf. Vibrations can be very subtle or very profound, however they manifest they are a cause creating an effect. Acu- puncture, acupressure and Meridian tapping are all energy therapies working directly with emotion- al energy flows and can impact and alter emotions by releasing unwanted emotional experiences and allowing new wanted emotions to enter. There are many other forms of working with energy and the realization of ways to harness this energy for achieving complete physical, mental and emotional health through the use of these unlimited resources are being discovered daily.
9. What is energy work?
   Energy work, healing energy, energy therapy and energy medicine are all found under the title, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). It is a healthy choice with significant evidence of its benefits. Energy work is holistic in nature. This means it addresses the body as a whole. In ex- amining a patient, the practitioner will look at all the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual aspects that comprise it. This is typical of most forms of CAM. The focal point of treatment is not a specific organ or body part. In alternative energy healing work, the major concern is energy. This energy, practitioners believe, comprises the make-up of the body. The Chi, or life force, determines whether the body remains healthy on all levels.
   Energy healing is a set of healing therapies that manipulate energy fields within or just outside the body. The purpose of energy healing is to realign or redistribute energy within the body to achieve proper balance and therefore health.Some alternative healing techniques:
   1. Massage therapy: To restore blood circulation
   2. Acupuncture: To restore the flow of vital energy (qi)
   3. Shamanic healing: To reconnect the patient to his spirit
   4. Hands-on techniques: To transfer energy from the healer to the patient
   5. Remote techniques: To send energy to the patient via prayer, Reiki, Pranic or another means Physical modalities: To restore energy through the use of magnets, quartz crystals, or electricity.