How an Unexpected Stop at an Energy Fair led me to a Lifelong Path With Jin Shin Jyutsu.
I had finally earned my bachelor’s degree after more than ten years of night classes, full-time jobs, and too many moves to count. Instead of rushing into the next chapter of my life, I decided to give myself one day off.
When I saw an advertisement for a metaphysical fair in Colorado Springs, it sounded like the perfect escape.
I had no idea that one decision would change the direction of my life.
It was a beautiful, sunny spring afternoon as I drove down from Denver by myself. I wandered around the outdoor fair, fascinated by all the different booths and what people were offering.
Then one sign caught my eye.
Energy Balancing.
I was feeling pretty burned out at the time, so it sounded like exactly what I needed.
My intuition said—Go for it!
I approached the booth and met a young woman in her thirties with dark hair and an easy smile. She instructed me to lie down on her massage table and began gently placing her hands on different parts of my body.
I was familiar with massage, but this was completely different.
Within two or three minutes, with my eyes closed, I began to relax. Then I felt something moving inside my body. My energy seemed to be jumping all around, and in my mind’s eye, I saw fireworks.
Nothing hurt.
I was just surprised.
I wondered if my kundalini energy was being activated again. I had recently attended a three-day meditation retreat where we had explored kundalini energy, so that was my only frame of reference for what I was experiencing.
After about twenty minutes, the woman quietly suggested that I get up slowly. I stayed on the table for another few minutes before sitting up.
She told me the bodywork was called Jin Shin Jyutsu.
Whoa!
I walked away feeling higher than a kite—not from anything I’d taken, but from twenty minutes on a massage table with a stranger.
I wandered around the fair in a haze for about an hour. Somehow I felt disconnected and yet deeply connected to my body, mind, and spirit at the same time.
I wanted to know more.
Discovering Jin Shin Jyutsu
Back in Denver, I began researching this ancient Japanese healing art. The woman at the fair had given me the name of Danielle, a Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner who lived in Denver.
I called her the next day.
For about a year, I saw Danielle once a month for sessions that often lasted an hour and a half or more. She taught me more about Jin Shin Jyutsu and the body’s energetic pathways, but what mattered most to me was how I felt afterward.
I was feeling better than I had in a long time.
And I desperately needed that.
Earlier that year, I had discovered that my boyfriend of eight years had been unfaithful. Our relationship was unraveling, I had left my longtime job with the phone company, and I was financially struggling while finishing my degree. I was emotionally exhausted and uncertain about my future.
Looking back, I can see that Jin Shin Jyutsu entered my life at a time when almost everything seemed to be changing. As I began feeling more balanced, my confidence started returning too.
For the first time, I could imagine creating a different life for myself.
Learning to Help Myself
My brother and his family, who lived in Sacramento, suggested I come to California. In the early 1990s, jobs there were plentiful, and within a month of moving, I had three offers to choose from.
I accepted a customer service position with Sacramento Cable. The job required constant typing, and before long my wrists began to throb. Even buttoning my blouse became painful.
I knew I was in trouble.
Rather than immediately pursuing the wrist braces and surgery I was hearing about at the time, I wanted to explore whether Jin Shin Jyutsu might help me.
That’s when I found Elsie.
She would become not only my Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner, but also my mentor and friend.
I saw Elsie about once a month, and every night at home I practiced a simple Jin Shin Jyutsu hold she had shown me for my aching wrists.
For weeks, I kept at it.
Then one day I realized something.
My wrists weren’t throbbing anymore.
It had taken about two months. Even today, if I’ve spent too much time at the computer and my wrists begin to ache, I return to the self-help practices I learned all those years ago.
Until then, I hadn’t seriously considered becoming a Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner.
Now I wanted to know more.
A Different Way of Living
Elsie and I attended several five-day Jin Shin Jyutsu Basic Seminars together in San Francisco. With each class, I became more excited about the philosophy behind this healing art.
At its heart, Jin Shin Jyutsu is about cooperation—cooperation with the body, mind, and spirit.
That idea struck something deep within me.
Most of my career had been spent in the corporate world, where I often felt surrounded by competition, performance, and the need to constantly prove my worth.
Jin Shin Jyutsu offered me a completely different perspective.
Rather than pushing harder or always trying to fix what seemed wrong, I was learning to listen to my body and work with it instead of against it.
It wasn’t simply a different approach to wellness.
It was a different way of living.
While I was still working at Sacramento Cable, the company held a health fair one afternoon. That became one of my first opportunities to offer Jin Shin Jyutsu sessions to others. Before long, I began sharing the practice in my community.
About a year later, another move was calling me. This time I headed into the mountains to Truckee, California.
It was there that Jin Shin Jyutsu took me somewhere I never could have anticipated when I climbed onto that massage table in Colorado Springs.
I began volunteering with hospice.
For more than five years, I had the privilege of offering Jin Shin Jyutsu to people and their families during some of life’s most vulnerable moments. Those experiences would change my understanding of healing, living, and dying—and eventually give me stories I knew I needed to tell.
My first hospice patient was Rick. He changed the way I understood death.
But that’s another story.
That single afternoon in Colorado Springs eventually led me into hospice rooms, self-help workshops, private sessions, and experiences I would carry with me for the rest of my life.
Looking back, I realize I thought I was simply driving to an energy fair.
What I was really driving toward was a life I couldn’t yet imagine.
Want to Experience Jin Shin Jyutsu for Yourself?
Jin Shin Jyutsu has been part of my life for more than 35 years, and some of the simplest practices are the ones I still return to today.
In my Calm Wherever You Go self-help guide, I share more than 20 gentle Jin Shin Jyutsu holds you can use wherever you are to support relaxation, ease, and a greater sense of balance.
