The term self-healing often brings to mind images of mystical meditations or miraculous therapies, but in truth, it’s far more grounded. In reality, Self-healing is the only kind of healing. Your body possesses the incredible innate ability to regenerate and rebalance itself, and neither doctors nor medicine can do any of the actual healing—rather, they help remove obstacles that prevent your body from healing itself.
At its core, self-healing is about clearing the way for your body’s natural repair function to take effect. This is a potent example of the reality that stagnation is the root of all illness. Stagnation can occur physically, mentally, or even on a cellular level, and is the source of many imbalances in the body. Whether it’s mental health struggles, chronic illness, or sudden injury, they all share a common theme—something in the system is stuck.
Let’s break that down a little further. When you experience anxiety or depression, it’s usually because your mind is stuck on something. You’re trapped in repetitive thoughts, unable to be present. You're either fixated on a past event, or worrying about a future possibility. Neither of those points of focus are in the present, and neither of them are really moving forward. They are stagnant ideas that do not belong in this moment. Similarly, disease occurs when some deep internal process becomes disrupted—whether it’s a visceral or cellular function, something isn’t circulating or moving as it should. True self-healing comes down to allowing our body to do it's thing my facilitating a smooth circulation of energy and natural movement in the body.
Injuries, even though they often seem sudden, are typically the result of long-standing tension in the body. Muscles either get locked in contraction, unable to release, or they become too relaxed and lose responsiveness. That tension is stagnation—a lack of fluid, efficient movement in the body. And the same principle applies to those odd aches and pains that seem to appear out of nowhere. They’ve been building up over time, but you just didn’t notice until it became impossible to ignore.
Now, imagine two people involved in the same kind of car accident. One might walk away unscathed, while the other suffers a disproportionate injury from what seemed like a minor incident. This isn’t about luck. It often comes down to the condition of the body before the accident—the weak link in the chain of tension will snap under pressure.
Whether we’re talking about injury, mental health challenges, or illness, the body’s imbalances all stem from stagnation. When left unresolved, these imbalances ripple across the nervous system, musculoskeletal system, and even internal organs, progressively creating dysfunction throughout the body.
But here’s the good news: self-healing is about clearing these blockages and restoring balance. It’s about empowering yourself to tap into the body’s natural healing mechanisms and foster an environment where repair can happen.
The Body’s Natural Repair System
Your body is designed to heal. Immune responses, tissue regeneration, hormonal balancing—all of these are processes of self-regulation built into our biology. Self-healing is about actively supporting these systems by creating the right conditions for recovery. Proper nutrition, adequate rest, mindful movement, and stress reduction are essential to allow these processes to work effectively.
Mind-Body Connection
Emotional and psychological states can have a profound impact on physical healing. When the mind is calm and the nervous system is balanced, the body heals more efficiently. Practices like mindfulness, meditation, and deep breathing aren’t just mental exercises—they’re tools that influence your body’s ability to recover. By calming the mind and reducing stress, you enhance your body’s self-healing capacity, allowing it to work in harmony with your mental state.
Energy and Balance
In methodologies like Acupuncture, Shiatsu, or Reiki, healing is often seen as a process of balancing the body’s energy. Whether it’s Qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine or Prana in Ayurvedic practices, the concept of restoring flow and harmony resonates with the physical reality of movement. Your body’s natural movements are tied to energy flow, and stagnation is the enemy of both physical health and energetic balance. By engaging in practices that restore efficient movement—like joint mobilization and natural movement training—you are, in effect, clearing the pathways for both energy and physical circulation.
Empowerment and Responsibility
Self-healing is empowering as it puts the responsibility for your health into your hands. It’s about recognizing that your habits, thoughts, and actions directly influence your well-being. Whether or not you have a problem for which you need medical intervention, if you're not taking responsibility for your self-healing, the effectiveness of your treatment will undoubtably be effected. You can choose to foster an environment of healing through healthier lifestyle choices, emotional self-regulation, and by engaging in movement practices that align your body with its natural rhythms.
The Pillars of Self-Healing
Let’s talk about the practical tools that can help you unlock your body’s potential for self-healing. These tools are expressed in a daily practice that can take as little as 20 minutes and are designed to address stagnation, restore balance, and enhance your body’s natural healing abilities.
Palpation
Palpation involves using your hands to feel areas of your body and detect tension or abnormalities. By pressing on muscles and joints, you can identify tense or tender spots. Applying relaxed pressure can bring awareness back to the area, helping the muscle release abnormal tension, and restoring alignment to the joints. This practice, known as Shiatsu among the healing arts in Japan, is a powerful tool for reconnecting with your body and restoring balance. Shiatsu also integrates both elements of Traditional Japanese Medicine, and Western Science and Physiology.
Here's a simple self-Shiatsu routine for the lower body that you can learn:
Joint Mobilization
Moving your joints through their full range of motion can reveal restrictions you didn’t even know you had. Slow, controlled movement helps "wake up" muscles that have become stagnant and allows you to release tension that restricts joint movement. This is known as Junan Taiso in Japanese practice, and it’s one of the most effective ways to prevent stagnation from settling into the joints and muscles. Here's a video that will teach you a simple routine that you can do every day to keep your hips and back mobile:
Reverse Motion
Reverse motion involves gently moving your body in the direction of least resistance when you notice an imbalance between two sides. For example, if turning your head to the left feels more restricted than to the right, reverse motion would have you gently moving in the easier direction. With a partner, this can be done against gentle resistance and released suddenly to release tension and restore balance. This technique, called Sotai, helps realign the body and reduce tension asymmetries, also integrating both elements of Traditional Japanese Medicine and Western Physiology.
Here is a video tutorial of a basic Sotai exercise that helps align the hips and lower back, while improving the ease of relaxing into a deep kneeling position. If you have a hard time kneeling, this might be a good exercise for you to focus on for a while and see how your condition improves:
Natural Movement Training
Natural movement involves examining foundational human movements like walking, running, jumping, crawling, and balancing, and identifying where inefficiencies have crept in. These habits can create stagnation in the body, leading to long-term imbalances. By refining the way we move, we prevent injury, release tension, and foster a more harmonious relationship with our environment. Learning how to fall safely, improving balance, and connecting more deeply with the ground are all essential aspects of preventing stagnation and promoting self-healing.
In my opinion, the most important place to start with natural movement training, is injury prevention. This includes balance, single-leg strength, basic mobility, along with breakfall and rolling skills. Check out the video below to work through a natural movement training session focused on some Ukemi skills:
If you enjoyed that and would like to get deeper into the Ukemi and injury prevention skillset of natural movement training, I have created a comprehensive online program that teaches the various techniques of breakfalls and rolls from the ground up along with a guide for strengthening, mobility, and balance training. Check out the following link to learn more about the Ukemi Foundations online course:
It might sound like a lot, but engaging in a daily practice of self-care using these pillars can be maintained in as little as 20 minutes a day. These videos shared add up to more than that, but once you have learned what the videos are teaching, you can work through those exercises quite quickly if you need to. By addressing stagnation and nurturing your body’s natural processes, you’re setting the stage for a lifetime of resilience, balance, and true self-healing.
Great article, Alex! Straightforward, detailed, and the videos are very easy to follow. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 🙏