A pro-active approach to health and wellbeing
If we eat and drink what our bodies need, exercise regularly, manage stress and sleep well to aid recovery, then we are well on our way to help the body maintain balance and harmony.
However, how can we be more pro-active about our health and wellbeing, especially as we get older?
The way we think is the wrong way around
In the film Billions in Change, Sir David Lane, a foremost scientist and expert in the field of cancer talks about how important it is to change our approach:
“…what we tend to do is think of ourselves as well until we’re ill and that’s the wrong way around. We need to be thinking about maintaining health as a much more pro-active process.
Everybody wants a shortcut; maybe I’ll take this vitamin and I’ll be better.
What we need to do is think about fundamentals, like the blood, the circulation – that’s what your heart’s doing, that’s what’s taking nutrients around the body, that’s what’s critical for eliminating waste products.
So clearly, poor circulation is the basis of a lot of illness. So anything that can help people to improve their health is very, very important…
Need to think out of the box
You have to go outside the system. The current system educates people to behave in a certain way; you get ill, you go to the doctor, the doctor is a god-like figure, the doctor’s going to save you…that’s how it works. Instead of thinking: oh, I’m part of this process…I can’t be passive, I should be active.
It’s about that shift in thinking; to think about new ways of doing things.”
So I ask the question again – apart from providing the right nourishment for the body, getting enough sleep and exercising regularly – how can we be more pro-active about our health and wellbeing in a way that is accessible and effective?
Jin Shin Jyutsu uses a unique system
Well, each one of us has a unique system of ‘energy sites’ on the body which we can work with by knowing where to place our hands.
So let me give you an example of how this energy system works.
I’d like to establish at the outset that left to its own devices, our incredibly intelligent body is capable of healing and repairing itself.
If you cut yourself, for instance, your body will jump into action to isolate and heal the area affected. If it’s a deep cut, then it will take some time to heal.
However, if you place your hands in a particular way, you will greatly help speed up the healing process (that’s because of the way the energy moves through your hands).
In my experience, when you apply Jin Shin Jyutsu to a wound, the healing really kicks in after a few minutes.
Over the last 20+ years, I (and my clients ) have experienced how Jin Shin Jyutsu also speeds up the removal of toxins and wastes from the body and greatly helps to support the immune, lymphatic and circulatory systems – thereby assisting the body to clean, regenerate and repair itself, as well as helping to clear stressors that cause discomfort and disease.
Jin Shin Jyutsu clinical studies
There are many clinical studies that show the positive effects of Jin Shin Jyutsu on the body.
For instance, a study at the University of California showed that Jin Shin Jyutsu helps manage and clear mucositis.
As noted in the Annals of Oncology: “Oral and gastrointestinal mucositis due to cancer therapies such as high-dose chemotherapy and/or radiation continues to be an important clinical problem.”
Another study conducted in 2012 at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center with cancer patients, found that “in each session patients experienced significant improvement in the areas of pain, stress, and nausea with the first visit and in subsequent visits as well.”
The study was led by Jin Shin Jyutsu Integrative Practitioner Jennifer Bradley who commented: “I was pleased to see quantitatively the improvements that patients noted in these primary areas of discomfort. It was interesting to note that regardless of age, sex or diagnosis, cancer patients received a statistically significant improvement in the side effects from treatment. It is encouraging to note that Jin Shin Jyutsu made improvements in these areas without adding additional unwanted effects that so often occur with medication interventions.”
I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, saying here that Jin Shin Jyutsu is a substitute for medical diagnosis, attention and/or treatment.
What I am saying, though is that it is very important to encourage a pro-active attitude and approach to maintain optimum health and wellbeing, especially when we are well.
That, in my view, is much more empowering than just thinking of ourselves as well, until we’re not, and Jin Shin Jyutsu offers us that very real and elegant possibility.
Astrid Kauffmann
Jin Shin Jyutsu Practitioner and Self help Teacher since 2001
Want to learn more about Jin Shin Jyutsu?
You may like my online resources
See also:
Sources:
Billions in Change (Film)
Jin Shin Jyutsu: New Relief and Prevention for Mouth Sores (Mucositis) in Cancer Treatment: A Case Series – By Ann Shannon, Certified Jin Shin Jyutsu Practitioner.
Management of oral and gastrointestinal mucositis: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines
-D. E. Peterson1, R.-J. Bensadoun2 and F. Roila3 (Oxford Journals Annals of Oncology)
University of Kentucky News, Study Suggests Touch Therapy Helps Reduce Pain, Nausea in Cancer Patients, June 26, 2012