Mitzi Adams incorporates Jin Shin Jyutsu Self-Help as an official university course and tells us about it in The Main Central Jin Shin Jyutsu Newsletter, issue Number 59, Winter 2008:

*******************

Dancers Learn the Art of Self-Help Jin Shin Jyutsu

continued…

They also loved the before-and-after rest for hip flexibility. We would have volunteers demonstrate how high they could lift their leg without any warm-up. Then, I’d put the dancers face-down on the mats so they could really palpate the hips at the flexors (the 15s) to feel how tight they were. After holding their 15s for just ten minutes, from the medial to the lateral part of their hips, they stood up and were not only taller, but leg extension became higher. That prompted my colleagues to ask why all the students were lying on their stomachs before dance classes.  I think they thought they were just being lazy, but I could sense the joy in the department and the shifting of energy as the word spread about how to get a higher leg extension (or developpe̒, in dance lingo) and ease back pain at the same time.

Not only could I see the changes in the students’ attitudes, but I also began to witness that “look” of a more harmonized being. I saw the shapes of the dancers change and their minds begin to open to new possibilities. At the end of the semester, I asked that each student would find two people and give them self-help for a project. They were then to write about their chosen people and discuss their progress, if any. When I sat down to read their final evaluations, I was excited  that so many people with a garden variety of symptoms were seemingly better. This got the attention of many of my students, so by the time I asked if any would consider Jin Shin Jyutsu as a possible career, in addition to their dancing, the majority raised their hands. It was confirmation that the Creator’s Art had penetrated deeply.

Prior to the beginning of the course, the students had a chance to see Jin Shin Jyutsu in action after an accident one of the dancers had had the night of a performance. In a rehearsal just prior to the show’s opening, a dancer had fallen and banged his elbow severely. He decided to dance anyway, but as he did, his elbow began to swell, to the point of being able to see it from the audience. Another professor and I were called from our seats in the house to go backstage to help. I choreographed a piece that, coincidentally, put this dancer in a solo role, depicting the fallen souls from the devastation in the Middle East. Now, this dancer…this fallen soul…was living it out because of his injury. With ten other dancers there to lay hands-on, we stacked our hands, left over right, on the swollen elbow. I had another student time us for twenty minutes. Thank goodness  our injured dancer wasn’t performing until after intermission. The pile of sweaty dancers that had just danced my piece were now at work saving the fallen soldier. We all breathed together, and others standing by, got us water and wiped our brows. After twenty minutes, we gently lifted our hands. The small backstage crowd was astonished to see how the golf ball-sized bruise on the dancer’s elbow had shrunk. True, he had taken ibuprofen, but could it have worked to reduce the swelling so much in that short time? I suggested if he wanted to go to the emergency room to not hesitate, but at that point, he felt all right and just wanted to wrap it and dance in the second half of the show. I helped him wrap his elbow and then left him to warm-up for his next dance…the same dance where he fell in rehearsal. I held my little finger as I watched him dance better than I had seen him thus far. Above all, the students witnessed the power of energy and were touched at how profound the experience was. This group of students was all in my piece titled “Ashes & Grace”. The injured soloist was the eagle rising from the ashes with the grace of the corps stretching out their hands. Life living out art and art living out life: The Creator’s Art through compassionate man…

It was groundbreaking for this program to have offered Self-Help Jin Shin Jyutsu, and I am forever grateful for the experience. When I returned from my appointment, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the students had started a MySpace page for Jin Shin Jyutsu. They even took it one step further and started a Jin Shin Jyutsu club, which will continue at the university with regular meetings. Could I have asked for anything better?

Thank you, Mitzi.

Thank you, Mary.

Thank you, David.

All issues of The Main Central Jin Shin Jyutsu Newsletter are available at http://www.jsjinc.net.