Septempber Meeting, Riverview

Sheila Turkel opened the meeting and announced that the scheduled speaker couldn’t come, but she had arranged for Suzanne Bird, from Innergize Studio, to give a lecture. Suzanne gave her presentation here in May of last year (and at Jersey Shore the following August), but with interference from a loud meeting in the next room, and without the background music and dim blue lighting. Sheila also announced the Heart Walk on October 4, and reminded us that the November meeting is on the third Thursday - not on Thanksgiving Day! The scheduled speaker for that meeting is Debbi Shar on sleep deprivation - 60 percent of the population is sleep deprived.

Suzanne started some slow oriental flute music, turned down the lights, and began to instruct us in Jin Shin Jyutsu, an ancient Japanese relaxation technique that was rediscovered by Jiro Murai about a century ago. Around World War II, a Japanese-American named Mary Burmeister visited Japan, studied under Jiro Murai, and returned to the U.S. to teach Jin Shin Jyutsu. Her daughter-in law put together a book, The Touch of Healing.

All you need for Jin Shin Jiutsu is your hands, your fingers, and your breath - which are always with you. Wherever you are, you can hold your fingers to relax.

Suzanne told us to wrap the fingers of the left hand gently around the right thumb, become aware of your breath, relax, drop the shoulders. Exhale from the top of your head, down the front of your body to your toes, then inhale up your back to the top of your head.

We proceeded in this way through all five fingers, a few minutes on each. Each finger has its own special properties:

• The thumb releases worry and harmonizes the spleen and stomach energy patterns (not just the organs but their larger patterns).
• The index finger releases fear, and harmonizes the kidney and bladder energy patterns.
• The middle finger releases anger, and harmonizes the liver and gall bladder.
• The ring finger releases sadness, and harmonizes the lung and large intestine energy patterns.
• The pinky releases pretense and harmonizes the small intestine, and also the heart; hold it on the way to the ER or surgery.

Besides the fingers, there are areas along the body called safety energy locks. Gently hold the part of your hand between your thumb and index finger. That’s lock 18; it quiets the mind. Lock 17, the bump on the wrist below the pinky, eases panic. Lock 19 is the crook of the elbow; holding both is a position of balance and also releases the upper back.

In ancient times (Suzanne read from the book) traditional people saw no distinction between body, mind and spirit. Consequently the practices they used to assist the body promoted physical, emotional and spiritual wholeness. The concept of a life energy that pervades the universe is unfamiliar in the Western world.

There are no strict rules for how to use Jin Shin Jyutsu. You can hold any finger, left or right, in any position. The fingers are the jumper cables of your energy battery; just hook them up.

One of the most important things we can do for ourselves is to take thirty-six conscious breaths a day.

To close the session we held the energy center in the center of our palms, either palms together, or a finger or thumb on each palm. The palms regenerate the entire being.

Morristown Memorial Hospital is using Jin Shin Jyutsu in the cancer ward and has a grant to study its use in the cardiac ward. They are experimenting with using it before and after cardiac catheterization to see if it reduces pain, speeds recovery, or lowers the need for medication. The patient lies on a massage table or sits in a chair, fully clothed, while a practitioner holds their fingers or other areas of the body.