Physical Techniques You Can Do for Self Healing

There are quite a number of physical techniques you can use to enhance all healing modalities. Most are quite easy, but some can become very involved. 

The more you can do for yourself, the better all treatments will work for you - no matter what issue or situation you are dealing with.

Yoga, in its various forms, is one of the most well-known and widely accepted physical techniques to enhance your health. A couple forms are great for those who are beginners or have little strength due to illness.

Other forms of yoga are best suited to advanced practitioners and those whose health is not compromised. And, still others are specific to an area of spiritual study and are very involved.

Tai Chi is a one of the "martial arts." It is based on breath control and flowing movement. Each posture is designed to strengthen one area of the body, but the fluidity between postures enhances control over both musculature and the mind. Its aim is not only to strengthen the body, but also the mind, the will and the spirit. 

Qi Gong is very closely related to Tai Chi, and is based on the same ideas. It has been "westernized" more than Tai Chi, with its martial influences, and so is more palatable to those of us who are largely unfamiliar with  its precepts. It is easier to master, and not quite as dogmatic as Tai Chi can be, but it too has its prescribed postures and movements.

Physical Techniques of Breath-work and Voice for Health and Healing

-Breathwork is, quite simply, the control of the breath to create certain effects on the body. It can involve inhaling and exhaling to a specific count, simply noticing your breathing for a period of time, and other control methods. 

It can sound weird to our "sophisticated" western minds, but how we breath - how deeply, how fluidly, how forcefully - can and does have an effect on various organs and systems within our bodies.

The use of mantras will be covered in the section on sound healing, but as they are a form of exercise, using voice and modulation, they are also every bit as much a physical healing method as any other exercise.

Bio-Feedback and Similar Techniques

Bio-feedback was really popular back in the 1970's and early 80's. It was discovered that the body's rhythms can be mapped, and that this can give clues as to how to optimize health and healing.

Though a machine actually does most of the heavy lifting, because it deals with bodily rhythms and functions, I consider this one of the physical techniques here.

It was also used to help people make behavioral changes, well before it was realized that certain memories as well as modes of doing things are largely somatic (body-based), and that if we can't change by will and intellect alone, there is a physical component.

Good old-fashioned exercise belongs here, too. In addition to keeping the body fit as a fiddle, exercise routines can be developed for healing any part of the body. Of course, you can pay someone - a physical therapist - or you can hire a trainer, as well.

Obviously, we have all heard of physical techniques for cardio health, increasing lung capacity and so on - as well as strengthening and healing limbs that have been damaged or had surgery. This is certainly nothing new!

Dance can also be healing! Just moving your body through gravity has its benefits, and while it is great to do these things when you feel good so as to maintain your health, you can also do modified versions when ill to help heal the illness.