What IS a ‘Healing Art’ anyway?
‘Healing’ can be defined as the ‘return to health’. And health, in the sense of healing arts, is very very broad – it is a euphemism for wholeness; for authenticity; for being connected to ALL aspect of yourself as a human; for our capacity to live the joy of our true selves moment to moment. THIS is health.
‘Art’ can be defined as a creative process, stemming from the imagination, or being guided from something beyond a step by step process.
A Healing Art is a system/framework of techniques that is applied in a creative intuitive way so as to bring about a new level of awareness; new connections; new understandings and perspectives; growth and transformation; a greater sense of wellbeing for the participant.
A by no means complete list of traditional healing arts is as follows:
- hatha yoga;
- tai chi;
- qi gong;
- other martial arts grounded in spiritual philosophy;
- meditation of any kind (breath, sound);
- massage (acupressure points);
- chanting…
Ancient healing arts have been used for millennia as medicine, and as self-maintenance and personal evolution tools.
More modern healing arts include:
- aikido;
- japanese yoga;
- shiatsu massage;
- self-massage;
- art therapy;
- guided visualisation meditation;
- wholefood knowledge and cooking;
- emotional freedom techniques (tapping)…
The modern healing arts are typically built upon practices and philosophies that have survived the test of time when it comes to supporting humankind.