Life-Line: Jin Shin Jyutsu has changed my ninety-two-year-old mother's life

A guest post by Ken Tobin

I would like a dime for each time I have purchased a copy of Waltraud Riegger-Krause’s Health is in Your Hands. It is an amazing resource for learning about Jin Shin Jyutsu (JSJ) and for using the art of JSJ to address the health issues that arise in everyday life and maintain wellbeing across the lifespan.

Just last week, I explained to a friend how JSJ’s history was associated with Ayurvedic and Tibetan medicine. She was intrigued, and hungry for resources. The first resource I thought of was Health is in Your Hands. Two days later, my friend had read the book and was using the cards to address some wellness projects she was experiencing.
My confidence in Health is in Your Hands dates back to 2014, when I purchased a set of cards for my mother who was then living in a retirement village in a suburb of Perth, Australia. She was receiving regular treatment from Maria Miniello, who recommended I purchase the cards. I did this and also obtained several other books for her. The cards were to become an indispensable part of mom’s daily routines, whereas the other books tended to gather dust on the shelves, and before long my mother returned them to me to pass them along to someone else.

Steadily, my mom became empowered as she used the cards to aid her lack of energy, shortness of breath, and a blockage in a malfunctioning aortic valve. After the aortic valve was replaced, as a 92-year-old, mom continues to use the cards every day. Mom describes Health is in Your Hands as her lifeline. Not only does she address emerging health issues, but also believes in maintenance by regularly doing flows such as the Main Central Vertical, staples such as bladder and kidney, and holding her fingers.

Depending on the symptoms that manifest on a particular day, my mom selects cards she feels are appropriate and uses them for self-help. As she approaches her 95th birthday, mom shows resilience and autonomy in the face of myriad age-related projects – including atrial fibrillation and rapid variations in blood pressure. Her heart surgeon agreed to include her in a study he was conducting even though she was 20 years older than the next eldest participant. He still marvels at her wellbeing when she visits for his review of her progress with an artificial aortic valve.

Mom uses JSJ as a pathway to autonomy – free from dependence on others and, especially, prescription drugs. Throughout each day, the cards are a guide to her leading a productive lifestyle, even in a context of her body wearing out. The cards are portable, convenient to use, easy to understand, and reliably effective in that the touches, holds, and flows align well with treatments from Maria, her heart surgeon, and her general medical practitioners. My mom proclaims, I am only alive because of JSJ.

Another major use I have made of Health is in Your Hands is as a textbook for some short courses I taught at the Graduate Center of the University of New York, where I worked with doctoral students for the past 16 years. I taught courses on complementary medicine, wellness, mindfulness, and meditation in a learning sciences program. As a resource for learning JSJ, numerous doctoral students learned not only to address their own ongoing health projects, but also the knowledge they needed to teach others about an amazing medical art, and also as a resource for doing research on how they used what they learned about JSJ in their homes, schools, recreational activities, and institutions, including prisons, museums, and hospitals. Examples of ongoing research include using JSJ to relieve gastrointestinal discomfort, diabetes II, and addressing everyday issues such as headaches, nasal bleeding, and damaged limbs. For doctoral students, Health is in Your Hands is a resource for learning, providing a foundation to learn from their JSJ practices with others, and from research projects on wellness.

---

Ken Tobin is Presidential Professor Emeritus, recently retired from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has been studying and practicing Jin Shin Jyutsu (JSJ) since 2014, and will continue research, practice and learning in the Orlando (FL) region. Ongoing studies integrate JSJ with acupuncture and massage therapy. He recently co-edited Weaving Complementary Knowledge Systems and Mindfulness to Educate a Literate Citizenry for Sustainable and Healthy Lives (2017).