Stress Article: 9 Healing Tips
and Techniques

This stress article on healing tips was written because one evening our neighbor knocked on our front door. Her 87 year old Mommy had fallen, broken her shoulder and just had surgery, hundreds of miles away. Our neighbor was going to visit her.

What could she do to help the healing process?

Here are the 9 healing tips and techniques we suggested:

1. Breathe slowly and deeply

   If you breathe slowly and deeply when you are with your mommy, she will spontaneously start to breathe more slowly and deeply. It will be soothing, calming and help reduce her pain. (This is called entrainment.)

2. Share laughter and jokes

   Many years ago I injured my wrist. It was swollen and painful. My husband took me to the doctor. On the way out the door he grabbed some email jokes a friend had sent us. When we got to the doctor's office the waiting room was filled. We sat down and looked around. We saw lots of people looking sad, worried, frightened.

   My husband started to read me the jokes...we laughed. He read more and we laughed more. Other people started to laugh. The whole feeling in the room changed. We eventually saw the doctor who splinted my wrist and assured me it would heal.

   On our way out the receptionist stopped us. “Do you remember the woman in the yellow dress?” Yes, I did. She was a large woman, there with 5 family members, only one of which was sick. She had left us a gift. Her gift was this poem, written on an envelope.

   There you sat
   The two of you
   With only one heart beating
   I can observe your pain if only fleeting
   Love reaches across the barriers of pain
   Time again and again
   

   Her poem celebrates the healing power of laughter and love.

3. Drink pure water

   Have your Mommy drink at least 6 cups of pure water per day. If it's comfortable, drink even more. It can be warm if she prefers.

   Water is a natural simple pain reducer. This was discovered by Dr. Batmanghelidj when in prison. Water could be used to successfully give relief from even intense ulcer pain. Drink a cup or two at a time through out the day and avoid caffeinated drinks like coffee or tea. These will tend to make you lose more water and therefore have a dehydrating influence. Pure water is simple blessed pain relief.

4. Use massage

   Touch can be so soothing, comforting and reassuring. And in relaxing the tension and stress, healing is enhanced. We once visited a friend who was in excruciation pain from a back injury. My husband offered to gently massage his feet. He used some pure coconut oil to make it even more soothing. (Olive oil would also have worked well.) It was great stress relief. It soothed, relaxed and reduced the pain and tension.

5. Accept the pain

   This healing technique may seem crazy, but it does work.

   We told our neighbor “Tell your Mommy to feel the pain, without resistance”.

   Just consciously accept whatever the sensation is, without labeling it. “Let your attention go to the sensation and just feel it, without anger, without fear or complaint. Accept whatever is there for the moment. At first the pain might get worse but... then it will become more diffuse through out the body. Eventually it will dissipate".

   Allowing attention to be with the pain without resistance, seems to powerfully promote healing.

6. Listen to classical music

   Opera, Mozart, Tchaikovsky all have a healing energy. And the sheer beauty can transport us to an energy filled with much more gratitude and peace.

7. Pray together

   This can be in whatever tradition or words make sense for you. A very simple prayer of gratitude and acceptance could be “Thank you God for everything”. The human mind can not know what God knows. To love and trust God's will for us even when things like injury and pain occur in our lives is very healing.

8. Rest and remember to be patient with the healing process

   Nine year olds will often heal faster then 87 year olds. But healing is still possible.

9. Be grateful for the blessings in disguise

   We hugged our neighbor and reminded her to be grateful for this unexpected opportunity she now had to share another week with her precious 87 year old mommy.

These healing tips are not intended to replace your doctor’s advice.

Sources:

Batmanghedlidj, F. M.D. Your Body's Many Cries For Water. 1997. Falls Church Virginia: Global Health Solutions, Inc.

Hawkins, David R. M.D., Ph.D. 2009. Healing and Recovery. West Sedona Arizona: Veritas Publishing