"Balance"? Yeah, So What?

(Otherwise known as, "My head hurts, so why the heck are you pressing on my foot?")

A very, VERY general definition of shiatsu goes something like this:

"Shiatsu, a Japanese word that literally means 'finger pressure', is a modality in which the practitioner uses pressure on the receiver's body in order to restore balance."

Doesn't this just so make you want to run right out and get a shiatsu treatment?

Don't you wake up in the morning after a fitful night of sleep, feeling groggy and with a crick in your neck, and think to yourself, 'Wow, I could really use to have my balance restored today'....?

When finding yourself taken to bed with insane menstrual cramps, teetering on the edge of a self-induced hysterectomy, aren't you wishing to god someone would come and just balance your energy???

Hmmm, I'm guessing no.

Am I implying that a balance of chi flow in the meridians isn't a good thing to aspire to, or that from an Asian perspective, it isn't an explanation of what contributes to vibrant health?

No, I'm just saying that maybe it's not shiatsu's strongest selling point. Not to those of us who aren't used to thinking along these lines anyway.

So, I'm a visual person. Maybe this'll work for you.

Picture the meridians in the body as a highway system. When traffic is flowing, all is well. People getting where they need to be, goods picked up and delivered on time, everybody's happy. The flow is balanced.

Uh oh. Fender bender along the Stomach meridian. Traffic is slowing down, maybe even stagnating. (And in the body, symptoms related to the stomach functions will arise.)

Depending on how this situation is handled, flow may be easily restored again, or it may start backing up into connecting roadways, causing dysfunction and symptoms in other areas. Just great.

One thing to do would be to redirect the traffic to a route that is totally clear. (Ah... balancing!)

This is the idea behind kyo/jitsu in Zen shiatsu. The jitsu (traffic jam) is what we notice, and are most inclined to address. However, a funny thing about energy is that is follows our attention/intention. Putting pressure on something like, say, tight shoulders gives some relief, but really we are just adding more energy to an already excessive situation.

Finding the empty area in the body, and placing pressure/attention there redirects the traffic from a jammed place into an empty one.

Everything gets flowing again, pain is relieved, symptoms diminish and all is happy is Body-land again.

Okay, so that is a pretty simplistic scenario, but still, I hope this helps you gain a little clearer idea of what you would be paying me for.

(As to that subhead... now that you've been schooled in energy balancing... some headaches are described as "Liver yang rising". Meaning that the chi flow of the Liver meridian is going to the head causing pain and pressure, especially as in migraines. There are key points in the feet that bring that energy back down, away from the head, and restore overall energy balancing, like the master traffic light control system. Cool, right? I know!)

Like this post? How about:

Behind Every Crime, a Woman

Gimme Some Skin

Further reading from more respectable writers?

From Masunaga himselfAlso a good one..

Rare Footage of Zen Shiatsu

I've written before about Zen Shiatsu, and its creator, Shizuto Masunaga... here, and here and I could have sworn more places, but perhaps not.

Masunaga passed away in 1981, before I had gotten into shiatsu, or out of high school for that matter, which is unfortunate, as it would have been a treat to watch him work.

Well, lo and behold, some rare video of him surfaced (thank god for youtube!) and while it's not the best quality, you can see Masunaga Sensei in action as he teaches a class on a visit to Canada.

I admit to having a laughed a little, in astonishment, as I pictured using some of these moves on a few of my clients, or attempting to, and imagining them either screaming, or leaving, never to be seen again.

I posted the third of four in a series, because of what he does to this woman, who I'm really hoping was a flexible as she appears to be in the video. At one point I seriously wondered if she was even conscious or maybe just an inanimate object being used for demo purposes.

Interesting to note is how he gives pressure, especially with his knees on her legs.. how he really gets in there. If you're not familiar with Zen Shiatsu, what he's doing is placing the limbs into 'stretch positions', meaning the positions at which a particular meridian can be brought to the surface and most easily accessed with pressure by palms, elbows, knees, or feet.

Masunaga's stye of shiatsu does not focus much, if at all, on acupressure points.. it's more about regulating the flow of energy through all the meridians evenly. You'll also see him doing hara work on her and then lifting his receiver up in such a way as to adjust her spine.

If you make it through the whole nine minute video, be sure to enjoy the bonus neck-crack right at the very end!

Would You Like a Cup of Tea?

I woke up yesterday morning with my first thought being a metaphor about shiatsu.

(Don't ask me... sometimes it's a goofy song, like Pink Floyd's "Pigs"; other mornings, something else totally random. Who knows where my brain gets off to while I'm asleep..)

Anyway, the thought was along the lines of how the difference between other types of massage and shiatsu was like the difference between having a conversation with someone while standing at your front door, or inviting them into your living room to sit down for a while with a big mug of tea.

And, please, this is not to dis' massage in any way. I get regular therapeutic "western" massage. It's awesome. But I think there is a difference for many people in how shiatsu is received, based on my own experience, as well as what my people are telling me. Considering that the most recent comment along these lines came a few days ago, it might explain why my mind was chewing on this.

This odd analogy also seems to synch with how Zen shiatsu is described.

Allow me to lamely paraphrase what I read in David Sergel's "The Natural Way of Zen Shiatsu": From the ancient Chinese perspective, humans exist between the forces of heaven and earth.... heaven's force is along a vertical axis, earth on the horizontal. Ideally our activities are balanced reception of the two.

Our Western experience is more imbalanced toward the earth/horizontal side. More material, more superficial... and, as an example, western style massage is considered to move along the horizontal planes of the body.

Shiatsu is given with a more perpendicular (vertical) direction. The touch is directed inward toward the body's core; it's penetrating, and so it is perceived as going deeply within (..without being invasive. After all, I did say 'invited in for tea', not dragged in and tied to a chair.)

With the practitioner's intention, the treatment becomes like an intimate conversation between friends. It may touch on sensitive topics, but without offense, if the practitioner is mindful and compassionate. The shiatsu giver is careful not to prod or cause pain, which could cause a defensive reaction, but is willing to go deep enough while being supportive, so as to allow the receiver to explore those vulnerable places and bring healing energy to them.

Once again, this is not to suggest that one way is better than another. I know I'm not the kind of person that wants every person that appears at my door to come in and hang for a few hours. Nor am I always open to that experience, no matter who it is. After all, I got lots of things going on along the horizontal plane.

But when I am really needing that, and that need is met, it's always deeply fulfilling.

How 'bout you? Do you have a shiatsu or other bodywork experience to share?

When the Funk is Just Not Cool

After indulging in a small but intense rant yesterday (and receiving a few affirming comments), I got to thinking things like: Okay, so now what?

And: If one can't figure out whether one's funk is due to physical or emotional conditions, where does one start in order to make some positive changes?

And: Does one really have to know which came first, the mind or the body, in order to get out of one's funk? (Because, usually what happens is that a deeper funk.. not to mention crazy-making.. can be created just from the mental masturbation of it all... at least for me.)

I think these are questions coming out of a more Western scientific mindset ... in which one should investigate possibilities, narrow down and identify root causes, then apply a 'proven' solution. Get a handle on that whole 'chicken or egg' dilemma. For such specificity, it's interesting that what often follows is a one-size-fits-all prescription for that particular condition, regardless of context.

Barring some hugely as-of-yet undetected health issue, do I really have that kind of time and patience to do such thorough and potentially unnecessary research? Do you? Or, as it hit me last night, can I just use my shiatsu-mindset (more of the Zen approach) to look at the overall picture and notice where the opening is?

In other words, what would be the easiest area to create change in right now? Where can I introduce movement in either body or mind, with as little effort as possible, that will shake loose other areas of stuckness?

Because, really, that's what a lot of this feels like... stuckness. And as one place gets stuck (a thought or feeling I can't let go of, a sore hip, a conflict with a loved one, lethargy) it's like a domino effect. Then, there's just no energy for anything.

In Asian thought, the physical, emotional and mental all arise together. Working on one will generally affect the others... not usually a necessary need to determine where the imbalance appeared first.

And, what appears as an opening may or may not have anything to do with a 'root cause'. Zen shiatsu is about meeting the whole body as it presents itself in the moment. Seeing the area of greatest distortion and making balance there. Shin tai, as well, is about awareness of how to access deeper energy levels starting with whichever one appears as 'priority'. Maybe that's not the 'problem' area, but it's a way of getting to the deeper and more resistant layers.

Back to my laundry list of potential causes of funkiness... (or yours... bring 'em if you got 'em!) here's what I try to do, once I finally stop whining for a moment:

First, a brief mental shutting up. Rein that brain back in and get present. My method: bring awareness to sensations in my body at that moment.

Then, bring awareness to what's actually happening in the room around me... no interpretation. Just noticing.

It is usually with this exercise that I notice 9 times out of 10 there is nothing happening in that moment that is actually 'wrong'. This makes it easier to separate out the uncomfortable physical sensations or thoughts from the reality. As well as breathe.

Now. Is there something I can do in this moment to bring relief, or motion? Big thoughts like, I should eat better, or start exercising, or fix my marriage, are generally too huge to deal with  that minute, and will often create a physical sensation of resistance or stress. What about a cup of tea? Or an apple? Or a gripe session call or email to a friend? A nap? A walk? A good cry? A glass of wine? (Yes, I know, not the ideal holistic solution. However, alcohol = yin. Stuckness and contraction = yang. Yin is expansive, and I think, used consciously and judiciously, it can have a place in helping to relieve a pressurized situation. Unless you have an issue with alcohol dependence. In which case, that would be really irresponsible advice on my part.)

Sure, there's a point at which short-term methods become a means of avoiding deeper, harder issues. Funkiness can actually be an unconscious way of avoiding more dynamic and scary forward motion toward real change. Development of self-listening skills are crucial in determining whether we are in denial that something larger is at work. But we need to be able to at least relieve the immediate funky overwhelm.

At least, I do.

Thoughts?

Behind Every Crime, A Woman

Now, before my more enlightened readers find themselves bristling (as I did at first) at this Chinese proverb, let me explain its intended metaphorical usage.

Very simply put, it refers to the idea in Chinese medicine (and in shiatsu) that behind the major obvious complaint (acute symptom/yang) that brings a person into see a practitioner, there is almost always a deeper, more hidden condition (yin) at the root of it.

A very basic and common example: tight shoulders and neck. Of course, everyone who has this issue (myself included) seeks and out and finds great relief when this area is treated. But they are usually surprised to find that when pressure is applied to their lower back or upper chest (just under the collarbones) that these areas are really tender, and feel almost 'hungry' for deeper pressure.

The terms: 'kyo' and 'jitsu' used in shiatsu mean more or less 'empty' and 'full'. To employ a simple illustration, picture a round ball. In a more spherical shape, it is closer to balance. A 'kyo' condition would appear as an indentation in the ball, giving rise to a 'jitsu' protrusion. Now imagine this illustration of distortion manifesting in your body, either structurally or in the meridian system.

The 'jitsu/full' symptoms are obvious and what get your attention, and more often than not, is the compensating factor. In western medicine, this is usually what gets addressed. Shiatsu practitioners are trained to seek out the greatest area of distortion, find the underlying 'kyo/empty' condition and treat that first. The 'kyo' areas are usually harder to discern because, by their very nature, they remain hidden and protected.

Another example would be a person who tends to exhibit brash, obnoxious behavior. We tend to respond to that as what it appears to be, but upon closer examination, what that person may be doing is hiding underlying insecurity and fear... feelings which, upon being exposed, would cause that person to feel incredibly vulnerable. (More on this in an upcoming post about 'body armoring').

The deeper 'kyo' behavior is what would be most effective to address, but as you can imagine, it would take someone with skill and compassion to work through the surface 'jitsu' presentation, to be allowed to 'touch' the kyo and give it what it needs to regain balance.

So, back to the original 'sexist' proverb: when describing the qualities of yin and yang as the primary balancing forces of the universe, 'female' has traditionally been written under the heading of 'yin', along with qualities like, 'receptive' and 'passive', thereby receiving a lot of flack and protestation from more feminist quarters. Once again, I think this would be an interesting post and discussion for another time, but I hope that the original intent will spark some self-reflection and exploration into my reader's own experiences of 'kyo' and 'jitsu' in themselves, and, of course, share them here!

Gimme Some Skin

Working my way again through a favorite book, Zen Shiatsu: How to Harmonize Yin and Yang for Better Health I came across this passage by author Shizuto Masunaga that beautifully describes what shiatsu offers to its receivers:

"It is important for us to keep in mind that incorporation of shiatsu and a balanced diet into our daily life will keep us healthy....

In order for the body to benefit from a balanced diet, it is important that the food is consumed under relaxing conditions that will promote proper digestion. The way we eat and digest our foods is influenced by our social environment. So, to a great extent our health relies on and reflects healthy human relationships.

Basic human relationships are "skin-ships"; -- that is, skin to skin. In our stressful environment, this relationship is constantly being threatened. As a result, a great deal of tension is carried in the skin. This in turn causes cutaneous distortions that eventually affect the functioning of the internal organs."

I love this, the idea of "skin-ships", and that healthy physical human contact contributes to our overall well-being! It is great news for someone in line of work I do, of course, but I think it also supports the cause for frequent hugging as a way to keep healthy.

Masunaga goes on to say that one's comfort or tension level while receiving shiatsu could be a good indicator of the quality and nurturing ability of their human relationships. A person who experiences discomfort while being treated, while perhaps wanting to avoid such contact as a result, would find that over time, a more trusting and relaxed relationship between them and the practitioner would unfold, rippling out into other relationship areas of their lives.

This idea supports my own about the primary healing function of bodywork being the human connections, as well as Saul Goodman's statement that shiatsu, with its variances of pressure on all parts of the body, are reminiscent of our time in the womb, when the amniotic fluid supported us, and stimulated the skin and vital organ functions. The feedback offered, also, by the skin to skin contact, even when it is first perceived as discomfort, can be used ultimately to offer valuable information and awareness to the receiver about their own condition and how their physical bodies respond to their environment.

As Deane Juhan, author of Job's Body: A Handbook for Bodywork (Third Edition) says, "Touch the surface, and you stir the depths." Indeed.