subject: Zen Shiatsu And Reiki - Two Members Of The Group Of Therapies Working With Energy Flow In The Body [print this page] Amongst the popular alternative health treatments out there, Zen Shiatsu is surely the most practical and intelligible. Other methods, such as Reiki for instance, take a leap of understanding and trust to appreciate, but Zen Shiatsu is based in physics, would you believe. Although the two practices work with energy flow inside the body, and how this should be balanced for health, a Reiki therapist tries to channel life energy into or out of the human organism. You can even pay a therapist to send you a Reiki, which appears a little out of the ordinary, to say the least. Because of these factors, Reiki retains too much mysticism, and likewise leads people to think that there is some kind of supernatural or magical connotations to the 'art' - this is neither true, nor a good way to think for all concerned concerned.
A training course for Reiki can be quite short, although many years are needed before one becomes an expert. That said, as in all disciplines, there are self-proclaimed masters. Zen Shiatsu courses are well planned and comprehensive, requiring accompanied practice and stringent examinations after each year. What is the basis of Zen Shiatsu? Theoretically, every thing that exists consists of energy, which is held in balance, and is vital for the harmony of every thing on the physical level. It's been shown that even the atomic particles in solid matter are in reality packets of energy that give the quality of appearing solid as we interact with it. The human body is made of the same energy, vibrating at assorted frequencies, and more or less in balance.
A Japanese psychologist named Masanuga demonstrated that energy moves around our bodies in well-defined meridians or channels. The movement of the energy can be increased or inhibited using pressure from the fingers, and so cause the energy to be more balanced. When energy is out of balance in our bodies, then we become ill. Zen Shiatsu is very invaluable as a preventative medicine tool, and is fast becoming fashionable in the West. The therapy embraces the Eastern idea of one mind-body, rather than treating the various aspects of human life in separate sections, such as physical, mental, spiritual and emotional - they are intimately combined and one can't exist in a vacuum. It's good sense to heal on this basic energy level, as it impacts all aspects of our body-mind organism.
Although it isn't really a method of massage in the strictest sense, Zen Shiatsu is decidedly a hands on therapy. Therapists may use thumbs, fingers, elbows, knees and feet to give firm pressure over the energy flow paths.
