The Joy of Feeling by Iona Marsaa Teeguarden

Review written by Katie Knipp

How can we let ourselves be all that we truly are? By this helpful tool—the body.

Iona Marsaa Teeguarden is an acupressure therapist and scholar of the Eastern healing arts.  Through her practice in Jin Shin Do, the acupressure technique of Taoist philosophy, she has connected the ancient Chinese medicine to Western psychology.  Teeguarden has communicated to a modern audience the powerful healing principle of “whole” person treatment—treating both the body and the mind.  This has yielded to transformative results in patients, as it has helped eliminate physical as well as emotional pain and tension.  These principles are echoed in the Lucid Body technique.  While reading this book could never make me an actual Jin Shin Do practitioner; it has informed and deepened both my hands-on work, and my ability to communicate Lucid Body principles to a class.

In explaining the concepts of Jin Shin Do acupressure technique, Teeguarden uses the phrase, “body-mind” to describe the way she works both physically and psychologically.  Her work is not just a massage, and it is not just therapy, it is a combination of both. By exploring within the physical body, emotional tensions and blockages are also found. The emotional and physical body are so connected that they work as one—so both affect each other interchangeably. Teeguarden states, “sometimes the release of physical tension didn’t ‘hold’ until there was an accompanying awareness of psychological stressors—like repressed feelings or upsetting attitudes.”

At first, this concept of body-mind healing work might seem uncomfortable to us contemporary westerners who tend to fear our feelings; an attitude, Teeguarden writes, that is “so pervasive…it could be seen as an emotional plague.”  We all struggle with feeling what we judge as “negative” emotions like hurt and sadness, and we live our lives chasing after the positive emotions.  However, the problem with feeling is that we cannot choose which feelings we want to feel. We can choose to feel or not to feel (that is the question). Teeguarden states, “if we let ourselves feel, we will feel both sides of life.” Jin Shin Do essentially creates an environment that is “safe to feel” all of what we are meant to feel.

“Let it all be!  Accept it all!”

Jin Shin Do derives from the Taoist belief system.  Taoism came from disagreements with the Confucianist beliefs of ancient China.  I was interested to learn that cultures have been disagreeing about philosophies, religions and spiritual concepts since the world began.  Confucianists tried to “regulate human behavior by advocating certain standards of virtue.” Taoists rebelled from this and instead advocated “the Natural Way.” They described the Natural Way as a unique path for every individual; describing life like a river, meandering about, “flowing now this way and now that.”  The Taoists thought, how then can there be any unchanging “right” way?

 

“Happiness is as light as a feather, but nobody knows how to bear it.

Calamity is as heavy as the earth, but nobody knows how to avoid it. 

Enough!  Enough of this confronting people with virtue! 

Beware!  Beware of trudging down this marked path!”  ~Taoist saying

 

Teeguarden explains that the Taoists were concerned that “man [had] been tempted away from an instinctive, emotional knowledge of his place in the environment, into an arrogant belief that he stands outside the laws of Nature.”  They believed that man’s means of receiving guidance were from the emotions.  Emotions produce hormones in the glandular system, which stimulate us to then take appropriate actions for our situation.  This connection to our own form of guidance became “stunted and distorted through willful disobedience to nature, in the name of social convenience.”  Teeguarden calls this social convenience, “the tapes” running through our mind of how we “ought” to think, feel and behave. When we let these tapes operate our system, our true voice becomes faint amidst all that outside chatter.

Acupressure is one of the techniques used to strengthen our true voice.  In studying acu-points using modern technology, researchers have found that the body temperature on these points is significantly warmer from that of the neighboring area: “usually one-half to one degree Celsius higher.”  In addition, scientists have found that at each point is a “decreased electrical resistance” meaning that there is a higher energy concentration in these points than the areas near them. These acu-points conduct energy along pathways, which are called meridians.  Meridians are “functionally-related series of points, or pathways along which the vital energy flows.”  The energy moves along the meridians through movement and contraction of the muscles but also the flow of emotions. An acupressure therapist will work within the meridians depending on what tension and blockages she finds.  In addition to working along the meridians, it is helpful to look at the tension in the body through “segments,” which are horizontal rings around the body where the points are functionally-related.  Of all the technical acupressure information, studying the segments was the most helpful to me.  I’ve listed the descriptions below.

 

·      Ocular Segment: a ring of tension around the eyes and upper head. It acts like a “blindfold.” Tension in this segment blocks us from facing the picture of ourselves.

·      Oral Segment: a ring of tension around the jaw and below the ears. It acts like a “gag.”

Tension in this segment makes us hold back tears and shouts, keeps us from expressing ourselves.

·      Neck Segment: a ring of tension around the neck and throat. It acts like a “lasso.” Tension here keeps threatening feelings from arising out of the heart.  The neck is a major energy crossroads, as over half the meridians go through the neck.

·      Shoulder Segment: a ring of tension around the shoulders and upper trapezius.  It acts like a “harness.” Tension here feels heavy, like the burden of our responsibilities.

·      Chest Segment: a ring of tension around the chest, heart and upper back.  It acts like a “door closing us off from feeling.”  Tension here inhibits our ability to feel love, and heartache.

·      Diaphragm Segment: is a ring of tension around the ribs, upper abs, and middle back. It acts like a “tight corset.”  Tension here comes from emotional stress and the fear of losing control. It also holds down our emotions.

·      Abdomen Segment: is a ring of tension around the abdomen and back.  It acts like a “belt we have tied too tightly.”  Tension in this area decreases the intensity of our   passions, and aids the diaphragm in holding in emotions and sexual desires.

·      Pelvis Segment: is a ring of tension around the pelvis, hips and lower back.  It acts like a “chastity belt.”  Tension here limits our sexual feelings.

 

Teeguarden recommends self-treatment to learn about these acupressure points, and she details the method in which to explore.  She advises focusing the attention on the points and breathing into tense areas rather than pressing hard.

I also took away some new tools that I can apply to my hands-on work.  A tool to remember when working on someone, is to hold the points in the upper parts of the body and then move toward the lower body. Teeguarden’s phrase is, “take it from the top!”  She also advises that if the tension at one point does not relax, working on other nearby points could help, as compensating tensions often develop, and often in the same segment. She recommends doing basically the same thing on each side of the body, and at the end of the work to do a neck release.  I want to also remember how Teeguarden coaches her patients. “As tense or sore points are being held, let yourself feel the tension at each point.  Feel into the point.  Just be with it.  Notice how the initial soreness and tightness can quickly change into pleasurable relaxation.”

She is increasingly listening to the deepest recesses of her physiological and emotional being, and finds herself increasingly willing to be, with greater accuracy and depth, that self which she most truly is.           

I discovered so many similarities between the concepts in The Joy of Feeling and Lucid Body; more than I could include, so I’ve kept it to my favorites.  Students in a Lucid Body class will sometimes experience significant painful emotions, and sometimes in the moment the process can seem quite confusing.  I was helped by Teeguarden’s explanation about the cyclical nature of this process  “If we could just feel what we feel and allow the natural transformation of emotional states, then we would find ourselves continuously re-entering the synergic or peaceful, harmonious state.”  The pain that comes up in a Lucid Body class is part of a natural progression that is finally being allowed to take place.

Teeguarden defines the terms feelings, emotions, and psyche very specifically:

 

·      Feelings: the subjective reactions, pleasurable and un-pleasurable, that we can have to a situation.

·      Emotions: specific feelings, with strong physical and psychic manifestations.

·      Psyche: non-physical, the part of self that is “beyond the known.”

 

Teeguarden states, “we discover that unblocking the body helps to unlock the psyche.”  Teeguarden’s in-depth discussion of emotional, physical and mental connections in the body have given me a deeper understanding of Lucid Body exercises and concepts such as the Warm up, Double Mirror, and Movement as Text.

The Lucid Body Warm-up does similar unblocking as Jin Shin Do, due to the physical stretching and breathing.  Teeguarden states, “the muscular contraction is…an expression of the feeling that is being suppressed.”  Releasing the muscular contraction through stretching oftentimes contacts major suppressed feelings, and students are allowed to transform after releasing them.

The word ‘emotion’ derives from the Latin word ‘emovere’… meaning “to move out.” Our emotions get us moving, allowing us to express or react to the situation.  In the Double Mirror exercise, students are working with a partner, and find themselves “moving” out feelings they weren’t accustomed to expressing. This encourages them to increase their emotional range.

Teeguarden explains that certain emotions stimulate specific muscles.  “Fear mobilizes the muscles used for flight—the lower back and legs.  Concern mobilizes the brain; the muscles of the forehead may contract as though to concentrate the energy there. Grief and hurt mobilize the muscles of the chest and throat, which are used for weeping and wailing.”  This concept is used throughout Lucid Body classes as we manipulate the chakras, but I was reminded of the Lucid Body concept of Movement as Text.  It’s like getting at these emotions through the back door—students contact the muscle area first and then the related emotion expresses itself as a result of the movement.  As students connect the movement to their emotional intention, they are able to go on emotional journeys and create characters they never knew they had in them, simply by contacting those areas of the body that govern these emotions.

Teeguarden reminded me of the Lucid Body Audible Exhale concept during her discussion of the acu-points in the diaphragm segment.  “There may…be growls or shouts.  Being noisy can help free the diaphragm area, and other gnarly tensions like the [necks] and jaws.”  When we are in the Warm up, we stretch the diaphragm and solar plexus throughout the exercises, and students are encouraged to exhale on sound whatever feeling comes up.  This noise, in combination with the stretch, frees the diaphragm, and allows a wealth of emotional material to release.  It can get quite noisy. J

Furthermore, I loved the connections I found to Lucid Body Shadow Characters. Teeguarden states, “a major block to freely experiencing and expressing our emotions is the tendency to judge some feelings as ‘right’ and others as ‘wrong.’” She explains that through this judgment we section off our different aspects of self away from one another. “It’s as though we had put boxes around the different aspects of ourselves—large boxes like “body” and “emotions” and smaller boxes like “head’ and ‘groin,’ ‘nice’ and ‘not nice.’  In the Lucid Body we call these boxes “Persona,” “Shadow,” and “Child Need.”  She explains that we must start allowing communication between our different “boxes” to understand what the “whole” needs.  Feelings and emotions we judge to be ‘wrong’ are prime candidates for denial and avoidance.  Creating and playing Shadow Characters focuses in on those prime candidates, and allows for the energy we’ve previously judged as wrong or inappropriate, to be transformed into something we express and allow, helping the body find more balance.

What we call unacceptable is that which we do not know how to use. 

Finally, I admire how the Lucid Body has taken these ancient principles for body-mind health and brought them to a practical technique for actors.  Students come in to class with bodies that are, as Teeguarden writes, “records of [their] inner frustrations” whether expressed or not.  This then manifests itself in tensions in the related “frustrated” muscles, resulting in a reduced sensitivity—both psychologically and physically.  This lack of sensitivity makes for less interesting actors, and so many actors feel this block when they want to connect to the characters they want to play. Teeguarden explains what is literally happening here.  “Fascial adhesions…the fibrous connective tissues which surround muscles and organs, actually begin to adhere together. As this tension or ‘armoring’ accumulates, we begin to be as stiff as the medieval knights in their protective metal suits.”  Helping people release their tension allows them to become more sensitive to themselves, which is good for overall health.  But for actors it is incredibly helpful in allowing them to become more sensitive to feeling the complex emotions of their characters.  Teeguarden includes an interaction with a patient who said, “it made such a difference to feel it in my body, instead of just knowing it in my head.”  This is what actors say about their acting in Lucid Body—that they finally understood a character fully because they felt it in their body not just their head.  They felt it fully.

In Jin Shin Do, the concept of Yin and Yang is used to categorize the meridians, and their related emotions and bodily functions. Yin and Yang represents opposing forces—Yin being passive, Yang being aggressive.  Teeguarden states, “in the Taoist view, opposites are not opposing.  Opposites are just polar aspects of the same thing: they are complementary.” Thinking of yin and yang concepts of each chakra—in Lucid Body we call them exploded and imploded– as complementary rather than separate has been amazingly helpful in my own chakra exploration.

I studied both a Yang Meridian (the Gall Bladder Meridian), and a Yin Meridian (the Heart and Pericardium Meridian.) to help me understand how these meridians work. The Gall Bladder Meridian is a major Yang meridian that goes through the entire body, the main points being in the head, neck, shoulders, chest, abdomen, pelvis, and hips and legs.  Teeguarden works a great deal in this meridian, stating, “tension along this meridian seems to be an indicator of the general stress level of modern civilization.”  Emotionally, control issues are the central theme for the Gall Bladder tension and blockage. “Feeling a need for control and having difficulty taking change is a polarity, the two sides of which usually co-exist in some way.”

 

Happiness is like a butterfly.

The more you chase it the more it will elude you.

But if you turn your attention to other things

It comes and sits softly on your shoulder.

The Heart and Pericardium Meridians are Yin Meridians, which house the synergic state of Shen—the Taoists word for the Core Self.  This is the area of our joy, over-joy, and lack of joy–meaning shock, sadness, despair and depression.  We chase this joy, and then end up feeling the other extremes of sadness and despair.  However, having true joy is not about having no stress or sadness, but rather accepting the stress and sadness and allowing it to be a part of our core self.  As Teeguarden says, “there can be joy AND all the other emotions.”  There are three branches of the heart and pericardium meridians: the throat and voice, the arms and hands, and the genitals.  I found this fascinating, since so much of our ability to feel comes from these areas—our ability to communicate feelings through the voice, serving and hugging in the arms and hands, and expressing our desires in the genitals.  Many students come to a Lucid Body class with blockage in the Heart Meridian points.  Teeguarden states, when there is armoring in the chest, it caves in as if the whole body was “curling over the heart.”  I am starting to notice this quite a bit in Lucid Body class. The acu-points of the Heart and Pericardium Meridians are probably one of the primary places to work in a student, to allow all these deep feelings to release.

 The battle for health must be won on the deeper level of the integration of the self.  Wholeness is the harmony of body and psyche, thoughts and feelings, self and environment.  This is real health. 

Teeguarden discusses emotional expression as she states, “restraint of our emotions is not necessary, though some restraint of our thoughts and actions may be required.”  Therefore, she says, “maturity involves being able to appropriately express or release feelings and emotions.  This is not the same thing as acting out, or catharting all over everyone.  Nor is it the same as explaining and defending feelings.  The key words are ‘I FEEL…’ Right now I feel hurt, tired, angry, happy, sad, disheartened, excited. Most importantly, right now I FEEL.” In studying the Jin Shin Do I was impacted by how gentle this process must be. Teeguarden makes it very clear as she states, “if what we judge to be helping entails forcing someone in some way, then the Taoists would suggest we not try to help, but rather wait until the person is receptive to our help.”

Teeguarden reminds me that this whole process is cyclical, “self-actualization is a search for the center of our being, which paradoxically is meanwhile directing the search.”