I have written about the cost in money of Shiatsu and other alternative
treatments and I’m sure I will return to that. This post is about other
possible costs.
One of my main desires in treating people is to allow them
closer, more immediate access to their bodies and therefore themselves. I
strongly believe that the more we are aware of our bodies and the subtle shifts
in energy or flow the better we understand ourselves.
This access to understanding does not have to be all hippy
and out there, (although I did just write both energy and flow)! It can simply
be by understanding that ‘when I am tense I hold the muscles in my jaw firm’, or
‘I've noticed that I tense my forearm’, ‘I think it’s when I’m worried’.
Simple little bits of understanding can lead to some
powerful discoveries about how we are feeling and doing. Part of the magic is that it can bring us
into the now, it allows greater understanding of how we are really doing, now.
But there is a cost; one of the coping mechanisms we have is
to learn to ignore just these signs. We are all inherently capable of being
aware on the most deep level but for many, many individual reasons we learn
that one way of anaesthetising our lives is to turn off these messages. In this
way we are able to continue with the crappy job, the rubbish housing and the
less than satisfying relationships.
In my experience when we turn back on these understandings we
also can cause ourselves pain and difficulties as we experience in detail what
we have been hiding from. Now I feel that the ultimate outcome is an authentic
life lived well. And as we have been fortunate enough to be born into these
strange bodies, in this strange place we must grasp the opportunity while we
can. Sometimes the process is not pretty but the results can be.
