Energy therapies such as healing touch, qi gong and reiki are low-risk, relatively inexpensive techniques that may help improve health and well-being, according to the July issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource.

Energy therapies are considered complementary and alternative health practices. Acupuncture is the best known, but others are gradually being integrated into health care practices in the United States.

Energy therapies come from many cultures and are based on ideas about natural energy fields. They aim to create a free flow of energy by clearing, balancing and stimulating the human energy system. Though energy therapies are not well understood or always embraced by traditional medical providers, proponents believe that a balanced energy system encourages wholeness — emotional, physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource provides a synopsis of three energy therapies:

Healing touch: Also known as therapeutic touch, healing touch is meant to stimulate the body’s self-healing processes. Gentle touching moves energy from the practitioner to the recipient, strengthening and reorienting the recipient’s energy flow within and around the body. Some people find healing touch relaxing. There’s little evidence to suggest other health benefits.

Qi gong: The Chinese word “qi gong” combines the term “qi” (chee), which means life force or vital energy, and “gong” (kung), meaning accomplishment or skill. Qi gong has many forms and is a common health practice throughout China. Two of the most common forms are tai chi and kung fu. In general, qi gong combines rhythmic movements, breathing techniques and focused intentions. Some approaches increase energy while others are used to cleanse and heal the body.

Reiki: In a reiki session, the practitioner’s hands are positioned either on or a few inches above the recipient’s body. The goal is to raise the amount of “ki”, or life force energy, in and around the person. The reiki practitioner uses between 12 and 15 different hand positions, holding each one for several minutes until the flow of energy slows or stops.

Like healing touch, reiki can promote relaxation. One study suggests it may positively affect blood pressure and heart and respiration rates.

Because of a lack of research, it’s hard to say for certain that energy therapies are completely safe and work or don’t work. Still, for people drawn to these approaches, they may be worth a try.

Source: Mayo Clinic

Pain may sometimes be the reason why people change. Getting flunked grades make us realize that we need to study. Debts remind us of our inability to look for a source of income.

Being humiliated gives us the ‘push’ to speak up and fight for ourselves to save our face from the next embarrassments. It may be a bitter experience, a friend’s tragic story, a great movie, or an inspiring book that will help us get up and get just the right amount of motivation we need in order to improve ourselves.

With the countless negativities the world brings about, how do we keep motivated? Try on the tips I prepared from A to Z…

A – Achieve your dreams. Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

B – Believe in your self, and in what you can do.

C – Consider things on every angle and aspect. Motivation comes from determination. To be able to understand life, you should feel the sun from both sides.

D – Don’t give up and don’t give in. Thomas Edison failed once, twice, more than thrice before he came up with his invention and perfected the incandescent light bulb. Make motivation as your steering wheel.

E – Enjoy. Work as if you don’t need money. Dance as if nobody’s watching. Love as if you never cried. Learn as if you’ll live forever. Motivation takes place when people are happy.

F – Family and Friends – are life’s greatest ‘F’ treasures. Don’t loose sight of them.

G – Give more than what is enough. Where does motivation and self improvement take place at work? At home? At school? When you exert extra effort in doing things.

H – Hang on to your dreams. They may dangle in there for a moment, but these little stars will be your driving force.

I – Ignore those who try to destroy you. Don’t let other people to get the best of you. Stay out of toxic people – the kind of friends who hates to hear about your success.

J – Just be yourself. The key to success is to be yourself. And the key to failure is to try to please everyone.

K – keep trying no matter how hard life may seem. When a person is motivated, eventually he sees a harsh life finally clearing out, paving the way to self improvement.
L – Learn to love your self. Now isn’t that easy?

M – Make things happen. Motivation is when your dreams are put into work clothes.

N – Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play a fair game.

O – Open your eyes. People should learn the horse attitude and horse sense. They see things in 2 ways – how they want things to be, and how they should be.

P – Practice makes perfect. Practice is about motivation. It lets us learn repertoire and ways on how can we recover from our mistakes.

Q – Quitters never win. And winners never quit. So, choose your fate – are you going to be a quitter? Or a winner?

R – Ready yourself. Motivation is also about preparation. We must hear the little voice within us telling us to get started before others will get on their feet and try to push us around. Remember, it wasn’t raining when Noah build the ark.

S – Stop procrastinating.

T – Take control of your life. Discipline or self control jives synonymously with motivation. Both are key factors in self improvement.

U – Understand others. If you know very well how to talk, you should also learn how to listen. Yearn to understand first, and to be understood the second.

V – Visualize it. Motivation without vision is like a boat on a dry land.

W – Want it more than anything. Dreaming means believing. And to believe is something that is rooted out from the roots of motivation and self improvement.

X – X Factor is what will make you different from the others. When you are motivated, you tend to put on “extras” on your life like extra time for family, extra help at work, extra care for friends, and so on.

Y – You are unique. No one in this world looks, acts, or talks like you. Value your life and existence, because you’re just going to spend it once.

Z – Zero in on your dreams and go for it!!!