What Is a Healing Crisis?

When your body heals, it does not do so in a straight line forward, increasing every day.  Instead, healing occurs in more of a zigzag pattern, two steps ahead and one step back.

For some reason the forward march of health takes pauses, and waits in limbo before trudging forward again. Healers have noticed that cycles occur at three-day intervals after a healing experience, and again at one month and sometimes annually. What this means is that you may have a healing experience and feel great for three days, but on the third day begin to feel tired or symptomatic again, only to find you feel better than ever on the fourth day and the rest of the week.  The one-week anniversary of your healing experience can bring another day of feeling fatigued and a return of old symptoms. It’s as if the vital force needs to go backward and check-in and make sure that you really want to continue to move forward before you takes the next step toward health and healing.  For example, if you have a massage, visit a chiropractor, or have other bodywork, it is common to feel energized and relaxed immediately after the treatment.  (Occasionally people will feel tired or dehydrated from the release of extra toxins, but this usually goes away within a few hours of the bodywork.)  For the next few days the body continues to feel energized. But on the third day it is common to feel fatigued, or to feel old symptoms return.

Feeling good, our vital force looks around for something to do with its extra energy. When we have any crisis or injury—physical or emotional—we deal with what we can and store the rest for another day, a day when we feel strong and able to take on extra work.  It's at times like these that you will find yourself visiting past traumas, or even becoming symptomatic in old ways; perhaps even symptoms not experienced for years.

I liken healing to cleaning a house. You don't clean your house when you're sick but when you're feeling great you tackle not only maintenance, but those projects you've put off like the garage, attic, and that dark closet.  It is the same when your body is strong.  It takes on a healing project.  And what are those projects, those places long ignored like the attic, places full of long-term storage just like your garage? Your body’s storage centers are in the liver, the blood, the kidneys, and of course, the brain.

You might find yourself saying, “I was feeling so good and I don't know what happened. Some old symptoms I haven't felt for a long time have come back."

At these times, the symptoms can come back full force as they originally were or even more intensified.  It's a wake-up call to be noticed. The vital force likes to check into these forgotten places.  It's like putting a finger on an old wound.  It will take out any residual waste left in the far reaches in the organs, muscles.

Our culture doesn't give much appreciation to these backward steps. There is a sense that we must going forward, yet it is only by going backwards and picking up the pieces we left behind during times of physical and emotional stress that we can truly feel healed.  In a healing crisis,  you should  rest, sleep, drink plenty of water, watch the sunset and celebrate your body’s intelligent design.