What Is A Healing Crisis?
A healing crisis occurs when there is an increase in physical and/or emotional symptoms, during times of intense healing. In the eyes of Western medicine, in general, healing is associated with a decrease in symptoms as opposed to an increase in symptoms.
A healing crisis might seem a bit out of the ordinary because there will always be an increase in symptoms before one gets better- Even with herpes. Let me give you an example to further explain the process. Your body is an accumulation of life experiences and emotions. Each and every experience you have ever had, on some level, has been stored in your body. So the saying goes, an elephant never forgets; neither does your body. Your body holds on to all of your life experiences, including diseases, illness, trauma and emotional turmoil . This is all well and good when your life is a box of chocolates, but what happens when crisis strikes?
During high levels of stress, your body begins to release different hormones than it does when things are going well. As the stress loads increase and the body can no longer handle it, the efficiency of your system as a whole begins to break down. Muscles get tight, immunity decreases, digestion slows, toxins begin to build up, brain function diminishes and your body goes into a break down mode, much like a car can break down on the side of the road. Each person responds to breakdown mode with different emotions.
This breakdown or crisis might lead to high blood pressure, low back pain, bouts of diarrhea, head aches, cancer or any number of illnesses. The breakdown could also be a mental breakdown or a bout of depression. Breakdown mode is like the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. In these situations, the body can no longer function as normal and the goal of the body is to have you do something different, eat better, sleep more, get more nutrients in your diet, change your body mechanics at work, decrease the stress in your life or whatever else has been accumulating as a stress in your life. During crisis mode, you can no longer ignore your symptoms and just put tape over your engine light that is blinking. This down time in crisis is often exactly what the doctor ordered for you to stop and begin listening to your body and healing.
Each major crisis in your life is stored like the layers of an onion, where the core is the beginning of your life and the outer onion ring is your most recent year. A good healer will begin working with the outermost, most recent layer of your life. This is often why you sought care in the first place.
If your symptom is something that has been chronic, it is most probably linked to an imbalance from times past. During intense holistic healing, the body begins to re pattern itself, so that new neural connections are made and balance is restored. These healing crisis symptoms are revealed in a reverse chronological order, much like pulling back the layers of an onion.
Let’s say that five years ago you had a bout of cancer and 15 years ago you broke your arm. In this case, a person might re experience the symptoms of cancer as the body completes that layer of healing. During this new layer of integration and healing, the body will begin to release toxins and emotions associated with the original trauma. In this case, maybe a rash might form as the body releases stored toxins from chemotherapy.
The next major healing crisis in your journey might appear as an increase in pain in your arm. Maybe your arm never fully repaired itself and now the body wants to address this injury because it has the available nutrients and energy. As the body build new neuronal pathways and breaks down scar tissue, you are left with an arm that is better than ever. The good news is that these healing crisis symptoms generally do not last for more than a few days or up to a week. It is not uncommon for emotions to also be released as the body reintegrates and heals. Unfortunately, there are no guidelines I have for you to distinguish a healing crisis from a new injury or a formula that does not work for you.
If you are just beginning to heal your herpes, be sure to give a remedy some time to work and don’t be surprised if your symptoms get worse before they get better. It is quite possible that the remedy or exercise might be causing the virus to be killed off in large numbers. This could lead to an increase in symptoms as your body attempts to push the virus out of your body from a dormant state. This COULD be a healing response, depending on your comfort level, make a change if you feel the need to try something different.
