Is shiatsu just a massage for muscle soreness?
Often thought of as a massage for muscle soreness, which is true, shiatsu is also much more. The main focus may seem to be just massaging soft tissues, but really it’s most concerned with the regulation of qi flow in the body.
Note: The word “Qi” is pronounced “Chee” or “Kee”
Qi is fundamental to many traditional and contemporary forms of Asian healthcare and martial arts. Acupuncture, chi nei tsang, tui na, tai chi, qi gong and shiatsu, among others, are all ways of regulating the qi in our bodies.
So what is Qi?
Qi is the universal life force energy that flows thorough all things and is the animating breath of life, the stuff of the soul. Qi is flowing in and around us and through us all the time. When we have a clear, even, balanced flow of qi and our connection to the larger currents around us are strong, we feel grounded and in tune, and we are in a state of good health. When qi flow is unbalanced or restricted in some way is when we fall prey to illness and pain.
Shiatsu’s Way
Shiatsu is based on the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which has mapped the flow of qi in our bodies in a series of channels, called meridians. Meridians are like the strongest and deepest currents of qi, the jet streams. We use this map as a guide to follow with a sensitive touch, feeling for the quality of qi throughout the body. Where are there gaps or loose, lazy currents? Where are there dams blocking the flow, where are there stagnant pools of qi?
Working in this manner along all the major meridians and around any other areas of disrupted flow we use various methods of applying pressure, percussion, stretches, and vibrations to encourage the balancing out of qi, filing up the empty areas, and breaking up stagnant and congested pockets. Our painful, knotty, stiff tissues are the result of disrupted qi, and our shiatsu sessions leave us feeling pleasantly wrung out; relaxed and limber, with an alert body and mind, grounded in the present moment, buzzing with life.
Shiatsu Alchemy hones the touch of traditional shiatsu even further, bringing to it the ultra sensitive touch of craniosacral therapy and the deeply relaxing and moving experience of listening to your body’s cues and supporting it to unwind and release memories and emotions trapped in your tissues.
Becoming Balanced
Rather than focus on the relief of symptoms, the goal of Shiatsu is to bring the body, mind, and spirit into balance. When we are more balanced we can think clearly, move freely and live life with a sense of contentment and ease, and our symptoms tend to resolve themselves.
Balanced is not a static state, but more of a constant shifting toward the center, a dynamic play between two forces, yin and yang. Ideally we can allow these shifting forces to effectively balance each other out, however we often become predisposed toward one end or the other – too much yin or too much yang, or we shift rapidly between yin and yang states. Shiatsu taps in to your energy body and helps to bring you closer to your center, grounded and balanced in body, mind, and spirit.
