Chakras & Healing: The Surprising Findings of Energy Psychology Research

✨Exploring the Science of Energy Healing: Groundbreaking Study Reveals Rapid Relief Techniques✨

In this episode, we delve into the intersection of spirituality and science, uncovering the latest research on energy modalities. Join me as I discuss a groundbreaking study conducted at the University of Nevada, comparing Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) with Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT). Developed at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine, this study shed light on the efficacy of energy-based interventions in alleviating distress and the promising potential of energy psychology modalities in transforming mental health care.

Key Points:

• Introduction to Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT and Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT)
• Understanding the chakra system and its role in energetic healing 
• Overview of the study comparing EFT and AIT conducted at the University of Nevada
• Implications of the study findings for mental health treatment

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Intro and Outro music: Inspiring Morning by Playsound

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be treated as psychological treatment or to replace the need for psychological treatment.

Transcript

Tatiana: 0:00

Welcome to the Integrated Wisdom Podcast. I am your host, Tatyana Da Silva. Join me as we discuss what it means to live an integrated life and explore ways for you to create a life filled with greater meaning, peace, and connection by integrating the wisdom of spirituality, psychology, Neuroscience, Epigenetics and Energy Psychology are hoped to empower you to create deeper and more loving connections with yourself and others, whilst also paving the way for humanity at large to be reimagined and inspired to become the very best version of itself. Hello and welcome to the integrated recent podcasts. I'm so excited to have you join me for yet another episode this week. So as you can probably tell from my voice already, I am feeling a little bit excited today to share what, what I want to be talking about. And for those of you that having following along. Though for the last few months. You have no doubt figured out by now. And I am a huge nerd. When it comes to. Any scientific research pertaining to spirituality or the energetic nature of our. Of our beings or energy modalities. And just the other day. I was forwarded this journal article about a recent study that was done. On energy, psychology modalities comparing to her two of them. And I was so excited when I saw this article. Because it was starting to look at. A particular part of. The energy concepts that have been floating around for a long, long time. That I hadn't seen anything scientifically. Even coming close to looking at it before. So when I saw this article, I was beside myself. Because again, like I've been saying this for a little while. I believe wholeheartedly, right? That we are now well into. A movement or a path that's taking us towards starting to demonstrate. The spiritual nature of life. Right. The other elements and components that make up who we are beyond our physical body. For so long. We've been taught to think. That we're just this. Bag of flesh and bones that are completely run by these hormones that our body produces and nothing more. And we're finally starting to understand and be curious about. The evidence that suggests otherwise, right? The evidence has always existed. Um, but we're finally, finally starting to understand, hold on a second. We need to start looking at all these things that we've been ignoring all this time. Because there might be some clues here. About the essence of what it means to be a human being or what it means to achieve for wellness or holistic health and wellness. And this study. Is another step in that direction. And so I jumped out of my skin when I saw this. So this study was conducted out of Las Vegas in the US. out of the Kirk Kirkorean school of medicine at the university of Nevada. So what these researchers have done is they've, they've started to compare a New emerging energy modality against another. Energy modality that has already been more established and has. amassed a huge amount of clinical evidence. To support its efficacy within a clinical population. So I'm, I know that I've mentioned this briefly in other episodes before. But this technique is called emotional freedom techniques or EFT. And for a long time. It was relegated to woo woo circles and esoteric. circles Until some researchers started to really look at. There's something here in this technique, it does seem to be alleviating. Some, some symptoms, some distress let's look at this more. objectively. And they started creating randomized clinical trials around this methodology. And have been able to amass a large body of evidence to show its efficacy. for a variety of. Clinical conditions from PTSD to generalized anxiety disorder. Two major depression to a variety of other, um, psychological and emotional symptoms. To the point where EFT is now accepted as evidence based practice for clinical use with some of those populations. Right. Um, and one of the leading researchers that spearheaded this effort is actually an Australian Peta Stapleton from Bond University. She's done. At an incredible job in amassing the evidence. For the clinical efficacy of, um, EFT. And so, because it has already. Achieved this legitimacy. These are the researchers from. The university of Nevada then decided to contrast. Uh, another. Energy methodology. That is a little bit less. Um, talked about and less known. I hadn't even heard of it, to be honest until, I've read this article and now I need to go and do more deeper dive into this. This is the problem, guys. I started with down these little rabbit hole, and then you lose me for, for weeks at a time while I research everything about it. But I just didn't want to wait until I did that before I did this episode, because I was just so excited when I saw these articles. But these methodology that they're contrasting against EFT. Is called advanced integrative therapy. It's relatively new. It's only been around, I mean, relatively new. You know, in comparative terms to other psychological methodologies, but it's been around since the late nineties. And it essentially uses, the old Vedic system of chakras. So energy centers in the body. As the method of energy manipulation. So for those of you who are familiar with EFT or may have experienced that, you know, that. The tapping or as it's otherwise known occurs at various Meridian points and it's very, um, Aligned with the, the Meridian system in Chinese medicine. Right in traditional Chinese medicines or. At the acupuncture pressure, pressure points, occupation points. That are used in acupuncturing in other traditional Chinese medicine modalities. Serve the foundation or basis for EFT tapping. Um, but with this. Advanced integrative therapy. The foundation is the chakra system that stems from the Vedic doctrines. In. Very very ancient Hindu. philosophies. And Ayuverdic teachings? So for those of you who aren't familiar with with chakras, Chakras are essentially energy centers. In the body. And they, uh, there are seven of them in total. And they are spread out through the middle of our body. Starting from the very base of our spine. So around the pelvic floor area. Going all the way to the top of our heads. so just think of them as these subtle energy centers that are stacked. One on top of the other, but spread out throughout our central body. And. It's it's completely just energy right there. Energy centers. But obviously they have, uh, uh, Of corresponding relationship with various organs within our bodies as well. But it is said that these centers of energy. Basically if they're open and flowing well, that is one of the foundations for overall health and wellness. And if there are any blockages in any of these centers that tends to manifest as a variety of different symptoms from physical illnesses or ailments to emotional or psychological, Distresses or disturbances. So to give you a broader context. It basically did like centers. For balance and alignment and wellness, or if all of these centers are open and working in unison alignment. Then we are able to access the full expression of our essence and the full capacity and potential. For our wellbeing. So just to give you a little bit of context before diving into the, into the study. Because I don't know that everybody would be across, you know, chakras or what they represent. So, like I said, there are seven of them. And the number one chakra is also known as the root chakra. And it's. If you were going to visualize it on a person, it is located at the very base of the spine or the pelvic floor. So around that region where our coccyx sits right around there. And the root chakra is all about the physical body. Material needs and our sense of security and safety in the world. Right. And you know, it's essentially an action center, everything kind of Springs from the root chakra. It starts there. And it's said that when it's in alignment, We tend to feel confident. We tend to feel safe. We tend to feel financially secure. And, you know, the converse is, are. Is also true. So, whenever we're feeling a little bit unsafe or we're stuck in scarcity mindsets. It's usually an indication that our Root Chakra might be blocked. Okay. And then we move a little bit further up. To just around our L belly, the abdomen, just in that section there. And that's where we find the sacral chakra. And. The sacral chakra is all around our emotions and feelings. Right. So. You know, unsurprisingly it's it sits around the area of out gut. Um, And we know that our gut is a, is another. Core center for our emotional wellness. You know, when our gut flora is not functioning very well, and that can contribute to symptoms of anxiety and depression. So it's not surprising then that. This region is connected to our emotions and feelings. But it also is known to represent a spoken off. To represent. Our creativity, our sensuality. Our fertility of ideas. And I guess how the flow of our sexual energy. And we know that it's in alignment. When we have a really healthy self image. Self esteem, self confidence. Um, and we're, and we were able to be flexible with the flow of life so we can adapt to changes with greater ease. Right. These are indications that our, our sacral chakra easing in alignment is in floor. If there are blocks, we're going to be feeling, I guess. A little bit unsure of ourselves. Um, we're not, we might be having. L a periods or bouts of low self-esteem. We might be feeling really stuck and fearful of change or uncertainty. Those that would be symptoms of it being blocked. Um, And then as we move a little bit further up just above the belly button, but underneath where our ribcage starts. So just in that center section there. Underneath. The base of our sternum. He's what's known as the solar plexus chakra. And this is. The center of our. Cor like our ability to feel. Now our ideas, our belief systems, our confidence. Our ability to perceive what's around us to be structured in our, in our ideas. Um, and our ability to be successful. It's about our personal power. Right. It. The, the sh the solar plexus is really all about our sense of personal power. Our sense of motivation, our sense of resilience. Our ability to, to. To develop, transforming to have transformations. And to feel brave, to feel courageous, you know, to trust in ourselves, in our capacity to do things. If our solar plexus. Is open and. Aligned, we're going to feel clear about what we're trying to achieve. We're going to feel courage. We're going to feel confident. Um, we're going to be feeling really, grounded, and centered and capable. And conversely, you throw any blocks in that, in that chakra space. We're going to be feeling very fearful. We're going to be second guessing ourselves, going to be showing a secure. I'm going to have imposter syndrome. These are usually symptoms of it being blocked. Then we move into our fourth chakra, which is our heart chakra, and it's located right in that physical HeartSpace. So right in the center of our chest. Um, which is. You know, Trying to be connected with our endocrine system or endocrine gland. And. Easy implicated in the generation of oxytocin. Um, but essentially the heart chakra, as you would imagine. It's a center for connection. Love bonding and relationships. So anything that's going on in our lives that relates to these things is going to be directly influenced by. An impact. The heart chakra. So when our heart chakra is open in alignment, we're feeling. Really at ease and in flow in our relationships, we feel this capacity to be forgiving. We've got lots of compassion. We've got this sense of expensiveness. We're able to offer lots of love to others, but also to ourselves, it's also a center for self-love. And we've got this, a greater ability to just listen. To our intuition or to our, you know, to the whispers of our heart. And not be so driven by our head. We're able to connect with our emotions. And when that chakra is blocked, we have. Greater difficulties, I guess, in, um, feeling connected, we feel alone and isolated. We're more likely to have feelings of anger. Or, you know, revenge and. Just yeah. Feeling really cynical. These are usually symptoms of having a blockage in our hearts chakra. And then moving out from there and we've got the fifth chakra, which is the throat chakra. And it's located at the throat or the base of the neck and the upper shoulder area there. And not surprisingly the sh the throat chakra is a center for communication. Right. It's where our thoughts and ideas are expressed from or through. And so when throat chakra current is open and in alignment, we're able to express ourselves freely. We can speak our truth authentically. We can, um, And our express boundaries be assertive. Be expressive in positive ways as well. And when it's blocked, it's usually when we're holding things back. Um, We might feel some anxiety you might feel fearful. You know, sometimes you can even feel it like this. Like there's like a lump in the throat or the something that's just kind of stuck here. When we get a third irritation, that's usually an indication that our throat chakra might be blocked. And then moving on from there, we've got the sixth chakra. Which is our third eye chakra. And it's located right at the brow. The brow area. So in between the two eyebrows there, just in that section there. And the. The third eye chakra. Connects with, um, I guess our brain activity, but also our ability to self perceive. Right. So how we see ourselves, um, in the context of the broader picture, how self-aware we are. How connected to what's going on around us. We might be our intuition, our ability to see things or to think fairly clearly about things. So those are symptoms of our chakra about. Third eye chakra being really open and aligned. You know, our intuition is strong. It's on point. We can experience it with clarity. Um, our thoughts are clear. Um, You know, We're Hailey self-aware. We understand what's going on in now in our landscape. And if our third eye chakra is blocked. That the symptoms that will come with that are potentially, really stuck thinking patterns of rumination. Or obsessive thinking processes, or we might experience bring form for example, or just that lack of clarity and ability to connect with our intuition, feeling a little bit lost. Okay. And then lastly, we have the seventh chakra. Which is the crown chakra and it sits right at the top of the head. And it's. It's. Role in essence, is that of connecting us to mystical experiences. it's considered. One of the central centers of our spirits, ability to connect with our body. Um, It's not the only one, but it's considered to be one of the, the centers in which our soul, our spirit will connect with our physical body. But it's also where our ability to connect with That greater essence beyond ourselves, you know, the universe. Um, God, the ability to know that there's something higher and greater available to me. It all starts to connect at that crown chakra level. So when it's open and aligned and attuned. We're going to feel this greater sense of expansiveness. We're going to feel deep levels of compassion. And a love for all humanity, like on a really, really large, broad scale. We're going to feel really attuned with ourselves. We're going to be so connected. Because. The way that the chakra system works is that each, you know, this. Um, the energy will flow from the. From the first chakra to the top. So if we're able to access our crown chakra means that all the other centers are also open. And flowing. Right. It's almost a prerequisite for us to be able to access that. So it means everything is working in perfect unison and in alignment. And so this advanced integrative therapy modality actually works with that system. And in, you know, similar pattern to what we would do with EFT, with tapping. You would hold. Your hand over the particular chakra region. That's associated with a negative memory or with a negative, uncomfortable thought. And there is a key phrase that you would say. Whilst holding that. That region. That will allow your body or your energy centers to clear the negative associations with that center. Um, and relieve you off the distress. Associated with those memories or experiences. And so that's the, that's the premise of the study that was conducted. By these researchers at the university of Nevada. They started to compare the efficacy of AIT. So advanced integrative therapy. With the effects that we can observe with EFT, with the tapping. And they use a couple of different measures to compare them. One of the measures was the standard, um, subjective units of distress that we in psychology use to measure. Emotional distress in people. So for those who aren't familiar with that scale. a SUD of one. Means or zero there's zero emotional distress. And a set of 10, there is excruciating emotional distress. And so we ask participants to rank their distress within that, that scale. It's very similar to the physical pain scale that's used. And it helps us gauge as well where people are at and how interventions are. Producing results for people as we go through them. And. The other measure that they used was they looked at a heart. Variation. Intervals. So, what that means is they were looking at the, the length of the gaps between heartbeats. Um, Which tend to be a really good indicator of how active the parasympathetic nervous system or the sympathetic nervous system might be. So if the beat are really close together, that is an indication of the sympathetic nervous system being more predominant and which makes sense, right? Like when we're in fight and flight, normally we will have that racing heart. And they'll, our beats will be very quick. Um, but if we're in parasympathetic, then those beats will be. Spaced further apart. And that was one of the measures that they used to also assess. The decrease in distress of participants as they went through. The. The application of this method, these techniques. And so what they, the study found. Is that there was absolutely no statistically significant difference. Between. AIT and EFT. So both of these methodologies, both of these energy methodologies were shown to be effective. In reducing levels of the stress associated with a negative painful memory. Right, which is incredible. What was most interesting is that AIT. So this methodology that uses the chakra system. Uh, a larger proportion. Of participants who did go through AIT and it was statistically significantly higher. Required only one round of the intervention. For their levels of distress or the so for their SUD measure to drop to zero or a one compared to EFT. Which took a little bit longer. with EFT they required a few more rounds of the technique. Whereas with the AIT, so, just saying the phrase that. The participant was given whilst holding their hand over the chakra centering question. Led to have complete cessation or reduction of their distress. With just one round. Which is remarkable, right? Cause like when we think about wanting to give our clients. Well, Even for consumers wanting to find ways to free ourselves from distress and suffering quickly. We all want that. Right. We all wanted to happen yesterday. To find these methodologies that can, can yield such rapid results. Is phenomenal. so I've found that particularly interesting and extremely exciting. But overall, the results suggested that there is an equivalence between AIT and EFT. So. They both produced robust, positive responses in terms of the technique and led to reductions. In associated negative emotions that were linked to her past traumatic experiences. So it's really, really promising. Now I have to preface this with highlighting that this is one of the earliest studies. It has been done around this methodology comparing these, there's lots of, other studies that probably need to be conducted. To, to really measure the efficacy of this on a broader scale and with different types of populations. But I think as an early indicator, it's extremely exciting. So one of the things that really just got me so excited about this study or the implications of this study. Is that it's starting to show the potential for working with other energy paradigms. Right with these energy centers in our body, the chakra system, for example. And the potential that that has to give people really rapid relief. From distress from suffering. That could potentially completely resolve their, their struggles very quickly. Yeah, I think that's extremely exciting. It will mean people don't have to do therapy for prolonged periods of time. It would mean that potentially. At this time when so many people are in need. They might be able to access, support and, um, tools to alleviate their distress. Quickly. Even in the shortage of. Um, Therapists worldwide, or particularly in Australia, we're having, we have a huge shortage of. Or psychologists and the demand is so high for. For the need that there is. And. To be able to offer methodologies like this would go such a long way. Towards decreasing level of distress in the broader community. but also these are non-pharmacological methodologies, right? Like the, there. Third Stein to demonstrate that there are ways for us to work with people. On other layers of the, of the individual. That can be very powerful, can be very effective and can be relatively cost effective. Right. But mostly like, I was just so excited to see these, because again, this is another example of serious scientists. Starting to broaden their scope of their understanding of the different layers that comprise the human being of this. Incorporation or integration of our energy body. Right. Of our spiritual layers, energetic layers. And that excites me because it just means. We're inching closer and closer. To living in a world where we understand wholeheartedly. That we are spiritual beings having a human experience. And all the possibilities, the positive possibilities that open up for us from there. In terms of transforming the way that we go about our lives, the way that we face adversity, the way that we. Co-exist as humans. And in our ability to create a world of greater compassion of greater justice is just, yeah, I can see, I can see it all starting to become. Closer and closer within reach. Um, So, yeah, I just wanted to share this with you or you. Unfortunately, it is a preliminary study. There's still a long way for us to go before these things have amassed significant body of evidence where we can really start to talk about these things more openly and, and incorporate them more decisively in the way that we work with people. But every, every major transformation or every major revolution starts with these tiny little steps. so yeah. It's super exciting. I hope you found it. as intriguing as I did. As always, you can always reach out to me on Instagram at integrated underscore wisdom. Love you to DM me. Ask me any questions that you may have. Send me your questions and your comments. Even your skepticism. I welcome it all. We should be having these conversations because the more we start talking about these things and shining spotlights on these things. I think the faster we can get. We can get to that, um, to that place of really embracing. The spiritual nature of life and in unlocking. The positive potential that comes with that. And yeah. Thank you so much for joining me for yet another week. I would just once again, ask for those of you who haven't yet subscribed to the podcast, please subscribe. and if you feel so inclined, I invite you to give me a rating and a review. Because it allows the. The algorithm to know that this content should be shared with other people. And it will help me in my mission to reach other people, To bring These insights and. Understandings to others who really may benefit from hearing this. I thank you for your support and listening. We should a lovely week. And I will speak to you all soon. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Integrated Wisdom. It is my sincere wish that today's episode may have intrigued and inspired you to reclaim your power and step into becoming more fully integrated spiritual beings. New episodes are published every Wednesday. And I hope you'll continue to join us as we dive deeper into what it means to live an integrated life. So if it feels aligned to you, I invite you to hit subscribe and share it with others who you feel may benefit too. You may also find me on Instagram at integrated underscore wisdom. Remember, each moment is an opportunity to embrace your divine potential and create a world that is more frequently inspired. So for now, stay connected, stay inspired and keep shining your light. Into the world.