It occurred to me the other day that I get hung up on “healing”. I didn't start learning shiatsu to heal. It's wasn't my intention to go into practice to heal either, but somewhere along the line that got subverted. Lately I've been reading around a lot, in preparation for going into business. I've been checking out other practitioners' sites, and reading blogs and articles and whatever, and somehow healing sneaked into my brain.

I'm probably in a minority here, but the whole concept of alternative medicine bothers me greatly. I don't really believe that point work or whatever can cure disease. My take on it all is that a) I believe that stress is a major factor in illness, b) I believe that reducing stress may help many conditions, and c) I believe that shiatsu may help reduce stress. There's maybe a little more than that, but that's the bit I can put into words and — crucially — that's the bit I'm confident in enough to sell.

It's odd, because on a personal level Chinese medicine makes a lot of sense. I see myself cycling around the elements, in the way I feel, the clothes I wear, and the foods I eat. I can feel meridians, mostly, some better than others, and the same goes for points. I've had amazing experiences with both shiatsu and acupuncture. But I haven't made the transition from my inner feelings about Chinese medicine to the kind of outer belief that would seem to be required as a theraputic practitioner.

This is the root of the issues I have with my website. It doesn't flow, it doesn't put across the message I wanted to put across, and the reason for all this is that while one part of me remained focused on my core message of relaxation another part of me got influenced by everyone else and started trying to get healing in there. It got all schizophrenic.

When I get a minute I'm going to kick the ass of all the stuff I wrote about “pain and disease”, but right now I'm going to have a beer and watch Fight Club.