Healing Modalities from Our Everyday
4 May 2025
Generally speaking, when I think of healing modalities, my mind drifts to Reiki, sound baths, essential oils, crystals, massage, Emotion Code®, etc. That makes sense, I suppose, given my line of work and the fact that I’ve benefited from all those I listed.
Recently, however, I received what can best be termed a reminder that healing modalities exist within our everyday—mundane, even—lives. That reminder was timely, considering the times we’re currently walking through. For anyone who is faced with being more budget-conscious than normal, the modalities mentioned here may offer unexpected and highly accessible healing opportunities.
Here are several to reflect on:
Baking Bread (and Cooking)
When I was laid off for the first time back in 2008, I discovered bread baking. It took me a few months, and yet through efforts to save money, I decided to try my hand at baking my own bread and discovered an affinity for it. Within that affinity, I also came to appreciate its healing properties.
I was so unsettled by no longer being tethered to a job, as I’d been raised to do, and being jobless in a job market that was challenging to the max, and relying on unemployment checks to make ends meet. The process of kneading the dough, setting it to rise, kneading it more, setting it to rise again, and then enjoying the preview of coming attractions provided by the oven's heat as it baked calmed me as nothing else could at the time.
Healing Modalities from Our Everyday is an original blog post by Ellen M. Gregg for ellenmgregg.com. It was published 4 May 2025. #healingmodalities #everyday #baking #writing #playingpiano #wellbeing
While I focused specifically on baking bread for this post, baking and cooking, in general, can provide a creative outlet with appreciable results for ourselves and our loved ones.
Writing
Writing has been my go-to outlet for sharing thoughts, struggles, opinions, etc., for as long as I can remember. It's striking and disturbing that I haven’t been using that healing modality to its potential.
Admittedly, it's the first time I recall considering my writing a healing modality, whether in my journals, on my blog, or via my email list. It is that, though. For me, writing has provided an emotional catalyst, eased my overthinking mind, fueled my creativity, and simply been my creative outlet.
There was a time when I wrote three blog posts every week. That went on for years, and then it dwindled to barely posting one every few months. There was also a time when I wrote emails to my list every other week without fail, unless a life event interfered.
My public writing waned long before this calendar year began for reasons I have yet to identify. Maybe it was because I felt as though I no longer had anything new to add to the spiritual landscape, or maybe it was because I felt uncomfortable sharing some of my experiences and ever-evolving understandings.
At any rate, I hope my current commitment to writing a blog post every day for 40 days will help me recommit to writing with much increased regularity.
Playing Piano or Other Instruments
Fun fact: I can play the piano. It’s been a long time, because I no longer have a piano in my home, and yet there was a time when I played piano every day. At that time, it acted as a way to decompress. I’d come home from work, put away my purse and whatever else needed it, and plant myself at my upright piano for at least 30 minutes.
As I played, I released the day's tensions and gently unwound until I felt calm inside. On weekends, it was part of my routine to spend even more time working on various pieces I was learning.
It’s pretty well documented that playing an instrument requires us to use our brains differently, which is wonderful for us. It can help us with any academics we pursue (which is why I feel STEAM is far better than just STEM), support our memory and cognition, and more.
I included playing an instrument as an accessible healing modality because it felt important. Intuitively, I see closets with guitars, electric keyboards, or other instruments tucked into them, unused. They may be “leftovers” from middle or high school that were cast aside for other activities or priorities. Maybe it’s time to bring them into the light of day.
Reading
Once upon a time, I was a voracious reader. It was to such an extent that I carried a book wherever I went in case the opportunity to return to its pages presented itself. That changed over time as other interests with huge time commitments became my norm. Then, last year happened. I read 97 books in 2024 after setting an original reading goal of 24 books.
In retrospect, I feel as though once I got started, I couldn’t stop. Its quality was almost addictive. I read fiction and nonfiction; romance, literature, magical realism, memoir, and more were checked off my reading list. This year, I’ve read just three books of the 48 on my reading goal so far. Whether or not my pace will increase remains to be seen. I’m not stressed about it.
The thing about reading is, it can give us a break from our everyday worries and stresses. Books can transport us to different eras and regions, introducing us to cultures we’re unlikely to become acquainted with in “real” life, inspiring and motivating us in myriad ways. We can learn so much about ourselves through reading, which can be healing indeed.
Be Aware of Bypassing
Bypassing is another way of saying avoiding. Any healing modality can be used to bypass doing whatever we need to in terms of addressing and working through challenges we face.
At their heart, healing modalities are illuminators. In various ways, they illuminate pathways that perhaps we didn’t notice before. Ideally, those pathways support us in finding the appropriate way to deal with turbulence in our lives. Be aware enough to assess whether you’re bypassing or addressing.
Thanks for reading.
