One of the huge tragedies wrought by the pandemic is how ‘social distancing’ separated us from each other. This lack of touch has led some experts to predict a mental health crisis.
But arguably a far greater tragedy happened centuries earlier when in 1637 the French philosopher Descartes declared “I think therefore I am”. Having thoughts, no matter how unreliable he considered irrefutable proof of his existence, and more reliable than information acquired from his senses or his body.
So began the view of the brain as our all-powerful centre while the body was demoted to simply housing the brain. Thankfully, our understanding of the brain and consciousness has evolved since then, with neuroscientists recognising that “Our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are shaped in part by the internal signals that arise from our body.”
As we start to emerge from lockdown we are confronted with social opportunities and venturing into busy spaces, an anxiety-inducing prospect for those of us who have actually enjoyed the relative quiet of our pandemic-restricted lives.
(If you’re feeling uncertain about social settings, check out last week’s post about the use of self-Shiatsu and Acupressure points to help you feel calm.)
But before we consider ramping up our social time, what if we look closer to home and consider how we might first (re)connect to ourselves?
Fragmented existence
The frenetic pace of life, our disconnection from green spaces, cultural conditioning that views the brain as our centre, and a loss of practices that encouraged awareness of and reverence for soul/spirit are some of the reasons for our dis-connection from the world, and ourselves.
This separation numbs our emotions and prevents us from experiencing an embodied (bringing awareness inside the body) sense of ourselves. I see this in many of my clients who tell me they want Shiatsu to help them feel more relaxed yet they struggle to articulate what this would feel like for them.
“I am relaxed when my limbs feel heavy, my mind is quiet and I have a sense of being connected to something bigger than myself.” Sarah Allison, Shiatsu & Reiki Practitioner
Paths for re-connection
Shiatsu recognises your existence on four levels – physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. They cannot be separated because we exist as one interconnected whole. Thus every Shiatsu treatment and its gentle touch engages with the whole of you.
“Chinese medicine [from which Shiatsu evolved] transcends the illusion of separation by inhibiting the reality of a unified field, an interwoven pattern of inseparable links in a circular chain.”*
Specifically, Shiatsu touch engages our Ki, the force that animates the whole of life known in Taoism as the Tao. Cultivating our Ki is an ongoing process of learning to become more animated, more charged with life.
Qi Gong, self-Shiatsu or Shiatsu touch from a professional Shiatsu Practitioner are a path to a deeper experience of ourselves via the movement or palpation of the physical body which causes a change in our Ki. This change may be experienced on any or all of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels.
The body as the path to re-connection
“One way of looking at the body is as a dance, as a mystery, as an undiscovered country full of wisdom. And as soon as we accept that, things happen, things change.” Expert embodied facilitator Mark Walsh
In experiencing ourselves as more than our brain or thinking mind, we may re-discover a ‘felt’ sense of our inner world. Our lives move into technicolour as we appreciate our existence in a more profound way. As we find deeper connection with self, there are greater possibilities for richer interactions with others.
This is how we start to overcome the barriers of separation created in the Renaissance of scientific philosophy 400 years ago. Instead we may move towards the ancient Chinese worldview of ‘body as garden’ – one inherently connected whole – and a “part of one unbroken wholeness, called Tao, a singular relational continuum within and without”*.
Re-connecting to yourself
Let me guide you in discovering yourself in a more profound way with a Guided Self-Shiatsu Session.
Using a combination of meditation, visualisation, Acupressure, Shiatsu touch, meridian stretches and lifestyle recommendations, you will gain an insight into skills that you can use in your own time for enhanced self-care and maintaining your good health. This is empowered healing.
Drop me a message to let me know you want to explore how it could benefit you.
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