Ease Election Season Anxiety with Jin Shin Jyutsu
Let’s be honest, the current climate of the political arena during this 2020 election season feels particularly stressful. Worry, fear, anxiety, angst and even hatred are running rampant. Maybe you are feeling the effects of this?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have simple and effective stress-releasing tools available to you at all times? Fortunately, you do have access to these tools and they exist within your own two hands! Jin Shin Jyutsu offers self-care exercises that you can use anytime, anywhere to relieve stress, re-energize, and re-vitalize your being to help you feel happy, relaxed, and like yourself again. Born from ancient wisdom and developed in Japan by Master Jiro Murai after curing himself of a terminal illness in 1912, Jin Shin Jyutsu includes the use of gentle touch energy harmonizing.
Here is a sampling of a few self-care energy-harmonizing exercises that are easy to execute and require little time investment for those times when the political fray gets your nerves feeling raw or keeps you up at night. You can practice any of these exercises daily as part of your holistic care regimen or whenever you feel overwhelmed, stressed, or anxious.
Give yourself a Big Hug!
- Cross your arms in front of your chest and rest your thumbs under your collarbone.
- Place your hands in your underarms (right hand in left underarm, left hand in right underarm) with fingertips touching the lateral edge your shoulder blades. (No stressing or straining. If you’re unable to reach your shoulder blades, let your fingers rest in your underarm, as close to the edge of the shoulder blade as possible.)
- Exhale. Relax into this hold. Rest your arms on your body or on a pillow.
- Breathe. Allow the tension and stress to melt away.
- As a regular practice, hold for 10 – 20 minutes a day.
Hold your fingers, one at time.
Each finger relates to specific mental and emotional patterns and energy pathways in the body.- Holding the fingers, one at a time, harmonizes the energetic flow and restores balance.
- Simply wrap the fingers of the right hand around the left thumb. Relax and breathe.
- Hold until you feel a rhythmic pulse, or until you feel tension start to ease, or for a minute or two.
- Next, wrap your right hand around your left index finger and proceed in the same manner holding each finger on your left hand and then your left palm.
- Repeat the same sequence with your right thumb, fingers and palm.
36 Conscious Breaths
- Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Close your eyes. Tune into your breathing.
- Exhale and count “1.”
- Simply notice your inhalation. It’s not necessary to force yourself to take a breath.
- On your next exhalation count ”2.”
- Continue exhaling and inhaling until you have completed 36 exhalations and inhalations.
- You can combine this breathing practice with the Big Hug and/or while holding your fingers. With the finger holding practice, hold each thumb, finger and palm for 3 complete breaths to make a total of 36 cycles of breathing.
Michelle Giambra is a highly respected Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner and self-help instructor with decades of experience. Her services include in-person and online private sessions, self-help consultations, guided meditations and group classes. Email michelle@SuncoastJSJ.com or call 941-228-2972. Visit SuncoastJSJ.com.
