I often ask clients if they think they are stressed? And quite often the answer is no. That’s okay because many years ago I would have said: I manage stress really well; it doesn’t affect me… now I know better! People who mentally manage stress think they’re doing alright but what you don’t realise is that your body is storing it somewhere and that it will build up and return with a host of physical symptoms that you may not even associate with stress. There’s a famous book: The Body Keeps the Score and it so does! If you think you’re handling stress or if you think you have no stress in your body – read on. This month’s blog: Relieve physical stress symptoms and tension with shiatsu.
Relieve physical stress symptoms and tension with shiatsu
The first place to start with understanding whether you have physical stress stored in your body is to look at the typical list of symptoms that manifest over time:
High blood pressure
Headaches
Heartburn
Rapid breathing
Pounding heart / Palpitations
Insomnia
Getting ill regularly / allergies (low immunity)
Fertility issues / erectile dysfunction
Low sex drive/ missed periods
Muscle tension/ pain – anything that doesn’t have an initial cause
The latter being my arena and what I see A LOT of my clients for.
I asked a client the other day: Do you think you have stress? Answer: No
Do you think that you hold stress in your body… No
What do you think causes the muscles in your bum to tighten causing back and nee ache? Don’t know.
Do you ever find yourself clenching your butt muscles when you’re either anxious wound up or holding something in that you don’t want to say or feeling out of your depth? Yes.
People who tend to deal with stress well in their headspace are actually pushing the effects of stress into their body. Trapped stress in the musculoskeletal system will appear as muscle aches or referred stabbing pains in joints. As your muscles clench further you get lower back ache and may pull a muscle in your back more easily. Hips are called the reservoir of unresolved emotions.
You’ve head of phrases like the weight of the world on their shoulders and you register when your shoulders are tense or frozen and your neck locked but the pelvic region can be a silent source of a monumental amount of pain referred throughout the body.
Resolving physical symptoms of stress with shiatsu and other modalities
I differentiate physical symptoms of stress from the term stress which I used to think presided only in your head. We say: I feel (or don’t feel) stressed; we’ve linked it as an emotion. Because I didn’t feel it in my headspace or in my mental/emotional capacity I thought I was dealing with it well. We don’t say: I’m feeling the physical affects of stress or I’m holding stress in my body; the language currently isn’t universal enough to be used outside of therapist speak.
I didn’t know until years later that it had manifested as low immunity (allergies and horrible viral symptoms), excess weight, muscular pain, joint pain and the toll that was being tallied by my body – excessive perimenopausal symptoms both physical and emotional. I’ve had either cranial osteopathy or shiatsu at least once a month since the age of 22. In my mid 20s I realised along with the insight of my osteopath that I was receiving my regular treatment for my emotional energetics more than my physical. Every month John would do a Kinesiology test on me to see which energetic realm he needed to address my symptoms in and every month the same answer: Emotional energetic. I didn’t understand it at the time but I went with it because it helped me and I knew the thought of not receiving those treatments was unthinkable. In my mid 30s I transitioned to shiatsu and now more than ever if you took my treatments away from me, I know I wouldn’t function for very long before my body reverted to old stress patterns; and I never want to go back to those symptoms.
If you think you’re managing stress well what you’re actually doing is compartmentalising stress in your body. I consider myself lucky that it gets trapped in the muscles and receiving shiatsu not only physically releases it but puts me back on track - balancing my emotions and overall wellbeing.
If, however, you have more severe internal symptoms affecting vital organs or issues with high blood pressure or reflux through to auto-immune conditions THIS is where the stress is embedded. Brits aren’t in touch with how to deal with how they feel or how to exercise and release emotions in a healthy manor; we’re still in the grip of the stiff upper lip culture left over from WW2. I meet so many women (I kind of expect it from men) but women who suffer and put up with pain that can be resolved with shiatsu, acupuncture, or osteopathy– which ever type of energetic physical therapy they relate with. Also, hypnotherapy, meditation, reiki and any number of mindfulness therapies that will help the body release emotional tension and reduce physical stress. Then there’s Yoga, Tai Chi and my personal favourite Qi Gong – all eastern energetic exercises developed over millennia that understand deeply how to relax you and reinvigorate the mind and body – creating the right environment for natural healing of the body to occur.
It’s no one’s fault that you don’t realise that stress is in your body and causing a majority of your health issues; it’s only really just being understood right now. Stress and trauma from any point in your life will be playing a pivotal role in your health now and for the rest of your life; that’s just how it is. If you have symptoms though, what you do about it IS your responsibility; only you can make you better. Don’t rely on the NHS to pick you up when you fall to pieces that isn’t why the NHS was set up. It was meant to be an A&E facility but its remit has grown over the decades and it’s buckling under the stress of holding up a nation with failing health due to poor lifestyle choices. If there are therapies out there that can help you – use them!
Why is shiatsu so effective at relieving stress?
At this point in reading, I hope you understand that stress is completely embedded in you physically whether you register it mentally or not. Chinese medicine links ALL disease (with few exceptions – poisons or external pathogens) back to emotions embedding in the body and building over the years to manifest as illness. Time does not heal all wounds I once read- it buries them deeper in the body:
Time is not a healer. The passage of time may take the edge off of acute pain, but it does not heal pain. On the other hand, time can be used well for healing purposes. When time is used well, in terms of healing wounds, then it is because we do something specific with and within it.
I've heard stories about friends or patients seeking therapy for years and venting for an hour while their therapist listened. That. Is. Not. Therapy.
Dr Peter Levine revolutionised the understanding of trauma around 30 years ago (working with PTSD) explaining that it can’t be dealt with by psychology alone as stress is trapped in your physiology. Simply put stress and trauma is held in your physical body – THIS is the key to releasing it.
Shiatsu and specifically my style of Zen Shiatsu was modernised in the 1970s by Shizuto Masunaga a Japanese psychologist and shiatsu practitioner. This powerful combination of modalities allowed him to analyse the effect of gentle touch treatment using the Traditional Chinese Medicine meridian system (and acupuncture points) on how emotions linked with vital organs; and how to release this effectively. It is in the gentleness and listening to the body that the change happens. Muscles and skin have a lot of sore spots when touched – some want deep pressure and are happy for you to stay with them and others are a searing pain that gets your attention and passes in moments. Both types of pressure from fingers (or the occasional elbow!) relieve the cause of the pain. Pain in energetic terms is caused by a blockage initially that leads to a physical outcome like tight muscles.
Blockages are like a dam. On one side the water is backed up – this applies pressure and you’ll know this as a sore spot or point of inflammation; and it may not want to be pressed. On the other side of the dam the water (in this case your energetics or fluids like blood/ synovial joint fluid) aren’t reaching the parts that need them and your pain is caused by a lack of something. Gentle touch with very specific intention listens to these blockages and releases as required – once the water (energetics/fluids) are flowing well again – pains go; whether in the muscles or the bits in between!
Relieve pain and stress by resolving muscle tension with shiatsu
Unlike massage (unless you get a very intuitive therapist), shiatsu listens to each limb, the organs, spine and neck as individual parts of the body and how it links as the whole – this is truly holistic. Knots aren’t there to be worked out they are telling us something: my body is weak here and I’ve developed a knot of muscle tissue to protect. A massage will just go beat it into submission and it will develop again within days because the underlying issue hasn’t been resolved. Shiatsu aims to get to the parts of your body that more westernised therapies don’t even think about.
Shiatsu massages the organs to relax and detox them, it encourages the muscles to release and rest and has a conversation with your subconscious about why it’s fearful and won’t let go of tension. Many acute injuries don’t heal - they alter; and the compensation is not optimal for your health. Hobbling around with a bad knee, a sprained ankle or post-operation will create muscle tension patterns throughout that your subconscious doesn’t want to let go of; in case you get hurt again. This is your body doing the right thing initially to keep you safe but months or years on its protection is detrimental to you and causes more issues.
A classic one is a frozen shoulder – it can be caused by injury or grief but the outcome is the same, the muscles go from being held to being weak and it takes time and sympathy to resolve this. Many of my clients don’t find that NHS physio at all helpful as sensitive weak muscles DO NOT want to be stretched. The western way of dealing with the body is to work it strenuously or strain it (thinking this will strengthen it!) what it doesn’t do is take into consideration that the body may want to be held, nourished and supported emotionally to release and relieve issues. If you have pains that return after receiving another therapy regularly then that therapy IS NOT resolving the root cause or the emotional attachment.
Shiatsu is like receiving an overall hug! You won’t believe what pops up in a session, a common comment is: I didn’t realise I had so many pains! This is great though as these pains raise their hands to be resolved when they realise that someone is actually listening.
If stress is embedded in your muscles or deeper then you owe it to your own health and longevity to finally get it resolved. People seek out massage on a regular basis in the hope that they are doing this but the effects only last for a couple of days at best. Having regular shiatsu builds up prevention, your body learns to let go more easily it and it learns to release more quickly. The magic happens when we turn that corner when we’ve caught up on all the current stress and tension in your body and can move you into a preventative state and increase your optimal health.
Your mind and body deserve more… You deserve Shiatsu.
About Andrea at Shiatsu Bodyworks Cheltenham
Andrea is a qualified zen shiatsu and Chinese medicine practitioner with over 20 years immersed in holistic therapies and the energetics of mind and body. Based in Cheltenham, UK she offers in house clinic and online shiatsu sessions to help people with midlife health issues and also offers online consultations for helping you resolve health issues and regain your vitality. She is a menopause specialist too, find out more at cotswoldmenopause.co.uk
Shiatsu Bodyworks - Gentle bodywork to make your body work better
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