Self-Awareness and Shiatsu

By Catriona Murray

One of the comments most often heard from clients on receiving Shiatsu is how much more aware of their bodies they are after a session. Although as Shiatsu practitioners we work actively on our clients' bodies, physically moving joints, applying pressure or movement via our thumbs, elbows, fingers palms and feet, what our clients often do not realise is that 50% of the effort comes from them!

Every movement, every ...

... point of pressure, is working with the client's body, and a client's body is naturally going to respond, with shifts which may be super-subtle (e.g. a shift in mood), or more dramatic (e.g. a pain vanishes).

A side-effect of this work is a drawing of attention into the body. Often over a series of sessions a client may become aware of aches and pains, of changes in mood which had always been there, but which they simply had not noticed or 'clocked'.

And all of this is simply vital! As, in a process of healing, our primary healer is ourselves: if we are aware of our own bodies, of what suits and what doesn't, of our patterns and tics, then it is so, so much easier for us to take steps, sometimes as tiny as adjusting how we stand at the washing up bowl, which make major differences, over time, in our body, mind, emotions: our life!