Cure or Healing?

Article by Angie Webster

It can be challenging to understand and explain the difference between healing and curing. As healers and human beings, we often get caught in the desire for the immediate pain and discomfort to go away, whether that discomfort belongs to us or another.

The focus of most medicine and healing work in the world today has become to eliminate the symptoms of pain, discomfort and illness. This is seen as a cure in most cases. However, the symptoms our bodies and minds display are not the illness, but are a signal only. The pain and discomfort we feel are messages that something is out of balance in our lives. This imbalance can be on a mental, emotional or spiritual level. If it has generated illness in the physical body, there is likely to be a component of this imbalance that affects all levels of the person’s life.

These things can appear as beliefs that no longer work in our lives. They can be thought patterns or habits that we aren’t even conscious of, but are causing difficulty in our lives nonetheless. It can be something as simple as having no outlet for stress in life, especially if that is accompanied by the belief that this is how life is supposed to be. Or it can be very complex, perhaps requiring the assistance of a trained counselor to help with the layers of issues.

In order for healing to truly occur, these issues have to shift in some way. Removing the symptoms may temporarily bring relief, but the underlying issue remains and will reappear on the physical level, either in the same form or in another manner, until it is finally resolved on all layers of being. When an issue is resolved on the mental, emotional and spiritual levels, it usually resolves with amazing speed on the physical level as well.

The definition for cure is mostly a limited medical one, at least as it is used today. It tends to strictly refer to a relief of physical symptoms, or mental symptoms in the case of mental illness. There is seldom an acknowledgment of the other levels of human existence, or a useful way to address the interconnection of all these levels within the definition of “cure”.

Healing acknowledges that we are much more than our physical bodies, including our minds, our emotions, our energy bodies (spirit) and also that we are souls that exist beyond the physical realm. Within this definition, relief comes from treating all of these levels equally.

Working from a healing standpoint, we also honor that the one receiving healing is truly the one doing their own healing, from within. No one is able to do it for them, though we are able to help in creating the best inner and outer space possible for the imbalance to shift when they are ready to allow it.

It can be easy to forget that we are not in control of this! Remember that each person has their own free will and their own life lessons to learn. These are not punishments but things to be understood. No one can understand something for someone else. They must gain it for themselves or it is not truly theirs, just as children must learn to read for themselves or someone will always have to read for them. Once they have that understanding, they are free. Just the same is every life lesson and each brings its own freedoms. It is not our place to attempt to take this away, even if we feel we are doing it to relieve pain.

It is also true that not every healing leads to the person getting better and remaining in the physical body. Healing does not always mean this. Again, let’s look at the analogy of a child. When we parent a child, we know that ultimately they will grow up and become adolescents and then adults. These are normal passages in life and we would not wish to hold our children back from them. To do so would be unloving and unnurturing. The same is true of life. We are not meant to be in the physical form forever. Eventually we are meant to pass out of the body to realms of pure spirit. To do so is not a failure! It is more like a graduation! We miss our loved ones when they depart and some of us have our own fears of death, but we must not confuse death with a lack of healing. This process can be immensely healing when dealt with in a loving way.

We can use Reiki to assist at any point in our own or someone else’s healing process. We all have clearings that take place throughout our lives of stress and negative emotions and some of us have traumas and limiting thought patterns that can create illness as well. Reiki and other forms of energy medicine can help a great deal in bringing balance.

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Angie Webster made a significant contribution to the Reiki community, with a particular focus on Animal Reiki, which she had a deep affection for. As a knowledgeable Reiki Master Teacher and Author, she conducted online courses on energy healing, herbalism, flower essences, and personal growth.
She is the author of “Animal Reiki: How it Heals, Teaches & Reconnects Us with Nature” and “Reiki from A to Z”. Currently, Angie has decided to retire from her professional life to devote more time to her health, family, and the little joys of life.