SHIATSU AND BREATHING
“The breath progresses like the waves of the sea, sometimes more intense and sometimes lighter, which reach the shore, kiss it and then return to the sea”.
This metaphor perfectly identifies the exact evolution of breathing.
It is essential to pay attention to our breathing, to understand its importance in our life process.
Breathing is involuntary and creates an incessant rhythm like the waves on the beach; like any rhythm, it is intimately connected to a natural musicality within our body, of which the diaphragm, throat and nostrils constitute the main soloists in the symphony of breathing.
From an involuntary act it can be transformed, without interruption, into a voluntary act by taking a deeper inhalation, or increasing the interval between this and a subsequent exhalation.
Therefore it is possible to voluntarily decide to inhale a greater quantity of air and consequently exhale, which empties our lungs more deeply.
Returning to the musical question, there are two rhythms interconnected with each other: that of breathing and that of the heartbeat.
Life experiences, psycho-somatic experiences, modify our breathing patterns: depending on the moment, breathing changes as our emotions and moods change.
Society puts us in contact with emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger and stress, which, by interacting with incorrect postures and physical compensation attitudes of the body, modify the frequency, depth and quality of breathing. In Shiatsu practice, the operator draws on his previous knowledge and awareness of the Here and Now, of contingent reality, to optimize the progression of his breathing, in synchrony with the acupressure on the receiving’s energy meridians and possibly also in synchrony with the breathing of the receiving.
In a Shiatsu treatment the factors that are of fundamental importance are: breathing, posture and attention, which in practice prove to be interdependent and inseparable.
The word “attention” here means greater sensitivity and listening ability, which allow you to work manually where it is most necessary in terms of energy.
During the treatment an energetic dialogue is created at a subconscious level, without resorting to words, but rather to contact and breathing.
The regular and deep breathing rhythm of the operator constitutes an address, a guide for that of the receiving.
The deeper, more regular and hypnotic the rhythm is, the more the receiving is stimulated to abandon the rational part, to explore his introspective part, where feelings and emotions lie still to be refined and positively transformed, to re-establish an optimal emotional balance.
On an unconscious level, the message sent by the operator’s breath is one of serenity and pacification and by instilling trust, it promotes deep relaxation; this breath also tends on a sound level to guide that of the receiving, like a tuning fork that suggests the right intonation of the breathing, which otherwise would be less than harmonious and also disordered and shallow.
The Indian spiritual master Sri Sri Ravi Shankar stated that:
“Every emotion is connected to breathing. If you change the breathing, you change the rhythm and you can change the emotion”. The Shiatsu operator focuses on breathing, drawing balance, centering, strength and subsequent sharing with the receiving.
The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh said that:
“With the act of consciously breathing in you enter yourself. Your body is breathing and your body is your home. In every breath you can return to yourself.”
Shiatsu is not just a simple manual technique, but is above all a work of the professional operator on himself, to offer and guarantee a treatment of the highest level, ensuring himself a correct posture, deep and regular breathing, which is functional to his well-being, but above all it is a guarantee of the quality of the treatment; deep and regular breathing pacifies his mind, leads to a purification in his heart and consequently in his hands, fully and freely welcoming the receiving.
During the Shiatsu treatment the body is treated, while the soul, the emotions experienced and the spirit are touched; breathing is life, breathing represents all our strength.
“Control of breathing gives man strength, vitality, inspiration and magical powers” (Chuang Tzu – Chinese philosopher, 400 BC).
The secret of the Shiatsu practitioner’s practice is the control and use of his breathing.