The New World of Health

You wake up and you feel stiff. Neck isn't so freely moving and your back doesn't allow you to get up as quickly as you'd like. You have to slowly sit up in bed, allowing the dizziness to wear off. You'd love to think you slept peacefully, except your back was aching on and off throughout the night and your spouse was snoring in rhythm with the hip hop music playing outside the teenage boy's bedroom window next door. As you gingerly get up out of bed, the first few steps leaves you sore in many different places. Thankfully, those sore areas dissipate over the next few minutes but you know, that throughout your hectic day, aches, pains, and discomforts will find their way back to you somehow. Welcome to the start of everyday for the rest of your life. At least, that is what most believe. And it is what most are led to believe.

I'd like to introduce you to something that I was extremely fortunate enough to not only learn but have my life now be a part of. Something that seems ridiculously simple and at the same time filling one with a bit of a "too good to be true" sense of disbelief. The art that I have been honored to use in my personal practice, the art that has the opportunity to change the way many see their own body, the art of Sennin-So Shiatsu.

Many have heard of Shiatsu. The technique isn't that abnormal, but the name "Sennin-So" isn't something that generally comes up when you hear of Shiatsu. In April of 2009, I was one of four chosen to learn this art from a Japanese man in Seattle. His name is Mike Shimizu. I was excited to learn Shiatsu, for there were two massage therapists that I worked with that also performed this treatment, and both were highly prized because of their abilities. But while I was excited, I didn't know just what I was about to embark on.

Our first day of training, our Shiatsu Master worked on all of us, mostly so we could see what we were in for. He worked points in my body that emitted pain and sensitivity that I didn't know existed, nor understood why it hurt. I could also sense that while those points hurt, his pressure was only mild, so it couldn't be that he was pushing too hard. But while he put me through what some might consider a mild form of torture, he had a presence about him that seemed reassuring and something inside me allowed me to stay calm. After he was done with just the back half of my body, including my feet, legs, glutes, and upper back there was a feeling I hadn't felt in years: flowing circulation and complete muscle relaxation. All of the points that he had originally pushed, causing significant sensations, were completely painless. I had never known anything to be so powerful or fast acting. Multiple times through his full body 30 minute session on me, I just smiled and looked at him and asked, "How did you do that?" He was releasing tension throughout my body in seconds, whereas it would take my traditional western massage techniques multiple treatments of 1 to 1 1/2 hours to come "maybe" as close to what he got.

Of course I thought there had to be a trick. How could a technique be this fast acting, this powerful, this mind-blowing and not be popular? Then I found out that the technique being performed on me was specific to Mike Shimizu's family and hasn't been taught main stream ever in its 600 year lineage. He is the 33rd generation of healers in his family that has taught, grown, and strengthen the ability that they named "Sennin-So" Shiatsu. Mike informed me that "Sennin-So" means "Little Magic." I told him that it is anything but "little".

Ever since that day I have been training, learning, and strengthening my knowledge and abilities through Sennin-So Shiatsu. Everyday that I work, I get to show my clients the fast acting, long relieving results that leave many feeling better than anything they have ever tried. It is a life's work that will never end. My ability is a fraction of my Master's, but that just lets me know that I can always improve and I will never stop trying to.

April of 2009 was the start of an amazing adventure that will no doubt shape my life towards the good health of not only myself and my family, but thousands of people that I will directly help in ways they never knew existed.


I am creating this blog site because there is an amazing amount of knowledge and information that I want to help share across the world. I personally, nor anyone who knows this art, can't help everyone, but I feel that there is way too much for me to learn and not try to help all that I can. Throughout the existence of this site, I will post information about diet, exercise, self-help techniques, quotes from my Shiatsu Master, as well as answer any questions or respond to any comments that any of you might be interested in. The art of Sennin-So Shiatsu goes through many factors, and while you may not ever be able to receive the treatment from me or someone else (if you live too far away for example), there are factors in your life that you can address to allow your body to be healthy throughout your life. I wish you all health and happiness and I look forward to hearing from you.