Root Yourself to the Earth

Self-Help Tip:

Root Yourself to the Earth   

“Remember to breathe.
It is after all, the secret of life.”  
~Gregory Maguire

Breath is the simplest and most perfect of all the tools we have for health and balance. It is the purified essence of life and provides over 99% of our oxygen and energy supply. There is a strong relationship between our emotional state and the quality of our breathing. Poor breathing depletes energy and negatively affects mental alertness as well as causing or worsening all dis-eases! The first step in healthy breathing is to become conscious of how we actually breathe. 

The breath can be used with awareness at any moment to balance the life energy and bring us into a place of harmony and healing flow. Within the breath lies the key, our power to transform our lives and the world. The breath releases endorphins, helps to clear and focus the mind, strengthens weak abdominal and intestinal muscles, and has deep purifying effects on the respiratory and nervous system.

In Jin Shin Jyutsu, we are invited to focus not on the inhalation but instead to observe  the Exhalation, as it is the key to clearing the body. "The Meditation of the 36 Conscious Exhalations" is a great way to access this Limitless Life-Power.  Sit with your hands folded in your lap. Drop your shoulders. Bow your head and SMILE from the very soul of you. Begin by counting each exhalation.  One, exhale, inhale. Two, exhale, inhale....... Allow your breath to unfold naturally.  When we EXHALE long and deep, we release all of the stale air held in the lungs. Imagine that your exhalation is even longer than the inhalation. Observe the pause that happens just before the inhalation begins. Inhale deep into your belly. Instead of  expanding your chest, expand your belly. You will begin to realize that once you have fully exhaled, the next inhalation "just happens". No effort is necessary. Again observe the pause that happens just before the exhalation begins again. Just by focusing on these pauses,the breath becomes deeper and slower. Bring your attention to these pauses. If you lose count, just begin again. This exercise can be done all at once, or broken into 4 session of 9 breaths each. In time, your breathing will automatically become deeper and more rhythmic. As you count each breath, your attention is focused on the counting and this in turn serves as a way to quiet the mind.  As you EXHALE, unload all the dust dirt and greasy grime that is held in your body. Exhale from head to toes. INHALE from toes to head. RECEIVE the Cosmic Energy of Abundance and connect to the Cosmic Energy Force. 

Receive each breath with awareness and gratitude. Breathing is the best way to root ourselves to the earth, to stay centered even during chaotic times. Welcome to the effortless reality of your life. 

"For breath is life,
and if you breathe well
you will live long on earth."
~Sanskrit Proverb

Let Go of Pain

Self-Help Tip:

Let Go of Pain   

"All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on."
~Havelock Ellis

     If this weekend is any indication, Spring is definitely upon us. And for me, Spring means getting out in nature. This weekend we hiked a few miles on the Mountains to Sea Trail on Saturday and then I came home a worked for 3 or 4 hours digging in the garden. Then today, another 5 hours building raised beds, digging and planting and raking. Wow! Sounds like the potential for some sore muscles and pain. But I know that I can hold my ankles and let go of the pain from my joints and muscles!

     Here's how to do it. Place the fingertips of your right hand on the inner ankle just below the ankle bone and Place the fingertips of your left hand on the outer ankle just below the ankle bone. Use the same hand configuration on either foot (right hand on the inside, left hand on the outside).

     I love this simple one step flow any time that I have pushed myself, be it in a yoga class, on the hiking trail, or in the garden! My goal is to hold each foot for 20-30 minutes to move the energy. This flow brings stillness and balance. It is remarkable at easing pain-especially joint pain, it is helpful for swollen legs, headaches, stiffness, and relaxes the feet. Also helpful for arthritis and fibromyalgia. This flow brings back movement and keeps us limber and supple, so it is a good one for everyday maintainence. Give it a try! 

"In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you."
~Deepak Chopra

Immunity Booster

Self-Help Tip:
Immunity Booster 

“Take care of your body.
It's the only place you have to live.”
~Jim Rohn

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 sessions  and daily self-help will tune up your body’s energy system and will leave you feeling calm, energized and totally rejuvenated.

We all know that we are more susceptible to common colds, flu and other ailments when we have experienced stress of any kind in our lives...and who is not exposed to stress?! Jin Shin Jyutsu is a great way to eliminate the effects of stress on our bodies. Many experts say that the majority of disease is stress-related. These stress-related diseases continue to claim more lives each year.

Here is a wonderful Daily Self-Help Flow to help you to stay healthy. 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". This self-help is used to build or increase immunity for colds and flu.

Place your left hand on your right neck/shoulder area (the soft muscle area where your neck and shoulder meet). Place your right hand on your right groin (at the fold of the leg). 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 on your left groin. Breathe and Be Well. 

"Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit.
When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions,
the gates of the soul open."

~B.K.S. Iyengar 

Mudras: Yoga in Your Hands

Mudras:
Yoga in Your Hands

"Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself."
~Hermann Hesse 

     Mudras are the birthplace of what we now call Jin Shin Jyutsu. One hundred years ago, when Master Jiro Murai was diagnosed with an incurable illness, he asked to brought to the family cabin in the mountains of Japan. His family was instructed to come back in 7 days to see the outcome. It is said that the intense use of mudras while sitting in meditation and fasting turned his life energy around. He passed through fevers and chills during those days before losing consciousness and subsequently coming back to himself, feeling that he was free of whatever had caused him to be so ill. Murai believed that the simple act of joining right hand with left hand would bring about a unity between body and mind. 

     Unlike animals who primarily use their noses and mouths to experience their environment, we explore our world with our hands. Touch is important to our human experience thanks to 17,000 tactile receptors on the hand. We have about 4000 nerve endings at the tips of our fingers, giving our fingertips one of the densest collections of nerve endings in the body. The nerve endings connect with the energetic pathways of our organs and can influence them, relax, stimulate or balance them. Our hands are therefore an energy map of our consciousness and health with areas of the hand corresponding to different systems of the body as well as our various attitudes. Through the simple act of  curling, crossing, stretching, and touching the fingers and palms, we access the energetic pathways that connect body, mind and spirit. All of this is what makes mudras effective tools for balance and well-being.

     Anywhere you are, while on a break, sitting at a red light while in your car, waiting at the checkout, at your office or home, stillness can be yours. Mudras are easily learned and with a little practice you can do them at any time and place. A knowledge of these mudras allows us to send energy to any part of our being.

     The mudra pictured above is one of the 8 mudras that are part of the Practice of Jin Shin Jyutsu. It is known in our tradition as "Inhaling the Purified Breath of Life." This finger pose relieves asthma, back tension/stress and brings general well-being to the whole body. It aids in easier breathing allowing us to receive the purified Breath of Life. This pose helps us to bring harmony to our total being. 

     Cynthia Broshi, International Jin Shin Jyutsu teacher, says, "Through their relationships the Mudras excavate, untangle and dissolve tensions. Singly and as a group they work with the relationship of Exhale and Inhale, building and breaking down. Some poses emphasize one or the other aspect of Breath, and utilizing each pose with the left and the right hand amplifies and blends these actions of Generation and Regeneration." 

     Our power to harmonize, balance, and heal is literally in our own hands. Learn more about this practice and awareness in MUDRAS and MINDFULNESS , a six-week course beginning on February 22. This course is an indepth study of Mary Burmeister's Self-Help Text, FUN with FINGERS and TOES: Jin Shin Jyutsu Physio-Philosophy. Join me for this in-depth study of harmonizing our energy channels through fingers and toes and the 8 Mudras of Jin Shin Jyutsu.

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths."
~Etty Hillesum
 

The Power of Self Help

The Power of Self Help

"But from whence comes the healing?
...the healing comes from WITHIN."
~Edgar Cayce 

      Self-Help is the cornerstone of the Jin Shin Jyutsu and is the pathway to healing and continued balance. It is this Self-Help aspect that initially attracted me to Jin Shin Jyutsu. Through Self-Help, I have witnessed miracles of healing in my body at my own hands. I truly believe that with Jin Shin Jyutsu, time and an open mind, all things are possible. 
 

      I love that Jin Shin Jyutsu empowers us to take responsibility for our own healing, that it allows us to know ourselves in ways that connect us with our awareness and enables us to create balance for ourselves. I know so many people who present themselves to a medical professional and ask to be "fixed" by them when in actuality the body seldom works that way. 

      The Self-Help aspect of Jin Shin Jyutsu gives us the means to identify and deal with stress in our bodies and clear that stress so that healing can occur. It enables us to awaken our own personal inner healer. It is the time one puts into self-help/self-reflection that strengthens the pathway for healing. Attending to our personal healing needs on a daily basis is the way to balance and ease.

     I find that the most effective self-help is self-help that is done with the least amount of effort. It can be as easy as holding a finger or doing a one-step "quickie". You can do an entire flow or just the steps that feel good to you. Whatever you do for yourself will be beneficial. 

     The only time Jin Shin Jyutsu is not effective is when you are not using it. So pick something simple and do it every day. Make a daily goal of 20 minutes to start with and build up to more time eventually. The time spent with self-help need not be continuous, but can be 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there. Make it work for you however you can. Do not be discouraged. Remember that the results are not always immediate, nor do they always come in the form that you are looking for, but on some causal level they are working for you, peeling the deep layers and clearing the way for balance and healing.

     How do you learn self-help? As part of each healing treatment, I share personalized self-help routines to practice at home. These tips are meant to support the work that we do together. I share self-help tips in this newsletter and on my blog. I invite you to join me for a class or workshop to really get jump-started with your own Jin Shin Jyutsu Self-Help Healing Practice. 

"The human body is predisposed to heal itself and to exist as a healthy, thriving organism.
It's amazing, but true, that many of the most effective healing therapies (even for grave,
life-threatening disease conditions) are simple things that you can do for yourself at home. You simply have to educate yourself and take responsibility for your own health."
~Ken Adachi

Time to Emerge from Our Winter Cocoon

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

Even though the calendar still indicates that we are deep in winter's embrace, our recent weather says otherwise. 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 out physical being and to restore balance.  One of the traditional Jin Shin Jyutsu ways of Spring Cleaning-body, mind and spirit, is to do a Week-long Healing Intensive.  An “intensive” consists of two one-hour sessions per day for 5 days in a row. 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.  

Jin Shin Jyutsu is cumulative, so having ten sessions in one week is a dynamic way to move energy, to clear out, deep clean, and harmonize our total BE-ing. This intensive treatment series can breathe new life and energy into our depleted physical being and bring about a reconnection with our essence. The goal is to bring about deep relaxation, to restore a sense of beauty and harmony into body, mind and spirit and to unleash the inner healer. When we find balance, we set into motion the power of our innate ability to heal which brings about profound changes to our vitality and sense of well-being

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 coping with whatever life brings.

Send me an email or give me a call to schedule your Week-long Healing Intensive. This is a special accelerated healing process involves 10 Jin Shin Jyutsu treatments in 5 days. On each of the five days you receive two treatments, one in the morning, and a second later in the day. The fee for this series of treatments is $450 for the total package, paid in one payment at the start of the week.  

"The best is yet to be." 
~Robert Browning