The Role of the Power of Love in Holistic Medicine and Healing

“Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.” – Buddha

Love is our most potent healing power. The power of love plays a vital role in holistic medicine and the body’s natural healing process. Love’s healing power is listed as one of the Ten Principles of Holistic Medicine by the American Holistic Medicine Association (AHMA), and love is mentioned in sacred scriptures as a basic human attribute.

Whether you are sick in bed with a minor head cold, or healing your body from cancer, everyone feels better when they are surrounded by people who love them, care about them and share physical expressions of their compassion, or just exchange a warm hug. Showing and receiving love has healing power that can’t be denied.

Moreover, the power of love in healing is not limited to receiving. Love toward the Self in healing is as powerful as the love you would receive from others and it would contribute to a faster recovery from illnesses. The role of the power of love is immense and there are a number of scientific explanations for how love heals.

The Love Hormone—Oxytocin

Oxytocin is a hormone that is released by the body’s pituitary gland when women are in labor, delivering the baby and later during breastfeeding. It’s released in both men and women when they are having intercourse, but it’s also released when you show affection to your dog, or do something that makes someone else feel good.

Oxytocin is a healing hormone. Oxytocin reduces high blood pressure, lowers anxiety, and it causes the body to release less of the stress hormone, cortisol.

As we feel embraced and supported by the loving words, and touch of those around us, our body releases the love hormone, oxytocin, which helps support the healing process. The oxytocin that is released in the process of giving and receiving love also serves to help strengthen the bond between people. Whether between couples, family members, friends or just a patient and practitioner relationship, oxytocin helps inspire them to connect through their love and compassion. Isn’t that a beautiful chain reaction of love and healing?

Case Studies on the power of love in the healing process:

The Archives of General Psychiatry, published a study in 2005 with regard to the power of love on the healing of wounds. When researchers induced wounds of the same size, shape and depth in couples, the wounds healed faster in the couples that were acting more loving towards one another than the wounds in the couples that acted in a hostile way towards one another.

In another case study on the power of love in healing, Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM), which is a practice of directing warm feelings of compassion towards the self and other people. LKM was shown to improve the psychological recovery of people who were suffering from schizophrenia.

The role of giving and receiving love in the healing process cannot be overstated. If you are in the midst of the healing process from an ailment or a disease, be sure to believe that healing begins with your self love and surround yourself with loving people who will encourage your body’s natural healing process. Foster a warm, supportive relationship with your health care providers. If they don’t share your philosophy or beliefs about the importance of love to the healing process, then it might be time to consider holistic health practitioners in your neighborhood. For example, AHMA provides a nationwide online directory of holistic health care practitioners, including both conventional (physicians) and alternative practitioners (such as acupuncturists).