Monday’s class was putting together the entire prone sequence and moving on to the face work. I partnered with a woman who’s touch was really, really light. And yet, with that, the work was nice. In return, I worked on her with feather-light touch and she was very happy. Shiatsu is a system of manipulating the body’s energy through specific ritualized touch along the energy pathways that move over and through the body, sort of like a highway.
The weird thing is that while I am very skeptical about this work in my head, I have had experiences that I do not really know how to put into an empirical context. Scientific experimentation done on work based on Traditional Chinese Medicine often returns negative results, or widely divergent results, especially as it relates to meridians – like accupuncture and accupressure massage. Yet, I can “feel” “energy” moving around my clients and my own body. Take, for instance, the chi pat. This is a shiatsu stroke that is used after the work on the lower back. You place one hand on the sacrum, and with the free hand, you strike the first hand in the direction of the feet. It’s not a hard stroke, but the sensation of feeling waves or clouds of energy moving down the legs to the feet in amazing. In the sequence we are being taught, we move on to the legs next, and if you’ve done the back well, the legs are already receptive to the work, and it’s a simple work.
I rode BART home, anticipating receiving a nice massage from a guy I am trading with. I got some supper, walked home and showered, then walked over to his place. It was a really nice experience, and I’ll be reciprocating with him this coming Monday.
Today, the return of the teaching clinic at school. UGH.
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