How To Manage A Healing Crisis
Every week we receive numerous emails and calls from clients concerned with the strange symptoms they are experiencing as they walk down the path of detoxification towards health and healing. This experience of sometimes uncomfortable symptoms is commonly called the ‘healing crisis’, and understanding this part of detoxification will give you the strength and empowerment to not only achieve the results you are looking for, but also help those around you to walk with confidence.
The most common symptoms that are experienced during detoxification are the following, although any range of symptomology is possible: skin rashes, irregular bowel movements, cold/flu, head aches, bloating, irritability etc.
The 3 Stages Of Discomfort
Stage 1 - Acute
The first stage we feel discomfort is when a problem is being created, such as when we drink a big milkshake and feel a bunch of mucus appear in our throat and sinuses. This is the discomfort created by our body as a protective mechanism and to alarm you that what you are doing is having a negative impact upon it. We feel this stage of discomfort in our emotional/mental lives also when we are hurt through perceived rejection, abuse, unfulfilled expectations etc.
Stage 2 - Chronic
The second stage at which we experience discomfort is when the acute situation from stage one has become chronic. When we continue to endure negative environments through the food we eat, the air we breathe, the lifestyles we live etc, we create chronic tension within ourselves, and chronic congestion in the fluids around our cells. For example, imagine that you do not learn your lesson after have your first big milkshake and continue to have them daily – the mucus being created by your body as a protective mechanism will be at such a level that if you wish to continue in that lifestyle then you will need a doctors help. You doctor will in turn give you a course of antibiotics to stop the mucus in it’s tracks and in doing so will force the mucus to become congested inside the body instead of being eliminated from the body. Similarly, when you continue to go through harmful emotional situations without changing our environments then usually those emotional coping mechanisms become chronic mental patterns of avoidance, learned helplessness and anxiety. Both in the physical body and in the emotional body, these states of chronic self-defense create long term, low grade discomfort and degeneration of life quality.
Stage 3 - Detoxification
The third and final stage at which we experience discomfort is when we bring what is chronic to the surface to be processed and eliminated. It is at this point when what is unconscious and chronic is brought to the conscious surface that we feel the most acute discomfort. Whether it is the case of facing your psychological fears and traumas, tracing them to their root and replacing them with new adult conclusions, or bringing congested mucus to the surface to be eliminated from the body – both are uncomfortable for a time. But it is precisely this moment of surface discomfort when we can choose either to push those negativities back down and create a more chronic condition, or release them an have freedom from them.
This third stage is what we commonly call the ‘healing crisis’ – the moment when chronic congestion is brought to the surface to be processed and eliminated. The advice I give to clients is to push through this stage as quickly as possible by stepping up your detoxification even more.
So become comfortable with discomfort and understand that this is your greatest opportunity to eliminate that which has been chronically degrading you life quality. Whether physical or emotional, releasing tension, inflammation and fear from your being can be challenging in the short run, but radically freeing in the long run.
Coping with a Healing Crisis
One of the best ways to cope with a healing crisis is to go all in. We have one 'swiss army knife' formula which is recommended whenever a client goes through a healing crisis, and this is Our Healing Tea. This tea greatly supports the body through detoxification and helps to soothe symptoms too. If you feel it is the right fit for you, you may like to follow in the footsteps of people who have done a fast on Our Healing Tea. You can read about their experiences here.