WHAT IS NATURAL HEALING?
WHAT IS NATURAL HEALING?
Natural Healing, also called alternative medicine or holistic healing, is a system that emphasizes self-care using natural therapies that aim to develop and restore health and wellness through prevention and natural means, as opposed to surgery and the use of drugs. Natural health practitioners place a great emphasis on prevention and healthy living in order to avoid illness in the first place. They provide health education to people so they will regain freedom over their health – particularly giving them back the opportunity to heal themselves and making them aware of which health decisions are best. Natural healing differs in various ways from traditional medicine. It considers the real healer to be Nature herself, and seeks to work in cooperation with Nature to effect healing, rather than to treat the patient as a complex machine. It is also called holistic healing, because it takes into consideration the entire person, body, soul and spirit. The attitude of patients, far from being irrelevant, is crucial to their well-being and their ability to heal. Since many natural healing methods have been ignored and belittled by traditional medicine, this movement has grown outside the limits of the officially approved circuits. The people involved in it are therefore inclined to have less respect for invested authority. Patients want to be active participants in the care of their own body, rather than passive receivers. They want to be treated as equals, as adults. The term "patient" in itself hints at a basically passive attitude. In the natural healing context, the patient is asked to listen to his body so he can detect the symptoms of his disorder. Treatment through natural healing is carried out when the patient takes an active role and adopts healthy practices. Natural healing emphasizes the consumption of natural products (such as herbs, nuts, legumes, sprouts, seeds, grains, vegetables and fruits) and supplements. Our emotional well-being is placed in our hands when we are encouraged to have a positive attitude towards our health. Basically, we are asked to take responsibility for our health. The goal of traditional medicine, on the other hand, is to destroy or cure a disease or illness by eliminating the symptoms. This is done via the intake of drugs or surgery, also known as medical intervention. Patients who follow traditional medical practices tend to eat man-made products that may have toxic side effects, rather than natural products. Many patients maintain a negative attitude towards their health, which further derails their progress towards good health. To get better, the patient places responsibility for his health on another person – usually the doctor. In fact, natural healing is based on a very different worldview from that of traditional medicine. Traditional medicine comes from the paradigm that was developed at the time of the Enlightenment. In their effort to throw off the shackles of a repressive political system based on royalty and privileges that drew its legitimacy from God as defined by his earthly representatives, thinkers of the 18th century rejected any and all kinds of spirituality and created a new religion called science. For them science was synonymous with materialism, and all explorations beyond the realm of what could be seen and touched became taboo, because it was considered as a regression to a dark, ignorant past. Natural healers transgress this taboo in many ways, and this is why a lot of people - on both sides - often become very emotional about this subject, instead of asking the most relevant question: does it work or not?
Related Items:
|
