More and more people are turning to alternative health practices for overall body healing. These natural approaches to health and healing are now often chosen over standard medical practices.
Most of the healing processes within alternative medicine target the body for healing from the inside out that is based on the premise that given the right circumstances or conditions, the body will heal itself.
These processes might include using herbal treatment, various therapies such as energy therapies and a mind-body connection such as a focus on inner peace to promote healing.
1 – Reiki
Reiki is an alternative health practice sometimes referred to as energy healing that can help a person heal because it focuses on using the life force energy contained within your body.
Your body’s energy flow can become disrupted for many different reasons. When the flow is off course, it can cause you to get sick and it can cause high stress levels. What Reiki does is stop this disruption, get rid of the stress and restore your balance.
It’s been known to help rid the body of stress and promote a deep sense of relaxation. Stress can be a major factor linked to various health problems and using Reiki to relieve this stress can bring immediate relief.
In the beginning, you’ll learn the different places on the body that you need to place your hands in order to obtain the healing flow. These places and the technique involved can be learned with the help of self-taught materials or you can schedule an appointment with a Reiki master.
During a Reiki session, you or the master, will place hands on or slightly above different areas of the body. These are specific areas and are targeted to restore the flow. Sometimes, a session might involve the placement of hands on an area that needs additional help, such as if you have a muscle ache or a wound in that part of the body.
You’ll need to make sure that you’re comfortable and in a quiet place. Some people will play soft, soothing music. The benefits that you’ll gain by practicing Reiki are many. You’ll feel better because this practice can boost the immune system.
When your immune system is well, it can do the job it was designed to do. Another benefit you’ll gain is that your stress levels will go down. You’ll discover that the things that used to stress you out don’t any longer.
Using Reiki can help you let go of negative thoughts and perceptions that can disrupt the flow of energy and instead gain positive ones. By using this practice, you’ll notice that you have a reduction or the elimination in pain.
When the body’s inner core is out of balance, pain can be a result of illness, injury or emotional trauma. Reiki can restore all of these things.
2 – Neti Pots
Neti Pots have been used for many years, but they’re only now beginning to get widespread notice. The reason for this is found in the relief that they’re giving people who couldn’t get relief by going through traditional medical methods.
You can find these pots online or through your local drugstore pharmacy department. A Neti pot looks like a short, flatter version of a teapot and the pot has a long, distended spout.
A Neti pot has been touted as simply a container that you can use to clear your sinuses – but it can do far more than that. While it is a simple, inexpensive container, it has much more to offer you than just clearing your sinuses.
This is one of the reasons behind the pot’s rapidly growing popularity. Another reason that these pots are becoming more popular is because the use of traditional relief methods often have side effects that aren’t very pleasant for anyone to deal with.
Besides helping you with your sinus problems, using the pot can also be used to help you find relief from allergies. When you breathe in, you often inhale things (such as dander or pollen) that cause allergic responses.
When you inhale these irritants, your body tries to fight back by kicking your histamine response into gear. This can cause you to experience watery eyes, itching and a stuffy nose.
Using the Neti pot clears out those irritants. For relief from allergies, it’s best to use the pot in the morning when you get up and at night before you go to bed. Many people have also found relief from congestive symptoms of the common cold by using the pot.
When you use the pot, you put about a pint of lukewarm water into it. It’s better not to use tap water unless you have a good filter for it. A better choice instead is to use distilled water.
To the water, you’ll want to add about a teaspoon of salt. You don’t want to use regular table salt in your Neti pot because table salt contains anti-caking ingredients and it’s best not to breathe those in.
Don’t use salt that contains iodine. What many people choose to use is regular sea salt. When the water is prepared, you’ll want to hold your head over a sink in order to start the irrigation.
Put the tip of the spout into one side of your nose and lean your head to one side. The water in the Neti pot should be able to travel easily from one side of your nose to the other. If the water goes to the back of your throat, then you have the wrong angle and should adjust your head tilt.
Once you’re finished using the pot, it’s very important that it go through a sterilization process to prevent contamination. To sterilize the pot, clean it with hot water that’s either filtered or boiled if it’s from the tap. Once you’ve thoroughly cleaned the pot, allow it air dry.
3 – Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an alternative health practice that has its foundation in Chinese medicine. The practice has been in use for more than two thousand years. During an acupuncture treatment, long, thin needles are placed into a person’s skin.
The location of where the needles are placed will vary. How far into the skin the needle placement goes will also vary. There’s a specific reason behind the areas and depth placement of these needles.
It’s because the body has areas or points where the inner energy moves from one point to the next in a flow. This has often been referred to as the chi. If the flow of energy becomes blocked in any way, it can throw the body out of balance because it interferes with the chi.
This imbalance can be physical, mental or emotional. Using acupuncture can help bring the energy flow back to its natural, unblocked state. Though it is an alternative health practice, there are many doctors in traditional medicine who believe in the use of this treatment.
One reason that doctors believe acupuncture to be beneficial is because when the needles are inserted into the skin, it causes the body to produce endorphins. Endorphins are the body’s own natural painkiller.
There are many types of illnesses and health problems that acupuncture can successfully treat. The treatment can help people who deal with headaches, including migraines, find relief.
The practice has also been known to give relief from menstrual cramps and muscle cramps. It can be used to treat people who are suffering allergies or GERD. Treatment with acupuncture can boost your immune system and can lift your mood.
Acupuncture can be used to treat back pain and the pain associated with carpal tunnel syndrome. Many people also find that receiving acupuncture treatment also helps relieve the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia.
In many cases, this form of health treatment can also assist people who are struggling with addictions. If you’re suffering from the health issues that are linked with menopause, you can get help through the use of acupuncture treatments. Studies have also linked helping people lose weight to getting regular acupuncture treatments.
When you have an acupuncture treatment, you’ll want to find someone who’s certified in the practice. At the appointment, you’ll lie on a table either face up or down, depending on the location of problem that you’re having – and the acupuncturist will alleviate your symptoms with strategic placement of the needles.
4 – Yoga
Yoga is a practice that has roots in Hindu philosophy. It’s a type of training and knowledge that uses poses to bring the body and mind into a state of relaxation and inner peace.
During the training of yoga, users will learn how to incorporate breathing control techniques with meditation to achieve a higher state of mind and being. As time has passed, the word yoga has been taken away from its roots and changed.
It’s now often used in connection with a variety of exercises that aren’t truly concentrating on the original purpose of the practice. One of these changes focuses on yoga as exercise alone and that’s not what yoga is.
For moves that truly stem from yoga, there has to be poses that are linked with breathing and centering oneself to find balance. In true yoga, the poses are specific and meant to flow in a certain direction with specific movements.
While you can use yoga positions to help you stretch your muscles, stretching is not a complete yoga session. These poses should always flow smoothly from one to another. For example, you might go from plank to down dog to forward fold – depending on what purpose and benefit that you were looking to find from the session.
These movements have a purpose and that is to help your body find healing for whatever you need. This healing can be physical or emotional. The type of healing that you want to target will change the poses that you’ll need to do.
Yoga can be used to lead to emotional release that brings the user emotional healing. It can help to restore emotional balance. The yoga poses used can vary, depending on whether you’re a beginner or an advanced student of the practice.
Poses can be defined under anatomy or by the benefit they offer your body. So if you were looking for healing from back pain, then you would look for the specific poses that treat that physical ailment.
If you were struggling with emotional things, such as depression or anxiety, then you would want to do the poses that are associated with bringing healing for those. There are many health benefits to practicing yoga.
By using it, you’ll gain more muscle strength and flexibility. It helps give you cardiovascular benefits for a healthier heart. The practice can help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight because it helps reduce or eliminate food cravings.
You’ll gain more energy and feel better. Yoga can help treat lower back pain and high blood pressure. It’s been known to eliminate fatigue and insomnia. It’s also known to be effective in helping alleviate the symptoms associated with stress and depression.
If you’re new to the benefits of yoga, you might find it beneficial to purchase some materials if you want to do it yourself. But you can also take classes taught by someone with experience in the practice.
5 – Chiropractic Medicine
One of the more widely known forms of alternative health practices is chiropractic medicine. This is a practice that focuses on treating the body’s various health issues based on healing the musculoskeletal system.
One of the reasons for the focus on treating the musculoskeletal system is because of the connection that the spine has with the body’s cells and fibers that make up the nervous system.
The practice stems from the belief that your body is capable of self-healing when there’s proper balance. When your body is out of alignment, it can affect your overall general health.
This alternative health practice can offer relief from many different types of pain and medical conditions. It can help treat common ear infections in children and adults. Undergoing chiropractic treatment can help treat dizziness and balance issues.
Spinal pain and pain from overdoing it can be treated successfully. Conditions such as recurring migraine headaches can be helped with the use of chiropractic medicine. Arthritis of the hands and other areas of the body can benefit from the practice, too.
People who struggle with the stress to their muscles due to cerebral palsy can find relief from chiropractic medicine. Treatments with chiropractic care can help to lower high blood pressure.
The adjustments offered by chiropractic medicine can help with carpal tunnel syndrome. If you struggle with emotional upheaval such as anxiety or depression, seeking treatment through the use of this alternative health practice can help eliminate this upheaval.
Regular visits to a chiropractic medicine provider can also help to give your immune system a boost. Your provider can help you learn different methods that you can use at home to alleviate some of the aches and pains you might experience such as lower back pain.
When you go to your first appointment, you’ll be asked a series of questions to help the provider be able to treat you. Before you go, have a family medical history available and list all the current health problems that you have.
One thing that’s very important for you to mention is any trauma that you’ve had to the body in the past such as a car accident or injury from a fall. Sometimes pain can crop up months or years after the first injury.
These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to alternative health practices. And you don’t have to choose an either-or approach. If you’re skeptical about alternative health, you can always use it in conjunction with traditional healing to cover all bases and give you more peace of mind.
