Practicing the Current of Peace
Shiatsu is a gentle form, yet it goes deep. Sometimes deep into the layers of musculoskeletal tissues, but more often deep into the fabric of one’s being to unlock the latent potential for healing and expansion. Effortlessness is a key component of the effectiveness of Shiatsu. Doing less here really is more. The body is always speaking, giving signs and signals as to what it needs, and intelligently shows the direction toward balance and peace. This healing movement is what I naturally intuit by sitting with a Receiver and listening, and that is what my hands feel through touch.
Many forms of bodywork and manual therapies use force, or effort, to effect a change. This is all well and good, as it can be effective and necessary depending on the case. However in Shiatsu, the goal is to relax and open awareness as wide as possible to tune into and work with the already-happening movement of Qi toward restoration of harmony. Pain, whether experienced in the physical body or in the mind as stress or resistance, can be seen as the loud, attention-grabbing alarm that tells us the mind-body system is working very hard to self-correct. Doing Shiatsu can help along that natural process of self-correction.
During a Shiatsu treatment, I acknowledge the pain signals yet follow the quiet whisperings of Spirit that guides me into the movement of healing: what I call the Current of Peace.
Like a breeze that brushes through the Receiver,
the Current of Peace reveals itself…
Like a breeze that brushes through the Receiver, the Current of Peace reveals itself and as a Giver, I give Shiatsu touch to the areas both on and off the body that will facilitate this movement. Receivers may feel this instantly as softening in tense areas in the body, release of pain, deep exhales, quieting of a busy mind, a sudden clarity or realization, or at times this may bring a temporary heightened sensation of pain only to release more fully later, depending on the condition. Relaxation ensues and often, one might drift off to sleep as healing continues in the deeper layers of one’s unconscious.
The Current of Peace is always flowing. It is a movement of life that brings us into right balance within ourselves and in harmony with our everyday lived experience in all of our relationships, work, home and in the world. Practicing and receiving Shiatsu treatment is a simple way to tune oneself with the Current of Peace, for a pain-free body, overall wellbeing, and enjoying life more fully.
Om Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
May All Beings Everywhere Be Happy!
