I was deep into this in high school, and I’d read somewhere that it was a Scorpio trait: a tendency to view things as belonging to one of either extremes, with little room for nuance or grey space. As I’ve matured, I have grown to see and enjoy a great many shades, and life is the richer for them. Lately, however, I’ve been reflecting on black and white as representations of yin and yang, each with their own individual and mutual pull.
(Speaking of pull: I am invariably drawn back into black-and-white thinking time and again. It is a continuous practice to look for shades of grey.)
Shiatsu is primarily about balancing the receiver’s energy, which can be as precise as points along meridians that traverse the body, or as broad as yin and yang. I still routinely practice an exercise I learned in school: making a list of opposites, identifying which is which. Here is one such list:
| Yin | Yang |
|---|---|
| dark | light |
| rest | activity |
| receiving | giving |
| cold | hot |
| earth | sky |
Instead of fixating on each of the opposites, the practice of shiatsu seeks the correct balance between them. If your life has been go, go, go! (activity) lately, it may be a good time to consider rest, or perhaps you have been feeling lethargic or sluggish. If you have been spending a lot of energy in one area of your life, it could be prudent to think about what might be its opposite and whether it is being neglected.
It is easier said than done to 1. identify which extreme has taken hold, 2. identify its opposite, and 3. identify strategies for bringing your world into better alignment. Balance is struck in different ways depending on the moment you’re in, and this is reflected in your body’s processes. The body is a collection of systems working together to try and keep us alive, to maintain homeostasis (which is a journey, not a destination).
That tension between light and darkness is energy, and sometimes when we are pulled too hard in one or both directions, we can feel a loss of control or an inability to move forward. It can be beneficial to have an outside perspective from a practitioner like myself; I can move your body and attempt to get its energies flowing more harmoniously. You can bring your focus down to simply breathing and letting go.
I am putting together a one-stop guide to shiatsu where prospective clients and regulars both can find a breakdown of basic concepts, benefits of the modality, and activities for home practice. I’ll be putting all the elements together in my next shiatsu post on wuxing; its elements and cycles. Subscribe below to receive updates and early promo codes!