Jin Shin master practitioner Mary Burmeister always insisted that we need to "be our own testimony" - letting our inner compass guide us when practising the Art of Jin Shin: not taking anything as given and gathering our own experiential evidence. At the same time, the testimonies of others can inspire us. Read on to hear more about Sally Ibbotson & her beautiful work - including how she learnt Jin Shin using Qi Gong and then applied it to support herself through key life phases, and also others in her hospice job. I am a practitioner and lifetime student of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) which I have studied since the mid 90s. I practise and teach Shiatsu and Qigong. In 2015, a long overdue visit to the Findhorn Foundation (FF) in Scotland was to be the beginning of a treasured relation with that eco village, community and educational centre for human evolution. 2016 found me on the FF Spiritual Deepening programme - a month long stay with plenty of self exploration. When strong emotions came up, Karen Luedtke, one of our co-focalisers (or facilitators) recommended The Art of Jin Shin - a way to address re-lived trauma and stay resilient. I benefited greatly from her invitation and this was to be the start of my journey with this simple, effective and ancient methodology. To recall the sites and also to explore the similarities and commonalities to TCM, I created some Qigong forms for myself. Here's one focused on tapping into Jing or ancestral energy through sites 2 (life force and wisdom) and 23 (controller of destiny). This area is known as Ming Men in TCM which roughly translates as Will-power. Please click here to see the video. At the time of discovering The Art of Jin Shin, I was working in a flagship Hospice in London and was bringing Shiatsu and Qigong to terminally ill people and their carers. Shiatsu was great for some, but I quickly concluded that Jin Shin was far better. It was easy to teach carers and clients so they could self treat at home. It was highly simple and tangibly effective. For in-patients, I could move around tubes and pick lines better and it was slower - for patients, the less movement on my part, the better. In this particular situation it was also easier on my energy - there was a lot of trauma and unsettledness on the wards. The Jin Shin sites often corresponded with TCM acupoints, however this seemed unimportant after a while. The practice of both and having an added tool was more important. In parallel with the Palliative Care work, I was asked to teach Qigong at the Climate Change and Consciousness Conference (CCC19) held at the FF community in 2019. I was keen to focus on self care medicine, what we could do to maintain good health in a situation where mainstream medicine was becoming less and less accessible and funding for such being under threat. Self healing becomes more urgent when climate-crisis threatens services which we generally take for granted. So I taught elemental Qigong at the Conference and included the Art of Jin Shin sites. My Teacher and the vision-holder for the CCC19 conference was Dr Stephanie Mines, a neuropsychologist whose unique understanding comes from her academic research as well as her training under Mary Burmeister. Next came the lockdown! Karen Luedtke’s online Art of Jin Shin sessions were one of my lifelines, so once again this methodology helped me through a tough patch. This was also when I started the online Qigong classes that I still run today. I am a nomadic worker much of the time and when travelling it is even more important to have a self healing toolbox. Here is my Transitional Qigong form for when I am travelling, although it is equally applicable in any transition. In TCM terms it utilises the Triple Warmer channel - and see how that runs through Jin Shin sites 26 (landing home), 19 (self sovereignty and beginnings and endings) then into the ring and middle fingers for calm and joy. I also utilise the thumb hold - in TCM this is also concerned with beginnings and endings and, in Jin Shin, it is a site of body consciousness and freedom from worry. ~ Sally Ibbotson Sally lives in the Cotswolds - in the village of Kingham. She works online, and on the Greek Island of Skyros for Skyros Holidays. She also loves art and the images on this page are her own drawings of Qi Gong postures. Sally offers the following weekly classes along with her colleague Esther Mason MRSS. Sally and Esther also offer day retreats where people can drop in 4 times a day to explore how TCM can enhance an ordinary day. These are called the Extraordinary Ordinary days. On a one to one level Sally offers medical or personal Qigong. A Qigong prescription informed by a diagnostic interview and repeated daily can address elemental imbalance and associated symptoms. For details please see here.
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AuthorKaren Luedtke ~ Archives
March 2024
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