Shiatsudo Blog

Everyone has it within their hands to give a simple shiatsu massage. There are a number of good books that introduce shiatsu and will take you through some simple shiatsu sequences that you can learn and use. I find a lot of the books on shiatsu are aimed at the practitioner though, rather than the layman. Often, the books go into too much detail about meridians and tsubos and other bits of Chinese Medical theory and people miss out on the important fact that massage is about doing! Of course the books need to contain additional information – nobody would be happy to buy a book that only had a few pages and contained some very simple instructions – lucky you came across this blog post then eh?

Shiatsu can be absolutely sublime in the hands of an experienced practitioner. Shiatsu can involve a great many techniques and various stretches, and it can take someone years to become familiar with the best way to support the receiver and the best way to move around the body. And that can elevate a shiatsu from good to great to fantastic. But, I think it is in everyone’s grasp to give a good simple shiatsu to their family or friends. You won’t be doing any hara diagnosis or looking at someone from a five element theory point of veiw or even learning a good old TCM diagnosis. Instead, you can learn a few simple techniques that can help soothe aching backs or necks and leave your friends and family calm and relaxed. The trick is, I think, not to be afraid of the body! Shiatsu is a wonderful way of getting back in touch with our bodies – especially when we live reasonably sedentary lives.

Some simple ideas to keep in mind while you try this:

• Keep aware of your hara or centre.
• Keep in mind that shiatsu is about connection – try to feel both your hands all the time and feel how they connect to each other through the receiver’s body.
• Remember to keep one hand active and one hand passive. Don’t move both hands at the same time.

Now, with that in mind, get down on the ground on your hands and knees. It helps to have a soft surface – a few yoga mats piled on top of each other or a futon or something similar. Scan through your body, making sure nothing is overly tense. You want a state of tonus but not tension. Keep your back straight, extend from the tip of your head through your spine and coccyx. Get your weight evenly distributed between your hands and knees. You can flex your toes so the top of your foot comes towards your shin (dorsiflexion) so that the balls of your feet are lightly touching the ground to help move your weight around.

Got that? Great! Now simply move your weight about a bit. Move it forward and back – more onto your hands, then more onto your knees. Keep your back straight. Don’t concentrate too hard. Relax. It’s easy. Move your weight left and right. Get a feel for when you are off balance and when you are not. Relax into gravity. Now the real fun bit, come back to the centre and then push with one hand so your weight shifts diagonally onto the opposite knee. Push back from the knee to the hand and come back to the centre. Now do the other side. Cool? Great now do the same thing, say we push with the left hand and our weight shifts to the right knee, move your intent into your right knee and push forward so you move your weight onto your right hand, no use your right hand to shift your weight to your left knee and then the left knee to move you to your left hand. Keep going, tracing nice figure of eights of like this for a while, then reverse the direction – start by pushing with the right knee into the left hand left hand to left knee, left knee to right hand and right hand to right knee. Now mix it up go any direction from anywhere.

Take a break. How was that? Fun? Great. You’ve just learned the basics of shiatsu. Let’s extend it a bit – follow the same patterns as above but now when you transfer weight off one limb, pick it up a bit and move it, put it down again and then transfer your weight again. Don’t be shy – after all, you don’t have anyone underneath your hands yet so play with this – move your hands a lot or a little, find when you are overextended and when you are all still connected.

Great you’ve just given shiatsu to your floor! Well done! Not sure if it will help with that wonky floorboard, but if it does

Ok, that’s enough for today, practice a bit and look out for part 2 when we transfer this onto an actual person.