On defining shiatsu
When it comes to describing shiatsu I have the most difficulty with the concept of Ki. I have written several articles about Ki on this blog over the past year and in my last one, What is energy medicine?, I described it more as a philosophy than an actual substance, energy or force.
But that is not quite true. When I started exploring shiatsu Ki was a word from Asia that equated to Western physiological processes. It then became an idea and a philosophical exercise to explain the Universe. But as I was treating a client recently I saw Ki as my own interaction with this person and his body as a function of mind, energy and physiology.
Ki is common currency in the Japanese and Chinese languages and the concept is part of daily life. But to define Ki in the West is really to undertake a journey of exploration. We as a culture have swapped such concepts for a scientific evidence based approach.
My difficulty in describing my shiatsu is getting what I feel Ki means down in words. It is too much of a feeling for me that it ever was so I understand why words like energy and life-force are so attractive. It is all of these things but a lot more. It is something I have tried to describe here in terms of music, storytelling and science but I wonder if my problem is more of a barrier than conceptual.
Maybe I am a little embarrassed by the Western terminology. Maybe I just feel silly using words like energy and life-force. I could just be scared to nail my colours to the mast as a complementary therapist and use the vocabulary of one.
Could there still be that little sceptic inside telling me that this is all too silly to be true?
Tony Brown @ October 1, 2007
[…] Since it is doing the rounds on the other shiatsu blog sites (here at Tony’s blog and here at Tracy’s blog), I’ll throw in my tuppence worth on the subject. […]