I’m thinking about going back to learning shiatsu again and have been digging out the notes from when I tried before. Goodness, how time flies. It was twelve years ago. I tried twice, the second time was eight years ago. But work got in the way and as I got deeper into the training it wasn’t possible to keep it up. More assignments were needed, more knowledge was needed, more treatment logs were needed and I couldn’t match the commitment with my busy and demanding job.

Now that I’ve left the world of work behind me, I can think about returning to shiatsu. Reading through my notes something that stood out with the benefit of hindsight was a comment I’d written on one of the course sheets ‘apply the pressure with intention’. 

If you’re not familiar with shiatsu here’s a very brief description. The idea is that the body contains a series of lines of points. By applying gentle pressure to the points with your thumb the point can be activated and ‘energy’ flow along the meridian. 

A well-functioning body needs to have energy flowing along all the meridians. But what often happens is that a blockage occurs and that puts everything out of kilter. So, one of the aims of a shiatsu treatment is to gently remove those blockages so that the body’s energy plumbing can get on with its job. There’s quite a bit more to it than that and I’ve put a link at the end of you’re interested to find out more.

But this blog is not about shiatsu, it’s about intention. Since retirement last year, I’ve been having trouble settling into a rhythm of doing what I’ve promised myself. This is to find some peace of mind and get on with creative writing so that I can achieve the childhood aspiration of being a writer. 

I’ve now achieved Virginia Woolf’s goal of ‘£500 a year and a room of one’s own’. It’s something I’ve striven and saved for, yet I haven’t got down to the hard graft and business of putting pen to paper. 

The relationship with my previous employer has something to do with this. Despite having retired they still pay me for a couple of hours a week to solve problems that other people don’t seem to be able to do. The person who took over my job went on sick leave for stress after a month as they found the workload too much. Inevitably a couple of hours turns into at least a day’s work, for which I don’t get paid of course.

I think my way out of this is to live my life with much more intention. When I walk into the stunningly beautiful landscape here, I need to be part of it ‘with intention’ instead of letting my mind wander into matters of work. When I listen to the curlew; look at a primrose; smell the fresh spring flowers, then it must be with intention. Likewise, when I open a notebook to write, I need to be able tell myself “write with intention”.

Do you have problems of settling down to do what you really want to do; and do you do anything with intention?

Rowan on the Moor

A Moodscope member

Information about shiatsu:

https://www.glasgowshiatsu.co.uk