The bad student part 2: Impetus

Personal Development, Theory, Zen shiatsu (Masunaga)

Impetus is Masunaga’s description for the Kidney and Bladder function. It is our basic fight or flight response and is associated with fear, anxiety and will power. It is common to describe a weak person as having no backbone; in TCM and Masunaga theories the Kidney and Bladder control the bones and the meridians run down the back parallel to the spine.

These organs are also about purification; they remove poisons from the body that so we are able to act out our will. As with everything in Shiatsu this is not simply a physiological function; we talk about purification of Ki to express that is the mind/body that needs to be purified. We have to filter and excrete the impure of mind as well as body.

Coincidentally, on the day I come to write this post Steve Pavlina has published another in his series on polarity. This edition is about work and career. He talks about fears, drive and ambition and how one can use these emotions for the best by polarising on one of them. In other words succeeding in life by choosing the purest expression of what it is that works for you.

The Kidneys and Bladder are water organs and it takes a lot of energy to keep muddy waters from mixing with the pure. This is what I have been trying to do with work and Shiatsu. It has taken too much effort and this year the office apathy infected my college work. This is one aspect of my becoming the bad student.

I have been stuck in a bad working situation for a while now and I keep posting about it; in Steve Pavlina’s terminology I have not chosen a polarity. In Masunaga’s words I am not purifying my Ki. Until I do so I will continue to stagnate in body and mind and will continue to be afraid.

Fear is a great motivator and the fact that I am starting to fail in my shiatsu studies just as I have really connected with it has been the push that I needed. This weekend I resolved to fight back.

• I raised a grievance against my work management and demanded a final resolution.
• I have started to clear the backlog of college work

The waters are clearing and the grievance was a necessary kick for my boss too; answers are starting to appear. Now I am not happy with some of those answers but fear of the resolution has been the barrier to progress so far. I must overcome these fears if I am to succeed in my shiatsu studies.

In my next post I will look at acceptance.

Tony Brown @ March 8, 2007