What is Shiatsu?
I have been studying shiatsu for the last year with Master Yasuo Mori
and have been incorporating it into my practice daily. I find it an
excellent tool to help find the blockages and imbalances in the body
and together with my knowledge of the musclo-skeletal system, I feel
like I'm able to bring change to the body to allow the body space to
heal and flourish. It's also VERY relaxing!
create harmony in the body with gentle pressure applied to different
parts of the body. It helps to balance yin and yang and improve the
flow of energy (chi or ki) which allows the body to enter a space
where it's easier to maintain a healthy state. When working with a client who comes in with pain or discomfort, in
addition to scanning the body for structural issues, I notice where
there may be imbalance or problems with energy flow. These places of
poor flow almost always have a direct or indirect connection to the
areas of the body that the client is feeling pain. Shiatsu is able to
affect the muscles at a deeper level and together with the manual
techniques that stretch and relieve the muscle tension, we're able to
achieve more lasting change and promote deeper healing. Shiatsu and massage have had an equally incredible influence in
another part of my life: aikido. I've been practicing aikido for the
last 6 years and when I started massage school and then later began to
study shiatsu, I saw a huge difference in my training. I was more in
touch with my body and the subtleties of its movement as well as with
that of others. Likewise, my aikido training has profoundly influenced
my bodywork. My experiences have really opened my eyes to the idea that all of us
are connected to each and every person and thing in the universe and
that we can have a profound impact on others with or without knowing
it. Practicing shiatsu and aikido has given me a look into the web of
connections that we can't really see with our eyes, but those we can
feel with our bodies and our hearts.
