Shiatsu for Inner Harmony and Balance E-Book

50MINUTES

• Herausgeber: 50Minutes.com
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Serie: Health & Wellbeing
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 38

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Change is only 50 minutes away! Find out everything you need to know about shiatsu with this straightforward guide.

Over the past few years, interest in alternative medicines has been growing, with many people discovering the benefits that ancient Chinese and Japanese treatments can have on their health. Shiatsu, a Japanese massage technique that originated in China, is one such process, and can allow you to think about your body and health in a completely different way.

In just 50 minutes you will be able to:
• Understand the principles of shiatsu, an ancient Japanese massage technique
• Distinguish the five elements and how they influence your mood and behaviour
• Identify your current energy element and use it to balance your lifestyle

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Shiatsu for inner harmony and balance

Problem: shiatsu is a real science based on ancient medicine which is becoming more and more popular in the West. What is the best way to approach this complex and fascinating art of massage, and understand how it works? To what extent can we use it in our everyday lives? Aims: this guide will help you to understand the basic notions of shiatsu and will allow you to learn how to apply simply pressure techniques on parts of the body to increase your well-being. it will also give you some advice to improve your daily life. FAQs:Is shiatsu a relaxation or therapeutic treatment? Is shiatsu officially recognised as a medical treatment? Can shiatsu have beneficial effects on psychological problems?What is the difference between shiatsu and acupuncture? Where can I find a shiatsu practitioner? How can I become a shiatsu practitioner?

Shiatsu (literally “finger pressure”, from the Japanese shi – “fingers”, “extremities” – and atsu – “pressure”) is a relaxing and therapeutic massage which originated in Japan. There are several theories regarding the birth of the art of shiatsu. The most common theory is that it is the fusion of the traditional Japanese massage anma – which itself came from the Chinese massage tui na and arrived in Japan in the 11th century – and Western chiropractic. In Japan, shiatsu has been recognised as an official medical treatment since the 1950s, although it only appeared in the West in the 1960s and 1970s.

Like acupuncture and moxibustion (a relaxation technique which uses heat to stimulate acupuncture points), shiatsu is based on the principles of traditional Chinese medicine. More specifically, shiatsu uses different pressure, stretching, balance and manipulation techniques to work on the meridians, the channels which circulate energy and link all the body’s organs and functions together. Pressure is applied primarily with the fingers, but also with the elbows, the forearms, the feet or even the knees of the practitioner.

Shiatsu acts on the primary systems of the body, both on a physical level as well as on an emotional and mental level. The aim is to help the patient to recover by harmonising and strengthening their body’s natural ability to heal itself. The treatment, which is administered while the patient is fully clothed and lying down on a mattress or a futon, can be beneficial to all ages, whatever the person’s state of health. The patient then experiences a feeling of extreme lightness and profound calm: the body and mind have been rejuvenated.

Shiatsu is particularly effective when it comes to sleeping and posture problems, reproductive dysfunctions and migraines, but it can also have beneficial effects on emotional or psychological problems, such as depression or even certain psychoses.

DID YOU KNOW?

Shiatsu might be even more ancient than we think. Stone needles dating back to 8000 BC were found in China at Neolithic sites, which implies that the principles of energy in traditional Chinese medicine had already been discovered and studied at this time. Consequently, we can suppose that there were treatments using the hands (rudimentary massages) which preceded or even led to the development of this philosophy.

How does shiatsu work?

The basic principles

Shiatsu is based on a holistic vision which considers that the body and the mind is a whole and works on energy. This energy circulates throughout the body in channels called meridians. These channels have certain points with a particularly high concentration of energy; these are called tsubo, literally “places where energy comes together”.

An imbalance in the body’s organs and systems can be detected in the relevant meridians and their tsubo. This imbalance can appear in different forms in the zones of the body which are associated with them, through symptoms like pain, or a change in skin colour or tone of voice, for example. These symptoms represent clear signals that something is wrong with your inner energy, and this problem can become chronic and gradually turn into an illness over time. Through different energising or calming manipulations applied to the meridians, shiatsu helps the person’s vital energy to re-establish the balance of the organs or systems which are having problems. The organism therefore rejuvenates itself completely naturally, and the state of discomfort gets better before finally disappearing.