There are days when your head is really buzzing, even if it’s hardly noon yet. You may have spent your day hunched over your desk, typing away, and even in the best of cases your poor body may have been reduced to simply carrying your processing unit, i.e. your head, around. Very often, we only become aware of our bodies when we experiment negative feelings: stiffness in the shoulders and skull base or pressure on the temples and jaw. And that nagging pain somewhere between the shoulder blades… The high point of the day in terms of bodywork is often the moment when we pull ourselves up from the sofa after a late night movie on TV to brush our teeth before bedtime.

If your head and mind experience a lot of strain in your everyday life, relaxing and “being present” may turn out to be quite a challenge. Being present in this context can be described as focusing your attention to where your body is. If the only sensations you have of your own body are mostly from the area of your head and your fingertips on the keyboard, only a very small percentage of your body is in a state of awareness. If we are honest, how many of us can really sense our bodies unless we are feeling symptoms of one problem or another? If you are not aware of your body, it is difficult to be present. So what can we do to sense our bodies more consciously? Our sense of touch and movement are excellent tools for just that. Various bodywork methods improve our ability to respect and sense the state of our bodies. The better you know your body, the more you can respect it and be on good terms with it – after all, can you love something that you hardly know?

My journey towards a more versatile bodyfulness and well-being in my own body has been the path of Shindo. Meridian stretches used in Shindo often affect the whole body, helping you to sense large areas and long lines at the same time. The stretches help you to become more aware of any tensions in your body. This way, you can work and relax them. A few easy and comfortable presses that you can do yourself or that you can ask a partner to do will significantly enhance the effect of the stretches. They help you to become more aware of tensions in areas that you may not have noticed, meaning you can better focus on these areas. There is the added bonus of the happiness and relief that you’ll feel after applying pressure to and thus helping to relax a particularly tense spot.

For many, one of the most effective Shindo treatments is the toe treatment. This may come as a surprise, considering the fairly marginal role that our toes have in our everyday awareness. They are as far away from your head as it gets in your body and yet, or maybe even due to this very reason, treating them gives you a sensation of deep relaxation. One reason that explains this is the fact that it is easier to perceive the whole of your body by observing its extremities. It gives you a compelling sense of your body as a whole, with all its parts meaningfully combined, and it extends your bodyfulness in a natural and soothing manner. The attention given to your feet and toes makes them more lively. This in turn helps to unwind the energy piled up in your upper body, often in your head and shoulders, and to earth your body. It is fascinating that whenever someone falls asleep or nearly falls asleep during treatment, it usually happens during toe treatment. This is particularly common if your toes are treated after the rest of your body, helping you to relax completely.

Get moving in a good way and feel relaxed in your own body!