Meridian Exercises

Stretches

MOVEMENT AS MEDICINE: Stephen Brown translated Master Masunaga's book on Meridian Exercises and refined them further in his twenty years of teaching them. With his experience in Yoga and Taichi, Stephen teaches most clients some form of exercise; usually it's a simple Meridian Exercise for their specific energy imbalance.

In ancient China energy balancing exercises called Do-in and An-jiao were practiced. Master Masunaga studied various traditional exercises and developed a modern version called Meridian Exercises. Meridian Exercises complement a shiatsu session and empower people to balance their own energy on a regular basis. Not only do Meridian Exercises serve to speed up the healing process, they also serve to maintain our health.

The main difference between Meridian Exercises and other forms of stretching exercises is the active use of visualization. The mental imagery is used along with movements as a device to keep our mind engaged with our body. There is no predetermined or "correct" image for a particular movement. The best images are dynamic and full of life, like billowing clouds or cascading water, which take us beyond the boundary of our bodies. For example, instead of trying to bend forward from a standing position to touch the toes, we can visualize the lower half of our body as a cliff and the upper half as a waterfall tumbling over it. In this way, imagery takes away the tension and rigidity associated with doing a particular stretch or movement.