A third of my clients have cried during sessions. A few years ago, when I told one of my best friends, she laughed at me. She couldn't understand how someone would feel the need to cry during a massage, it didn't make sense to her. I didn't take it personally - most people don't really understand it, nor the mechanics of it.
She's a busy mom of two and was on the brink of a burnout, and I was hosted at her place for a week, so I wanted to gift her a Shiatsu session as a thank you gift. She agreed. We set up a few yoga mats on her living room floor, I gave her an intro on what to expect and allowed for any questions she might have, and we started our session.
As I worked on her body, I felt her starting to relax under my hands, and felt her tension melt away. Anytime I felt her drifting off in her mind, I brought her back to her body through breath, pointing to the areas of her body that were tense and introducing her to her subconscious patterns of protection.
As we neared the end of the session, and I gently stroked her face, I saw two tears running down the sides of her face. Her eyes were closed, so I allowed a smile to appear on my face. I could tell those were happy tears!
When the session was over and we sat down to debrief, she shared that she finally understood. When I spoke of people crying during the massage she had assumed they would only be sad tears. Instead, what she experienced was immense gratitude for the life she has, for her children, her husband, her family, her health... She allowed the gratitude to expand in her body, and express as tears. I was happy she got to experience the magic first-hand.
Shiatsu therapy sessions don't always trigger emotional responses, nor big cathartic moments. What they do is bring you to a calm, restful state where we're able to peel the layers of tension gently and reveal the essence. If you're someone who struggles to get into the present moment and gets in your head a lot, I bring you back to your body with ease through breath, so that we can work together to familiarise you with your patterns of tension.
And because an activated nervous system can be the root cause of many chronic states such as fatigue, chronic pain, intestinal problems, and much more, Shiatsu might be worth trying to remind your body what calm and regulated feels like.