Healing continued

Healing

Continued.

So last time I wrote about healing we did a brief look at crystal healing, reiki and spiritual healing. Now I have practiced more than a couple of martial arts in my time. The first was judo (where I broke my collar bone). As such things like Shiatsu has always made sense to me.

Shiatsu

Shiatsu as a healing system came to Japan about the 6th century via a Buddhist monk. Over the centuries it was refined and adapted to Japanese culture and in the 20th century Tami Tempaku incorporated elements of physiotherapy and chiropractic methods into much older methods. It was officially recognised as it's own distinct form in 1964.
The type of Shiatsu I  have experienced and on occasion worked with focuses on working through clothes and manipulation of the sun, or acupressure points around the body, as well as gently re-aligning the joints. I have read a great many books about shiatsu but I seem to have a knack with it. My hands know. Interestingly (at least to me) the client and the practitioner (though full clothed) become one. The ki (chi) moves through both parties. It is like tai chi with two bodies.

Acupuncture

My first experience of acupuncture was watching my Dad lying on a table covered with tiny silver quills. The therapist joked that I should I want something, now would be the time to ask. I was not upset, or frightened. I did not take him up on his offer.

Acupuncture is a part of TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine. It is a very old system of healing based around the balance of energy and allowing things to flow energetically around the body. It uses herbs, (we will cover this at some other point) food, as well as massage and acupuncture to heal emotional blocks and physical injury.

While I react wonderfully to shiatsu, I have a metal reaction to the needles. I have always thought that I would do better with traditional bamboo needles but they are hardly used any more. 

That said I would have loved to have had the surgeries I have had with acupuncture as the anesthetic because it takes ages to work on me and then I am usually out for ages as they give me to much. Acupuncture has had huge successes used this way even during open heart surgery. 

While the meridian system used is much more intricate than the one generally used in shiatsu many of the principles are the same. They treat the person as a whole being, including emotional well-being a part of health. 

Aromatherapy 

Aromatherapy for me is part herbal alchemy, part sensory stimulant, part massage. I love it. Other than the herbs and flower potions I made as a kid my first brush with aromatherapy was when I first left home as a student. I started working with and researching oils after having them used on me at the osteopath for a neck injury. I collected more oils (having always massaged any way) and more books until I left University and I signed up for my first holistic therapy course. I have done three since then and yet my only qualification in holistics is in aromatherapy. This therapy has it's roots in almost all ancient cultures, Egyptian, Greeks, Chinese, and many others had forms of using essences for healing the body, spirit and mind.

Smell has a huge impact on our brain function, memory, attraction and desire. Some people think this is the key to aromatherapy. While that is true essential oil are absorbed very easily into the body and mimic many hormones the body naturally produces. While the distilled, pressed and extracted oils of flowers, woods, leaves, seeds and roots do often smell pleasant they also seem to affect the body, sometimes for days.

The herbal alchemy of taking the "essence" of a plant is both beautiful and interesting to me how oils are used and applied makes a big difference in how they work. Certain oils seem to work better through physical application, while other better vaporized in a space (whether oil burner, incense or steam room). 

Aromatherapy massage has many different forms (I have been taught three different massages by the three teachers I have had.) Some work with the chakra system and with the breathing, other purely the physical body, then some are more like shiatsu massages.)

It is something I have a great skill in and something I love to do (which does beg the question, why don't I do it more often). While hard work, it is one of the most rewarding and relaxing things I do. There is something wonderful about massaging someone. 

That is all for this blog...so much more to cover!

Bright Blessings