Shiatsu puts the body’s energy in balance

by Wendy Smith

I’m not the kind of girl you can easily walk over, but when Michelle Samples said she wanted to try, I said sure. Michelle (a vegan chef and Shiatsu master) practices Barefoot Shiatsu. Shiatsu is a type of Chinese energy work that uses acupressure to help balance the body’s meridian system.

The meridian system is responsible for the flow of Qi (chee) or life energy. All the organs are represented in it, and it contains the pulses, the energy pathways and the U-points, which are spots where an energy pathway turns off or moves in a different direction. Shiatsu is a type of energy work, but also a type of massage. True Shiatsu is done on the floor, on a mat rather than a table, and the practitioner uses different body parts such as hands, elbows, feet and knees to connect with the client. Shiatsu moves up and down the body following the meridians, unlike a lot of other massage techniques in which movement is always directed towards the heart.

Samples is a former medical technologist with a master’s degree in public health who decided 14 years ago to learn Shiatsu at the Kushi Institute in Boston. She later attended the East Tennessee School of Massage Therapy to learn other techniques.

Michelle is also a medical intuitive, a person who can “see” what illness and injury is in another, so the Shiatsu and massage work alongside her natural gift. I met her a few weeks ago when I attended a cooking class taught by her. In talking afterward, she mentioned that she practiced Shiatsu and Barefoot Shiatsu and said I should try it.

My brother walked on me a long time ago; we saw it on TV and thought it would feel good, but this was much different. First of all, there’s no shag carpet; there’s a nice futon on the floor, covered with a heated pad and sheets and chenille blankets. Michelle’s massage room is very cozy with warm colors, soft textures and antiques. She left me to get undressed (to my level of comfort) and under the covers, and I was surprised, on a chilly winter day, to slide into such warmth and luxury. Michelle came back and started to work on me.

I thought she might start walking on me immediately, but instead she instructed me to breathe with her. We inhaled large breaths and, as we exhaled, she pushed against my back in several places and pushed the stale air out of my lungs. I don’t breathe deep enough. After about 10 of these breaths, I was instructed to breathe naturally, and she started on my back.

The Shiatsu pattern was similar to this. Michelle ran her hands over the meridians, then used her fingers to make circular motions on the U-points. (There are a bunch of U-points on our bodies.) After she “woke up” the energy in the U-points, she connected corresponding U-points on different parts of the body and used the same motions to get the energy moving along that pathway. As she connected the dots, so to speak, it sort of felt like a deep tissue massage, but it was also very different.

Then, she laid her palms on the area she was working on. Michelle said she was using her palms to check the energy balance of the system she had just manipulated. When she got to my legs, she used her hands at first, then her feet. She walked on my legs and it felt really good. It didn’t hurt at all. When she got to my feet, she stood on them and kind of stepped around on them. Her feet were working on my whole body as the entire meridian system is represented in the feet.

Following the meridians, she went from my shoulders, down the side of my back and the outer side of the back of my legs, to my feet, back up the center of the legs and back, to my shoulders, down my arms and back up to my neck and head. And she didn’t just use her hands; she used her feet, her elbows, her knees, whatever was needed to connect. Then I rolled over and she worked from my collarbones to my fingertips and back up, down the front of my legs to my toes and up the inner legs and back to neck and head. There, she rubbed my outer ears lightly and then nothing for a minute.

I knew she was there; the music was still playing; I could feel her presence. I soon sensed her hands an inch from my face just moving around a little bit, and I felt myself slipping into a very yellow and orange place. I opened an eye to see what she was doing. Hmmm, her hands were a good foot away from my face. I closed my eye and quickly fell into that yellow/orange place where my peace and answers seem to reside.

I don’t know how long we were there, but she eventually said, “You may get up when you’re ready,” and she left the room. Michelle later told me that she was doing Palm Healing at the end of the Shiatsu with my energy field. She also told me that true Shiatsu lasts a long time because it is about balancing energy. And, one of the biggest benefits of balanced energy is feeling more centered and relaxed as well as feeling more energized.

I agree.

Michelle Samples practices Shiatsu, Barefoot Shiatsu and Qi Gong. She can be reached at [email protected] or 865-584-3864.

December 9, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 50 © 2004 Metro Pulse