Harmonising the Life Energy in the Body
Jin Shin Jyutsu is a Universal Art of harmonising the life energy in the body by using the fingers and hands. The basic expression of our life energy is the breath. In this post, I look at a simple Jin Shin Jyutsu self help exercise to renew MYSELF.
How does the breath work?
When we exhale, we empty the trash can as it were. We unload or let go of our ‘dirt, dust and greasy grime’. By exhaling, we make room for the inhale; to receive a new breath and pure Cosmic Abundance.
Mary Burmeister(*) says: “We come into the world with an exhalation, to clear and empty, so that we can receive. We never ‘take’ a breath. We receive a breath.”
When we exhale, the energy moves down the front of the body. When we inhale, the energy moves up the back of the body. This is the OVAL, our connection to Source Energy. In fact, this ‘Oval’ is the fundamental energy of the Main Central Flow: our Source of Life.
36 Conscious Breaths
Mary talks a lot about the practice of ’36 conscious breaths’. Why 36 you might ask. The clue is in the numbers, which, needless to say can be interpreted in many ways. Here’s how I experience it:
First of all, the number 36 manifests universal light energy in the world. IT IS conscious awareness.
We can also look at the following. When we add three plus six, it equals nine: 3+6=9. Nine means the end of a cycle, beginning of a new one.
In terms of Jin Shin Jyutsu, we could say four times nine equals 36. Four cycles of nine to let in the light and completely renew our 37.2 trillion cells! So you could exhale and inhale 9 breaths 4 times, always starting the count on the EXHALE.
Mary says: “In the breath that I am, I am always new.”
Exercise: 36 Breaths and the Fingers
You could also take a bit of time out to practice the 36 conscious breaths by holding the fingers as I’ve outlined below. I’ve structured the exercise this way for various reasons, but mainly to make it easier to count. When I hold fingers I get very relaxed and my mind just doesn’t deal very easily with numbers in that state! So I figured it would be easier to count to 3 at any one time.
In this case, we count 3 breaths x 12 times. As an aside, twelve is the next number up from 3, 6 and 9. It also has a significant relationship with these three numbers according to Nicola Tesla, who understood the vibration of numbers.
Summary of the exercise
Hold each thumb and finger.
Exhale and Inhale 3 times for each one, counting on the exhale (3 breaths x 10 fingers = 30). Then place your fingers in the center of the palms (3 breaths x 2 center palms = 6). Total: 36 Conscious Breaths.
Specifics of the exercise
Hold the Left Thumb
On the first exhale, count 1
Inhale
Exhale count 2
Inhale
Exhale count 3
Inhale
Move to the first finger/Index finger
Count 3 breaths etc.
Do the same for each finger of the left hand and then each thumb and finger of the right hand.
Then place the right fingers on the center of the left hand, exhale and inhale 3 times. Then do the same for the right hand: place your left fingers on the center of the right hand: exhale and inhale 3 times.
(*)Mary Burmeister is a foremost teacher of Jin Shin Jyutsu. She brought Jin Shin Jyutsu to the West from Japan in the 1950s. Mary left us her legacy of Self Help.
You may also like:
In the Flow: Hands-on Self Help Mini eCourse
(where I show you a variety of Jin Shin Jyutsu exercises with videos and notes)