Where Norbert was a while ago wrote Regarding the mental and spiritual aspect of the Spirit concept from an Eastern perspective, I – Tanja – also regularly encounter the physical aspect of having a ‘clear and strong Spirit’ in my practice.
‘Spirit as the root of life’ comes from one of the classic texts of Eastern Medicine (Lingshu, chapter 8) and expresses our spirit in life, our ‘lust for life’. Spirit is our connection with the universe, with the divine, and with the spiritual connection to the people around us. When that connection with everything around us exists, we feel light, we are open to life, experiences, people; we feel that we are in the midst of life, it is true, it resonates.
That connection can sometimes be lost for many reasons, for shorter or longer periods of time. It won’t always be immediately apparent that that connection has been lost, but we’ll notice it through certain physical expressions. For example, we’ll sleep less well, feel restless or anxious, be somewhat clumsy in our movements (we’ll suddenly drop things off our hands), have less desire to socialize with people. Often in my practice I see people who have been sleeping poorly for a long time, who are restless, feel stressed, have a light tightness in the chest, and gradually become increasingly gloomy. Of course, this can also have other causes, but often Spirit plays a central role in a combination of these types of complaints.
Last week, one of my patients came into the practice. Beforehand, she announced that she was suffering from a winter cold. Once in the practice, it turned out that she had been overactive earlier, causing her to be so restless at night that she had not been sleeping well for weeks. She felt a pounding in her chest, the feeling of not being completely in her body.
Hara- and pulse diagnosis I told her that in the interplay of the organs, it was precisely the Spirit that needed extra attention. My treatment focused on calming and anchoring the Spirit, bringing it back to the center. Immediately after the end of the treatment, the patient was calm, had a healthy flush on her cheeks, and felt ‘senang’ again. The next day, she reported that she had slept very well that night. What was even more remarkable and surprising was that her balance exercises improved a lot and that even the planks suddenly became much easier.
Where the Spirit had once been at rest in its place, its body could also stand more stably and more grounded in life.
For me, it was also very interesting to see: what a shiatsu treatment can do for someone, on so many levels.
Would you like to experience this as well? Then join our workshop that focuses on Shiatsu and Immunity. In this one-day workshop on February 22 in Amersfoort, you will get to know immunity Shiatsu and learn what you can do to enhance yourself and others.