The Mystical Bridge

"I am seeking for the bridge

which leans from the visible to the invisible through reality."

~Max Beckmann

When I first read in Mary Burmeister's Jin Shin Jyutsu Self-Help Book that Master Jiro Murai dedicated his study and rediscovery of the ancient healing art of Jin Shin Jyutsu to the Imperial Shrine at Ise Jingu, I needed to know more about Ise Jingu!

Ise Grand Shrine is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the goddess Amaterasu-omikami (the Radiating Princess or Sun Goddess), located in the city of Ise in Mie prefecture, Japan.

In my research, I found this image of the Uji Bridge, which crosses the Isuzu River and leads to the entrance of the Imperial Shrine. I learned that the Uji Bridge further serves to connect the sacred land with the human world.

This image indeed has a magical, mystical feel to it and leads me to think about the bridge as a metaphor of healing, wellness and balance. Because of the nature of earth's geography-hills, mountains, rivers, etc-there could be no road of any type without bridges. Bridges, both the literal and figurative ones, connect us to everything and allow us to reach something of importance on the other side.

The purpose of a bridge is connect and make it possible for existing paths to continue and join. A bridge has no judgment as it simply exists to connect anyone who chooses to make use of it, no matter who they are or where are ultimately going.

Right within our bodies exist many bridges or means of connection that help us to live and function effectively. Our bodies are made up of a multitude of communication pathways and bridges that connect all of the layers of our being-body, mind and spirit. Mary Burmeister  said, “The study of Jin Shin Jyutsu is to remember who we truly are; spiritual beings having a physical experience.” Jin Shin Jytusu concerns forces that we can’t see, but that are powerful and ever-present on an energetic level. This experience of the mystical allows us to receive the harmonizing gifts that come through the gentle touch of Jin Shin Jyutsu on the energy flow patterns in the body.

Jin Shin Jyutsu considers harmony to be our original state. It becomes the bridge on our journey to get our egos and attitudes out of the way so that we can reconnect with Source and find clarity and balance in our total being. The Main Central Flow especially helps us to connect to these mystical forces by bridging us back to the ancestral river of creative life force energy that creates our physical experience. By working with The Main Central Flow daily, we find ourselves remembering that harmony is our birthright. 

"Know that Self alone that is one without a second,

on which are strung heaven, the earth and the inter-space,

the mind and the vital forces together with all the other organs;

and give up all other talks.

This is the bridge leading to immortality."

~Mundaka Upanishad

Stay Healthy

"Health is not so much a state, but a force:

the power to resist and overcome threats to one's well-being."

~Gregory P. Fields

Our bodies are an incredible array of biological structures and processes that work together to protect against dis-ease. Common-sense practices such as getting enough sleep, eating healthy foods, exercising, and reducing stress all appear to play a role our healthy functioning. The combination of lack of sleep and poor nutrition reduce our immune system's ability to naturally protect us against bacteria and infection.

We are more susceptible to common colds, flu and other ailments when we carry stress in our lives. Stress suppresses the immune response and can reduce the body's ability to defend or repair itself.  Many experts say that the majority of disease is stress-related. When we reduce stress our entire system is better able to function effectively. Jin Shin Jyutsu is a great way to eliminate the effects of stress on our bodies.

Every Jin Shin Jyutsu session supports all of your systems and prepares your body for whatever life throws at you. Daily Self-Help and Regular Jin Shin Jyutsu sessions will also help you to heal faster if you do catch something and a session when you feel something coming on can often prevent a cold from taking hold. 

Everyday stresses accumulate inside our bodies, causing shoulder and neck tensions as well as anxieties that often make it hard to breathe. Here is a wonderful Daily Self-Help Flow to help lighten the tension that we carry in our necks and shoulders. It is especially helpful if you feel something "coming on." Don't explain the feeling away as tiredness, because chances are if you are tired, then you are more susceptible to whatever is "going around."

Self-Help Tip: 

This self-help hold is used to support your entire system and will help you to be healthy during the cold and flu season.

Place your left hand on your right neck/shoulder area (the soft muscle area where your neck and shoulder meet). Place your right hand at the fold of your right leg at the groin. Hold until you feel a rhythmic pulse in both places. Then switch: place your right hand on your left neck/shoulder area. Place your left hand at the fold of your left leg at the groin. Breathe and Be Well. 

The benefits of Jin Shin Jyutsu are cumulative. Maintaining a healthy energy system is the best preventive for keeping the body from being invaded by colds, flu and other illness. Jin Shin Jyutsu leads to better sleep, strengthened immune system, reduced aches & pains, reduced depression, minimized effects from stress, improved moods. The more regularly you practice self-help and get sessions, the more benefit there is for you. Those aches and pains go away faster, stay away longer or go away entirely.

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, 

and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." 

~World Health Organization, 1948

You are the Gardener of your own BE-ing

"Whether you tend a garden or not, 

you are the gardener of your own being,

the seed of your destiny."

~The Findhorn Community

With the warm temperatures and oh so blue skies of the last few days, all thoughts turn to Spring, that transition period between winter and summer, the season of rebirth, fertility, renewal and regrowth. The birth of new ideas, inspiration, and creativity restored by the longer sun-filled days.

I am drawn more and more each Spring day to be out in the garden among the fresh growth and delicate flowers all brimming with possibility, to witness the change and transformation bursting forth. Small wonder that the color for harmonizing the body in Spring is GREEN. Green represents nature's desire to expand and grow. Surround yourself with green when you feel the need for relaxing-body, mind and spirit, to help to alleviate depression and anxiety. The color green is soothing and promotes harmony, renewal and vitality. 

Transitions are helped by a practice of mindfulness. As we move out of Winter, the season of retreat and rest, and into Spring, the season of new growth, rebirth and action, it is important that we find ways to reduce the stressors that keep us from feeling our best. 

The seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, like the tides, have an affect on our body's energy flow. Each season has a connection to a pair of organ functions. The organs of Spring are the liver and gall bladder. The attitudes of imbalance are anger, frustration, and insecurity. When in balance, there is harmony and well being. Imbalances of the liver and gallbladder as well as the associated attitudes can be harmonized by simply holding the Middle Finger.

In addition to holding your middle finger for balance, it is wise to eat plenty of greens to help the Liver detoxify from the long winter. I am finding that I have great cravings for greens of all kinds at this time of year. As I work in the garden, I munch on the tangy arugula and pungent garlic tops that always manage to make it through the winter, a hopeful bit of green showing through the snow. The abundance of the color green in Springtime should be a reminder to us about the need for these greens in our diet.

We'll soon be eating salads of arugula and tender young herbs, sauteed mixed greens (chickweed, arugula, collard and kale), and chopped greens added to stirfrys. The photo above shows and abundance of green from a previous year's Swiss Chard bed in my wonderful garden. I love knowing that eating local, in season foods work with my body to keep the organs of the season in harmony. Nature is so intelligent, it is a shame that science thinks that it can do any better by engineering our foods.

Here are some tips for getting the most out of Spring to bring harmony to Body, Mind and Spirit:

• Eat lots of green foods.

• Eat Local, In Season.

• Eat Organic.

• Get outside and play in the dirt.

• Plant a garden.

• Get plenty of exercise.

• Get plenty of rest and relaxation.

So throw your windows wide open and let the fresh Spring air blow through to clear out the dust and darkness of the winter, and to make a fresh start.

If I had my life to live over,

I would start barefoot earlier in the spring

and stay that way later in the fall.

~Nadine Stair

Time to Emerge from Our Winter Cocoon

"Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter

lies a miracle, a seed waiting to sprout,

a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl.  

And the anticipation nurtures our dream." 

~Barbara Winkler

Finally, Winter's embrace is beginning to loosen. Our recent warm weather is a welcome respite from the icy chill of last month. The daffodils are pushing up, my quince bush is blooming and the air smells like Spring. And even though I know that we are likely to get more cold weather and even a snow or two, my thoughts are turning to Spring planning for the garden and my life. 

The smell of Spring in the air brings to mind the process of Spring Cleaning, that age old tradition of  cleaning the house from top to bottom which is conducted in the first warm days of the year. Windows thrown wide open to let the fresh Spring air blow through the house to clear out the staleness that comes from being shut to the winter cold, to clear out the dust and darkness of the winter, and to make a fresh start.

As we emerge from the cocoon of Winter, besides cleaning our houses, we have a need to clean our physical being and to restore balance.  The simple practice of holding each finger for a minute or two each day will bring back harmony and help us to let go of the limiting beliefs that hold us back from fully experiencing the joys of life. Read More about this practice Here. 

One of the traditional Jin Shin Jyutsu ways of Spring Cleaning-body, mind and spirit, is to have a Week-long Healing Intensive. 

This special accelerated healing process involves having three or more Jin Shin Jyutsu treatments in a week. Receiving a series of sessions close together brings harmony on a continued basis for the week and allows us to affect a change in patterns of disharmony, and the habits and attitudes that create imbalance. 

Each session builds on the last since the healing process works in layers. As some parts of your body begin to heal, new underlying patterns become exposed and can also be addressed. Over a period of time, we clear more and more issues and learn how to operate in a new and healthy way.

When more time is spent receiving healing, the healing patterns are set more strongly, so your body begins to heal faster. The effects of regularly returning your body to balance are cumulative and lead to deep and sustained changes in the your life. These effects can become long lasting with a program of regular Jin Shin Jyutsu sessions paired with daily self-help.

I invite you to experience this rejuvenating and refreshing treatment, that brings balance, harmony and clarity to the many layers of your life. A week-long healing intensive brings the opportunity for deep cleaning and gives you access to the benefits that come from having a number of appointments in close succession. When we have an opportunity to keep the body’s systems clear and balanced without the time in between to fall back into unhealthy patterns, we actually give ourselves a fresh start on a clear path, we bring to our BE-ing a mindful, go with the flow way of coping with whatever life brings.

Schedule your sessions Online, By Email or give me a call. Pay just $55/session when you schedule 3 or more sessions in one week and pay in full at the first appointment of the week. Repeat as often as you like. 

“Begin doing what you want to do now.

We are not living in eternity.

We have only this moment,

sparkling like a star in our hand-and melting like a snowflake.”

~Francis Bacon Sr.