Being ill makes for good shiatsu
For the first time in a long while I have been really under the weather. At first I thought it was toothache and then my digestion shut down. I was also very agitated and could not sit around feeling sorry for myself. I had to walk around feeling sorry for myself, often during the early hours of the morning. Eventually my appetite returned but the tooth pain remained.
This was all in the run up to a big weekend at shiatsu college. Our tutor had arranged the Saturday to be an all day clinic. Four appointment times during the day meant that we had to work hard to fill the Twenty Four sessions available. We managed to get Twenty One clients in the end; a real result.
I was disappointed to think that after all the hard work convincing people to attend I would not there myself. But as the weekend approached and I improved disappointment was replaced by a little fear of how I might cope physically with four clients. As I could not get a dental appointment until the following Monday would I manage through the toothache?
Patched up with temporary filling material from the Chemist and a packet of pain killers I started on my first receiver of the day. She was a former college student, newly qualified shiatsu practitioner and last year’s clinic co-ordinator - so no pressure then! But it was a good treatment and we both enjoyed it. Client number two was a first time receiver and again I had no problems during our hour together.
Some more patching up over lunch and on to clients three and four; both fine. I actually ended the day feeling better than I did in the morning.
My fear of not getting through the day was more about not being able to give or project or impress because of the pain. But shiatsu is not about impressing a client. It is promoted as a healing experience for the receiver but the giver benefits too. In fact the less the giver tries to give the more effective it is for both the practitioner and client. This is what I found particularly during this clinic day but also in my private treatments.
This experience was not restricted to me. Our tutor noted that as the day went on all of the class gave better shiatsu simply because we were tiring and started to try less. We all started to rely on our clients to support our technique instead of using technique or skill to impress the client.
Shiatsu is more penetrating and effective if we allow ourselves to work with our client’s energy instead of trying to force it or move it. We act as a catalyst for change and not enforcers and sometimes it takes an illness, injury or fatigue to bring us back to that fact. When we start to trust that the client can support us then physical manipulations stop and shiatsu begins.
Tony Brown @ January 30, 2008