Beginnings

Aloha,
After being in full time practice as a licensed Shiatsu therapist for over 30 years, I felt it was time to finally start a blog where I can share some of my history, experiences, views, research and anecdotes to anyone who might be interested. I'm hoping to include any other helpful hints or information regarding other natural therapeutics that can be utilized by the general public in an attempt to promote or maintain health. I also encourage anyone so inclined to ask questions regarding this field and I'll do my best to answer them in a non-technical way that most people can understand. So here goes:

I thought I would start out talking about "energy" since Shiatsu is often referred to as an "energy" therapy and many people from the West have a hard time understanding what that refers to, and even fear it as something occult. The word energy can mean a lot of things, but for this purpose, I like to use the definition most suited to physics. That is: energy represents the ability to do work. It is manifested in many ways, electricity, light, heat, sound, magnetic fields, mechanical, chemical, and other means, but some shared things are always consistent.  The basis of energy is neither created nor destroyed, and under the right conditions, it can be converted to other forms of energy, usually with some dispersion of that energy involved in that conversion process.

This concept can be used to explain how we utilize electricity to make light (or vice-versa through photo voltaic cells). We can use chemicals to make electricity, such as in batteries. We can use magnets to create sound as is used in speakers, heat from oil and so on ... .   There is nothing occult or magical about this applied science when referring to "vital energy" or the ability to do the body's work for life, Oriental medicine is is just a very practical application of known scientific facts.

The word "Shiatsu" literally means "finger pressure" in the Japanese language. That sounds so simple and when watching a Shiatsu therapist at work, that is what you will see. The reality is, however, that by pressing on the body with the fingers and palms, a person is capable of doing a great deal to influence change in the balance of many dynamics that are constantly occurring in the human body that our level of science is only now just beginning to understand. Pressing specific points on the body can pump the lymphatic system, dilate the vascular system, stimulate or sedate the nervous system, help regulate the hormone system as well as help to balance the musculo-skeletal systems. All of these are examples of "vital energy" being manipulated to aid the body to maintain health.

For a practical example of how this works, the next time someone you know gets a case of the hiccups, have them put a cup of water in their hand and stand behind them. Have them take 10 small quick sips of water while you put firm pressure on the flaps of both of his/her ears so as to close the ear opening but not painfully. If, by chance it doesn't work the first time, do it a second time. I have never seen this fail unless the hiccups were chemically induced or due to pressure on the involved nerve from trauma, infection, or a structure such as a tumor.

Hiccups are a reflex reaction that the body has when there is an imbalance between the muscles that allow the throat to open for air versus the muscles that close the airway while you swallow food. The loss of coordination between these antagonistic muscles can sometimes be caused by eating extremely spicy, or hot food, carbonation, being startled or other ways of stimulating the nerve that manages this coordination. Pressing these points in this way helps to reset the autonomic nervous system so as to balance this mechanism once again.