Alternative medicine and healing practises have long been utilised in India to address conditions ranging from hypertension and gynaecological difficulties to life-threatening malignancies. As a result, when COVID-19 dug its teeth into people, killing thousands, many people resorted to alternative treatment systems such as Ayurveda, Siddha, and Reiki. Pranic healers were completely booked, and energy cleaners were brought in to remove the evil eye and doshas.
While the mainstream medical system was overburdened, with an alarming scarcity of hospital beds and oxygen, people with minor symptoms of illness and those who had recovered from Covid sought aid from traditional healers and practitioners.
Alternative and complementary healing approaches are still in high demand. And health professionals and healers are agitated, even burnt out, as a result of the rising number of people’s problems. Many healers and professionals, such as psychiatrists, are seeking for strategies to de-stress or are obliged to take pauses to decompress. We speak with a few of them to learn how the epidemic has impacted their lives and how they are dealing with it.
“The epidemic posed a threatening threat to everyone’s mental health.” “When people seek support and comfort from healers, they are rarely aware of the personal challenges the healers may be facing,” says Priyanka Aditya Baid, holistic healer, teacher, and spiritual coach at The Magical Orb. “When I was dealing with a personal loss, I formed a free Covid-19 healing and support group.” That gave me a lot of courage. “However, I became overworked,” she admits. “Yes, healers and therapists suffer from burnout as well.” “However, meditation, volunteer work, and brief cleansing breaks kept me going,” she says, adding that “you can only offer maximum assistance to others when you are feeling your best.”
