We’ve all been there—sitting in a medical waiting room, the seconds dragging, our thoughts racing. The wait before an appointment, test results, or a prognosis can feel like suspended time, filled with fear, overthinking, and discomfort. This kind of “waiting room effect” is charged with stress and uncertainty, often reinforcing feelings of helplessness. But what if we reframed this concept? What if the waiting room could instead be a powerful sanctuary for healing?
In the world of complementary and integrative health, energy medicine, and wellness practices, there’s another kind of waiting room—a space after a healing session where the body continues to process, balance, and repair. It’s a vital time when the nervous system recalibrates, the energy field reorganizes, and the body integrates the experience. Whether you’re in a physical waiting room or just in the metaphorical pause between action and result, how you spend this time can make all the difference in your well-being.
Two Waiting Rooms, Two Realities
Let’s begin by examining the two contrasting waiting room experiences.
1. The Medical Waiting Room
This is the place we associate with diagnoses, the unknown, and often vulnerability. It can begin long before you arrive at the clinic—when you first book the appointment and start worrying about what’s to come. The body senses this emotional discomfort. Your heart rate increases. Your breath becomes shallow. Your mind spirals into “what ifs.” This cascade of worry triggers the sympathetic nervous system—your fight, flight, freeze or fawn mode.
Physiologically, stress hormones like cortisol flood your system. Your muscles tighten, your blood vessels constrict, and digestion slows. You become more reactive, less grounded. Live blood analysis has shown that in these heightened stress states, red blood cells tend to clump together—a condition known as rouleaux formation. This reduces oxygenation, impairs circulation, and diminishes your body’s ability to respond effectively to treatment. You’re already in a state of energetic depletion before you even walk into the appointment room.
2. The Healing Session Waiting Room
Contrast this with the waiting room experience after a healing session—perhaps Therapeutic Touch®, Touch for Health®, other BioEnergetic Wellness disciplines, or a movement-based healing like Tai Chi or Yoga. Rather than fear, this waiting period is one of integration. The nervous system begins to shift into parasympathetic dominance—the rest-and-digest state. You may feel drowsy, deeply relaxed, or emotionally open.
Live blood analysis offers an insightful look into what’s happening internally. After just one session of energy work, red blood cells begin to separate, flow more freely, and become more vibrant in appearance. This state of cellular fluidity and openness continues for 10 to 20 minutes after the session ends. It’s as if the body is still listening, still unfolding, still healing—even without touch or instruction.
This is a golden opportunity for healing. But here’s the catch—it can be easily interrupted.
The Fragility of the Healing State
In today’s fast-paced world, we’ve been conditioned to fill our pauses. The moment a healing session ends, many people instinctively reach for their phones, check social media, respond to emails, or mentally return to their to-do list. What they don’t realize is that this simple act of distraction or stress recall can collapse the healing field they just opened.
When we reintroduce stress—through thought or action—our energy shifts back to the sympathetic mode. The body responds immediately: breath shallows, heart rate elevates, and blood cells begin to clump again. The openness seen in live blood analysis reverses. The healing cycle is interrupted, and much of the benefit from the session can be lost. People can often be heard expressing that the session didn’t last, when in reality, they stopped the process by returning to their normalized state of being in stress.
The Power of Conscious Waiting
The good news? We have a choice. The waiting room is not just a space between things—it is a sacred container for transformation, if we allow it to be.
When we shift from unconscious waiting (characterized by restlessness, distraction, or worry) to conscious waiting (characterized by presence, curiosity, and trust), we claim our role as active participants in our healing journey.
Here’s how you can consciously embrace the healing waiting room:
1. Be Present Before and After a Session:
Allow for 10 – 20 min before an appointment to arrive, have a cup of tea or water, and begin relaxing and deep breathing. Center the mind on your goal or intention, and be present with what your desired outcome is. After your session, resist the urge to rush back into your routine. Sit quietly. Let your body and mind bask in the stillness. You are still processing, releasing, and recalibrating. Allow yourself this sacred time to magnify the power of the session and serve you the best. Then, have a day prepared that you can flow into, that can be with ease and calm, a gentle reminder of the gift of healing you have provided yourself. Schedule heavier appointments and challenges for later in the day, or the following day.
2. Breathe with Awareness:
Use deep, slow breathing to anchor your nervous system in relaxation. This helps maintain the parasympathetic state and supports integration of the healing work. Have several exercises in your regular routine that you can use before and after a session, or when you notice the state of relaxation starting to slip away.
3. Journal or Reflect:
Write down insights, sensations, or emotions that came up during your pre-session time, from the session, and from your reflection time. This helps move energy and prevent subconscious re-suppression of what was released. The additional reflection time after a healing session provides for the body, mind, and spirit to reconnect and be whole once again with the new state of being.
4. Avoid Digital Distractions:
Even just a few minutes of scrolling on your phone can hijack your energetic state. Let your phone rest while your cells continue their work. Preferably keep your cell phone across the room from you so the EMF’s are not also affecting your cells.
5. Be Gentle in Movement:
If you must move after a session, do so with intention. Gentle walking, light stretching, or a mindful cup of tea can extend the healing field and prevent collapse back into stress mode. Being in nature, playing nature soundscapes or healing music can continue the process. Be mindful of what you place after the session to help magnify your continued healing.
Rewriting the Story of Waiting
Whether you’re waiting for a test result or sitting in your car after a Therapeutic Touch® session, the way you perceive and engage with the waiting room makes a profound difference. One fosters anxiety and energetic contraction; the other nurtures trust and transformation.
You have the power to reframe waiting as a potent time of self-care. In fact, some of the most important healing work happens not during the session itself, but in the minutes that precede and follow—when you choose to stay soft, quiet, and connected to yourself.
The Next Time You Wait…
Ask yourself:
- Am I in a healing state or a stressing state?
- Is my mind racing ahead or am I honoring the moment?
- Can I offer my body the gift of pause, even just for 10 minutes?
Waiting doesn’t have to be passive or painful. It can be sacred. When we choose to use the waiting room as a space for presence and peace, we amplify the body’s natural healing wisdom—and we invite lasting transformation from the inside out.
Final Thoughts
Live blood analysis gives us a unique glimpse into the living truth of our bodies. It shows that healing is not just a moment, but a momentum—a wave that can carry us into deeper wellness if we don’t interrupt it. So whether you’re recovering from illness, managing stress, or simply trying to live more consciously, honor the space between. It might just be the most powerful place you’ve never noticed.
Let the waiting room be your classroom, your sanctuary, your invitation to go within. Because in the quiet, healing continues. And you get to choose whether you follow it—or shut the door too soon.
Considering a private session with the Greenwell Center? You can book a one on one with Michelle in-person or online, or you can join the AME for Greatness Project and have a series of 9 sessions with the inspirational talents of Dr Michelle, Einav Avni and Ann Smets. You can register here.