"He who lives in harmony with himself, lives in harmony with the universe." ~Marcus Aurelius
I want to introduce you to the energy centers of the body that Jin Shin Jyutsu refers to as Safety Energy Locks. I am sure that many of you are familiar with the Chakras from Yoga and other healing traditions. A chakra is defined as a wheel, or vortex of energy. There are seven major chakras that flow through a human’s energetic system. All of these major chakras are on the Main Central Flow Pathway and make up our energetic blueprint connecting us to Source energy and our soul purpose.
Interestingly, Safety Energy Locks have the same definition! They are defined as vortices of spiraling energy. To my way of thinking, they are some of the "minor chakras" on our energy map. They mark the locations of intersecting energetic pathways or meridians often at skeletal junctures.
Many clients and students ask about this curious name, Safety Energy Lock. Jin Shin Jyutsu recognizes 26 pairs of these energy centers in our bodies. These areas are much more than fixed points and encompass an area approximately the size of our palm. Each one of them has a specific meaning that is expressed through its number and is closely related to its placement on the body.
They act like the circuit breakers on the electrical system in our homes and lock when the flow of energy in a pathway is creating an overload. This locking warns and protects us from further disharmony. When one or more of these safety energy locks become blocked, a local disruption can occur, eventually resulting in disharmony of the energetic pathway completely.
Just like your home electrical system, if an outlet is overloaded, it blows the breaker that feeds that outlet, but does not shut down the whole electrical system. If the breaker is not reset, you can just shift the plugs to another outlet. This outlet will also break as it becomes overloaded and the process will continue until the entire system shuts down.
A single breaker switch shutting down is a warning that you have overloaded the circuitry and attention must be paid to what you are doing. It is just the same thing with the energy system of our bodies. These twenty-six Energy Locks serve as breaker switches. If enough are blown over a period of time, disharmonies will occur in your physical, emotional, or mental well-being.
Another picture that describes for me what happens in the body, is to imagine our highway system of roads. Where many roads intersect there are overlaps and junctions, referred to in many cities as malfunction junction. All it takes is one accident at the junction to slow traffic from coming and going in many directions!
If you look at the image above that maps the locations of the 26 pairs of Safety Energy Locks you can see that these areas are places that we commonly feel pain. Jin Shin Jyutsu teaches us to heed the warning of pain-which is our indicator that something is out of order and energy locks are shutting down.
In our yoga practice, we address this stagnation that shows up as restrictions in and around the joints. Isn't it interesting that these Safety Energy Locks are located around the joints?!
It is said that we create things twice, first in the mind and the energy field, and then in the physical body. Knowing the locations of these energy centers can be a key to feeling the physical restrictions in the body and are a warning that we need to take steps to address this stagnation before it moves throughout the system.
Both Jin Shin Jyutsu and Kaiut Yoga are amazing tools to deal with this disruption of the smooth flow of energy on their own. I find that when one combines a knowledge of the energetic blueprint of the Jin Shin Jyutsu practice with the biomechanical wisdom of the Kaiut Method, we have the potential to create incredible openness and freedom in both body and mind. The openness and flow of energy through our safety energy locks determines our health, balance and well-BE-ing.
"Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you,
they’re supposed to help you discover who you are."
~Bernice Johnson Reagon