Through gentle pressures and manipulations, this Japanese massage undoes the body’s energetic blockages and relieves ailments derived from physical and emotional stress.
Anxiety, stress, and distress are words you hear frequently in an appointment. These terms try to express different stories and ways of feeling, most of them linked to a lack of physical and emotional well-being. Addressing these problems naturally requires looking for an alternative to anxiolytic drugs and delving into their possible causes.
Shiatsu is a type of massage that goes beyond the body, because it is very much in touch with emotions. Rooted in Eastern culture, it tries to circulate ki or energy harmoniously inside the body. This ki runs through the energy channels as if they were rivers. Sometimes worries or frustrations that provoke anger or sadness are obstacles to its peaceful flow. Then symptoms such as insomnia, chest pain, palpitations, cold hands, wet hands …
The energetic knowledge helps to understand where the blockages are and shiatsu facilitates the way to rediscover peace. It is practiced with the palms and fingers of the hand, especially the thumb, pressing the points and energy meridians, which coincide with those of acupuncture. Joint stretching and mobilizations are also added. It is a massage whose foundations owe much to traditional Chinese medicine,
You can do a shiatsu massage at home, with some basic knowledge, but the ideal when receiving a shiatsu treatment is to look for a good specialized therapist.
In the same session, diagnosis and treatment are combined. The therapist, to assess, adds his capacity for observation to the patient’s comments. The pulses must be palpated, essentially twelve according to Chinese medicine; feel the different sensations in the hara or navel; observe the tongue and, above all, appreciate what information the hands and fingers transmit in contact with the skin, a sensitivity that requires years of training.
SHIATSU MASSAGE TO RELAX AND RELIEVE ANXIETY
Here we tell you how to perform a relaxing shiatsu massage to another person. Keep in mind that, to fully live the experience of shiatsu, it is important to follow a certain ritual. This is true whether you go to a consultation or if you have some knowledge and perform the massage at home, both for the person who performs the massage and for the person who receives it.
- Unhurried. Prepare yourself or enter the consultation without haste. Put worries aside. Change your street clothes for a more comfortable one made of natural fibers. Breathe consciously and abandon yourself on a comfortable futon.
- Log in. The person receiving the massage does not have to do anything, just feel. First, the warmth of the therapist’s hand over the navel. Listen to your own pulse. Appease the arrival of thoughts and connect with the body.
- The massage. With a gentle movement, a rhythmic rocking, the treatment begins. Without hardly noticing it, the pressure of hands and fingers on the organism leads to stillness. By seeking the balance of one’s own energies, peace is reached.
Each person, in each circumstance, requires a type of treatment but the shiatsu routine that we present here is appropriate in general to reduce anxiety, both acute and chronic.
1. PREPARATION: STRETCHING OF THE SIDE
It is about stretching the side that allows you to relax and provide vital energy to the hip. The person stands on his side, with his legs bent, and with his hands resting on the hip and near the armpit is pulled gently as if moving the hands away to stretch the side. You have to give time for the person to feel how, little by little, the joint is loosening and the accumulated tension disappears.
As in the rest of the treatment, the sensations of the therapist will guide the movements, the order and their duration. The goal is always to harmonize the flow of energy.
2. MAKE CONTACT AND SYNCHRONIZE BREATHING
Then the person gets on his back and the therapist comes into contact with him. From that moment the rhythm of the breaths of both is balanced. The patient feels the warmth of the futon on which it rests. The therapist seeks to be in the “here and now.” It is a requirement to treat the patient in his current reality.
To start the session, the therapist’s right hand is placed in the midline of the patient’s body, at the level of the sternum and the mouth of the stomach. There rests the palm of his hand with the intention of feeling the blood pulse and some accumulated tension. Years of practice help him translate into a specific treatment what the body transmits to him.
The therapist’s hand tries to help find balance and be the key that opens the rest of the meridians. His left thumb is located on the anterior aspect of the patient’s forearm, above an acupuncture point of the pericardium canal. One of the bases of shiatsu is the contact between two points through the hands and the intention of the therapist.
3. THE HEART MERIDIAN
The therapist takes the person’s hand and pulls the arm slightly upwards. With a gentle stretch, which is another important manipulation in shiatsu besides the pressures, it thus opens the entire heart channel. This channel runs from the inside of the armpit to the end of the nail of the little finger. The heart is considered the abode of emotions. If it is strong and the blood, abundant, the emotional life is balanced.
In a state of deficiency, anguish and anxiety appear. By traveling the meridian with the pressure of the fingers and palm of the hand, the therapist compensates for existing imbalances.
4. STERNUM AND STOMACH
The therapist returns again to an area where anxiety manifests itself and with the two thumbs relates the sternum area to that of the stomach. The work of contact does not include any movement, it is just about being present. The function of the therapist is to mobilize the energy that is stagnant at a point closely linked to emotions.
Frustration, anger or guilt easily become an obstacle for everything to flow smoothly. The body helps the digestive system to assimilate these feelings.
5. YIN TANG POINT ON THE HEAD
The last step in this shiatsu work for anxiety involves moving towards the head. Placed behind the patient, the therapist can work on various points. You can choose, for example, yin tang (located between the eyebrows). Precisely the manuals of traditional Chinese medicine indicate that its basic function is to calm the mind and combat anxiety.
The head is one of the parts of the body that most appreciates contact. Fingertips may be enough to calm the restlessness. It is not necessary to be a teacher, self-massage or the hand of a friend can achieve unsuspected effects.
6. REGAIN WELL-BEING
Shiatsu massage is global and understands that imbalances are holistic, that is, what happens at one point affects the overall functioning of the body. Blocked vital energy can be found anywhere in the body. After the specific routine for anxiety proposed so far, you can continue with a massage that promotes general well-being.
- Move your arm and wrist
First the elbow is mobilized by opening the joint, which is like a hinge that hinders the transit of body fluids and blood. The same is done with the wrist, closer still to the end of the fingers, where the yin energy is transformed into yang.
The most powerful acupuncture points are said to be located between the tips of the toes and the knee, and between the tips of the fingers and the elbow. In this space the ki or vital energy transits superficially. These stretches of the meridians are doors through which diseases penetrate but, at the same time, where harmony is also born. Manipulating, then, these joints helps to eliminate obstacles that can later cause pain.
7. THE LUNG MERIDIAN
According to Masunaga, creator of Zen shiatsu, the lung meridian travels through the back of the leg, which is then manipulated by the therapist.
The lung is related to the emotion of sadness. Often, behind the symptoms of anxiety, lies a sadness that blocks out. Therefore, taking care of the lung is highly recommended in times of distress.
8. LEG SWINGING
The therapist stands at the person’s feet and slightly elevates their legs, each one holding each one with one hand by the ankle. Then exert a small swing of the legs. With this rocking, the possible barriers that have been created in the hip are gradually undone. The patient feels that he loses some control of the legs and notes them weightless. This effect helps to make the effects of shiatsu more powerful, since letting go is the opposite of obstructing.
9. THE HEART MERIDIAN
On the sole of the foot converge the meridians of the twelve organs and basic viscera according to traditional Chinese medicine. The therapist follows with his thumb the path of the heart, which is located in the heel and runs from the inside to the outside. The contact with the feet is very pleasant and relaxing.
At this point of the massage the defenses of the person receiving the massage have been diluted, the control disappears and the delivery is complete. He usually finds himself in a state of sleep, away from everything mundane.
In fact, if you do not have a shiatsu therapist, allowing yourself to be massaged or massaged your feet provides a sedative effect, just like with the head.
10. KEMBIKI ON THE BACK
Finally, the therapist takes care of the back. And he does it with the kembiki or swinging.
Kembiki is like cradling a baby, kembiki loosens and the gentle vibration of the entire spine affects the nervous system. The anxiety disappears, the nerve endings relax and the warmth of the futon envelops.
While the swinging is performed, the thumbs activate the bladder, whose meridian is parallel to the spine and follows the center of the back of the legs to the little toe. The wastes and toxins generated with the treatment are expelled more easily if the vital energy of the bladder is activated.
HOW SHIATSU WORKS
Shiatsu was born in Japan in the early twentieth century, so it is a relatively modern massage technique. There are two distinct currents: one was created by Tokujiro Namikoshi, who tried to westernize Japanese massage; the other was developed by a disciple of his, Shizuto Masunaga, who returned to the source of energy medicine and created the so-called Zen Shiatsu. Hence, we say that its foundations owe much to traditional Chinese medicine.
Shiatsu treats the body holistically. It does so from the diagnosis made in situ. When detecting where there is a lack of harmony, the therapist focuses his efforts on bringing the patient to balance, regularizing the whole organism.
In cases of anxiety, the first thing to keep in mind is that it can have different origins. The most common are emotional stress, overwork, significant blood loss (for example, in childbirth) or an irregular poor diet.
Although symptoms can be classified, treatment will be personalized for that patient and at that time. It begins with a pleasant massage that not only seeks physical sensation, but also specifically the recovery of health by trying to eliminate the obstacles that have been generated over time.
It is not about eliminating a punctual headache with a pill, but about detecting existing blockages and, session by session, diluting them.
The number of treatments will depend on the time it has taken to be generated and the environment in which the patient is at that time. The active participation of the person receiving the treatment is also important, because, along with the massage, the therapist will advise some change of habits.
HOW A SHIATSU MASSAGE SESSION UNFOLDS
In a first session, the medical history and the different symptoms are reviewed.
Next, the person dresses in clothes made of natural fibers, such as cotton, and the massage itself begins, which can last about an hour. The treatment is received on a futon or Japanese mattress and, if necessary, the client is covered with a blanket.
One of the basic movements to promote the confidence of the person is the kembiki or swinging. As if in a cradle, the patient’s body rocks on the futon or mat typical of Japan. From the beginning it is taken to a state of calm. This is basic, even more so if the therapist treats a nervous state, because for the correct flow of energy it is very important that whoever receives the massage gets carried away.
In the following sessions you will start directly with the massage and the body diagnosis will be established on the tatami, a padded tapestry. The usual comments of customers at the end of a session are of the type: “I feel great”, “I’m floating” or “my body weighs down from how relaxed it is”.
A weekly shiatsu session is recommended during the first month and from there, after observing the results, it is decided what rhythm is best for that person.
EMOTIONAL UNLOCKING
One of the basic causes of anxiety is emotional problems. Work frustrations, family worries, grief over a loss, or pent-up anger block people internally.
Shiatsu causes in the patient a distancing from painful emotions. He feels that he can contemplate them from the outside, as if they did not belong to him so much. In this way, without devaluing these problems, they are easier to assimilate and overcome. At the end of the session, the well-being you feel may be remarkable, but the return to everyday life brings with it fears again. What seems like a turn back can be diluted without stridency, little by little.
It is not a radical change: one day, insomnia is no longer so persistent, hunger recovers or palpitations are less present. Then, the energy flow slowly regains its balance.
In general, people who come to the consultation have two distinct profiles: those who need timely help to overcome a problem and those who, after a period of medication with the supervision of a professional, begin to reduce doses.
When the situation is very complex or the symptoms significantly affect ordinary life, it is advisable to consult a psychologist. In this case, shiatsu becomes an instrument of reinforcement.
LIFESTYLE AND SHIATSU: CHANGES OUTSIDE OF SESSIONS
The other facet of shiatsu is to catalyze changes and energies to modify customs that do not help us. It is the last link in the process: include simple modifications in the daily routine:
- First of all, it is important to focus attention on moving physically. It has already been described that if the inland river stops, the disturbances begin. Something so simple is basic: walking, dancing, doing tai chi, going to the gym… whatever, but enjoying it, so that the attitude and practice are healthy.
- We must add the idea of relating at ease, because the human being is social. We need each other and it heals us to be in company.
- Finally, the diet and the way of eating are reviewed, giving it the importance, it deserves, as well as the schedules or the time of year. Eating sitting down and, even, without a TV on to distract you, feels much better to the digestive system.