My Jin Shin Jyutsu® Journey

I first heard of Jin Shin Jyutsu® in the early 1990’s. I didn’t give it any value because it made zero sense to me that a person could touch another person in a few spots and their own body would be able to “heal” itself. It seemed ridiculous.

My older sister was having some back issues and sought out every possible  way of getting relief. She would believe anyone about their method of how they could help her.  She was gullible and desperate. When she brought up Jin Shin Jyutsu®, it was just another method amongst the many. It could not stand on its’ own merit based on all the previous modalities my sister had tried. Everything was always, “This is the cure” or “I finally found the right approach”. She had sought a variety of traditional medical treatments, as well as natural approaches but wasn’t getting relief.  She started getting better when she learned about Jin Shin Jyutsu®, but I thought it was mind over matter.

Through the next many years, my sister would offer to “help” whatever ailment anyone was having by giving them Jin Shin Jyutsu® sessions. Even though many family members said no, she was able to build her own practice.

Interestingly enough, our mother found Jin Shin Jyutsu® intriguing and attended a course with my sister in Boston in the mid 1990’s.

My mother had always wanted me to be open about Jin shin Jyutsu®, but I was busy in the real estate industry and their talk about touch healing seemed senseless.

In 2003 my mother-in-law had a stroke which left her with aphasia (unable to speak) and she lost the ability to care for herself. She was so frustrated for 2 years of not being able to communicate. She would show signs of frustration with her hands acting like she was squeezing the water out of a wet towel. She moved in my home with my husband and our children who were grown at that time. About a year later, she had another stroke right in front of me while being visited by some family members.

My son who was an EMT quickly put her oxygen on and attended to her immediate condition while we were calling 911. I felt so helpless. It’s a horrible feeling. I was so glad my son was there until the ambulance came. She declined from that episode but was able to continue living in our home with 24/7 assistance.

In 2005,  my daughter was getting married out of state so my mother-in-law was going to stay in a rehabilitation facility until we returned. She passed away a few days after my daughter got married. It was as though she just didn’t want to be in the way and waited until after the wedding to pass away, This is so much like her personality. She never wanted to be a burden. Now I wonder, what her life would have been like if I knew Jin Shin Jyutsu®.

In 2007,  my Mom needed heart surgery to remove a myxoma on her heart and my sister gave our mother many Jin Shin Jyutsu® sessions over a  period of time to reduce this tumor. This sounded ridiculous to me.  Well, was I wrong!!! My mom went to her cardiologist for a trans esophageal echocardiogram to see how much larger her tumor (myxoma) had grown before her scheduled heart surgery.  The doctor’s were shocked because the tumor was gone!

It was hard for me to believe, but the facts were that she did not need the surgery and that caught my attention. My own curiosity of Jin Shin Jyutsu® began.

My Mom was then diagnosed with dementia and I asked my sister if she would be able to help her. Unfortunately, due to distance, my sister was unable to give our mom the sessions that were needed for her condition.

My mom was eventually placed into a nursing home. We couldn’t find anyone there who knew Jin Shin Jyutsu®.  Since my mom did not like living in a nursing home and wasn’t able to receive Jin shin Jyutsu®, I investigated if she could relocate to the state I had moved to a few years earlier. Having her relocate was out of the question since her insurance would not cover her outside of the state where she was living.  My mom quietly passed away in 2010 on my older sister’s birthday (the one who gave her Jin Shin Jyutsu®) with me and my 2 sisters by her side.

 

 My 1st Personal Experience

I needed to see this have an effect on my own ailments. I needed proof. I had sciatica for 8 years. Yes, I did the regular chiropractor and physical therapy route with zero success. I’m not one to take medications or shots unless there isn’t an option. I would rather deal with the pain, although it was unbearable.

In about 2010, I saw a Jin Shin Jyutsu® practitioner (not my sister – she was in another state). After about 8-12 sessions and applying some of the Jin Shin Jyutsu® self-help flows to myself, I’ve been sciatica free for 6 years (as of 2016). Yeah, for me!!!!

In April 2011, my studying of Jin Shin Jyutsu® was under way. The first hours of my class I thought of how much respect I had for my sister for all that she had learned and how the information about Jin Shin Jyutsu® could have been conveyed in a different way.

 

My 2nd Personal Experience

Through many classes, I learned of a flow that could alleviate numbness. I then used it on myself and got rid of the numbness I had from a C-section that had been present for 30+ years. So it is never too late to get Jin Shin Jyutsu®.

 

My 3rd Personal Experience

October 2014 I was feeling very young and energetic. I was with my husband and grandson. My husband took a pogo stick and pretended to jump on it. We laughed and then without any thought, I simply took the pogo stick and thought I am going to do one BIG bounce and dismount. I used to jump for long periods of time. What is one bounce? This was what I processed in a matter of 2 seconds. I jumped on the pogo stick, bounced hard and high and thought, “You own this”.

I bounced high and went to dismount, but the bottoms of my sneakers were nubby and got stuck on the non-skid pads of the pogo stick (pogo sticks did not have non-stick pads when I did this as a child).

I went from a high vertical position to a horizontal position on the driveway, with my head hitting the macadam first, my neck whiplashing forward, my head hitting a second time. Each time my head hit the macadam driveway I heard the loudest crack. As I was lying  there, I thought, wow, this is how you’re going to go out. I thought of where I was, my name, who was present and then Jin Shin Jyutsu®. I then started self–assessing and immediately started applying Jin Shin Jyutsu self-help flows with my own hands.

My grandson went inside the house to get me ice. Once I stood up, I realized my glasses were not on my face. They had flown onto he grass about 10 feet from where I hit my head.

My husband drove me to the hospital as I continued doing Jin Shin Jyutsu®. The CT scan didn’t show anything! The hospital staff was quite surprised that based on the abraisons on the skin surface of my head and the type of fall I had, that I didn't have more issues.  I was told that the loud cracking sounds I heard were like the sounds of two large boulders (my skull and the driveway) hitting each other. I wondered was I one of those stories of an injury being minimized because oI Jin Shin Jyutsu®. I was not only blessed, lucky, and grateful, but I was convinced that doing Jin Shin Jyutsu® played a very critical part.

The next day I started stumbling with my speech several times during the day, which I was told, meant I had a concussion even though the CT scan was normal. I quickly thought of what I learned in class to correct speech issues and I applied that flow.

My speech would get better daily and then weekly. It took a several months for it to be totally gone. How grateful and blessed I am to know
Jin Shin Jyutsu®!

 

My Reflection, My Future

Although I wonder what would have been with my mom and mother-in-law had I known Jin Shin Jyutsu®, I can only move forward and be dedicated to those that are looking to explore their own innate ability to help create harmony and balance in their own body to help themselves. But, I also clearly heard in that first class, that it isn’t about what could have been, but rather know that now is my time to move forward and it’s about what I can do for myself and others.

What I learned through Mary Burmeister’s teaching is to “Be your own  testimony”. That is the best way to understand that we each have the ability to help ourselves. So I’ve shared my personal journey with you of how Jin Shin Jyutsu® became a part of my life.

Now I ask, do you have a project you want to work on? I said project, because the physio-philosophy aspect of Jin Shin Jyutsu® believes if you say you have something “a label” then if you have it, you own it. A project gets completed and crossed off your list. Do you want to tap into your own innate ability to see yourself be the best you can be?

I love to work with children and let them learn how they can help their own emotions, feelings and discomforts. It’s great to see how empowered they feel. What a gift!

Working with the elderly is also a gift to see their smiles as they engage in their own well-being.

Lastely, I hope my experience helps others to think about learning self-help Jin Sin Jyutsu® to help themselves, family and friends.