Cold and flu season is upon us. Many of us get shots, take over-the-counter medications or antibiotics to deal with these illnesses. However, there is another way, that if practiced often, may also have great benefits. Immune system boosting, decongestion and sore throat soothing is literally at your fingertips through the Art of Jin Shin Jyutsu (JSJ). There is no cost involved, no side-effects, no toxicity and you are empowered to do the treatment on yourself, and for yourself.

This ancient, time-tested and research-based healing modality originated in Japan thousands of years ago, and the Art continues today. Typically, a person who needs health or emotional support would go to a JSJ Practitioner to receive a series of hour-long sessions for their wellness. As part of this visit, the client would receive Self-Help homework to continue to do on their own to support their own healing process.

JSJ Self-Help is the daily hand application of short treatments, or “quickies”, to harmonize the life force energy in the body for optimal healing to take place. An individual places their hands on specific areas on the body called Safety Energy Locks (SELs). Like Chinese acupuncture, which has points for the needles along the energetic meridians, JSJ has 26 SELs on the right side, left side and down the middle of the body. These SEL locations are energetic vortexes that spiral through the depths in the body, and act as “circuit breakers” that brake or lock up with discomfort when imbalance occurs in the body through illness, accidents, weather changes, toxicity, poor diet, genetic predispositions, stress and more.

When one places one’s hands on these SELs in a particular location and sequence that pertains to one’s body’s needs, balance may be restored and a return to health. The more one does Self-Help, the more impact it has. It can be done at any time as it involves only your hands. These treatments can be done standing, sitting and/or lying down, breathing fully to relax.
The following Self-Help practices are particular to the cold and flu season.

Flu Remedy
SEL 3 is associated with harmonizing the immune system, and doing a mudra with each finger is “jumper cabling” the entire body with immunity. It allows for optimal healing to take place. The more you do this, the more the immune system is boosted. You cannot overdose on JSJ Self-Help. This is best done lying on your side in bed as you recover. 

To boost the immune system during the cold or flu season, cross one arm over the chest and place that hand on the top of the shoulder and then move down the back a few more inches to SEL 3. To find SEL 3, trace the top of the shoulder blade with the fingertips toward the spine to the area between the shoulder blade and spine. That is the location for SEL 3. With the other hand, create a mudra with the thumb and the index finger where the pad of the thumb is placed on top of the nail bed of the index finger, and hold for 2 to 5 minutes. Relax the hands. Take full, deep and relaxing breaths.

Wait until you feel a buzzing, effervescent, pulsating sensation at the place of finger contact, and at the same time, where the fingertips are on the upper back. The fingertips on SEL 3 remain in this location throughout this immune system boosting flow as it is the anchor.

Next, move onto creating a mudra with the thumb pad and the nailbed of the middle finger and hold for 2 to 5 minutes, or until you feel the pulsation at both locations. When you do, you could hold for another minute or move on to the next finger. Create a mudra with the thumb pad and the nailbed of the ring finger, holding for 2 to 5 minutes. When both areas are harmonized, move onto the last finger, creating a mudra with the thumb pad and nail bed of the little finger.

Testimonial: I recently used this self-help treatment in the middle of the night while on vacation, as I felt an uncomfortable sensation in my upper chest that felt like an infection coming on. I gave myself this treatment lying on my side in bed three times while switching sides, feeling for the harmonization under both hands, until I felt the discomfort dissipate and disappear. I was fine when I woke up in the morning, and I was grateful that I knew what to do to help myself.

Cold Remedy
When you first start feeling a cold coming on in your sinuses, and you sense the congestion is on the right side, place your right hand behind your head to the base of the skull on the left side, and hold at SEL 4. This is the anchor, and this hand will stay in this place for the rest of this Self-Help treatment.

Place your left hand over the right side of the forehead above the eyebrow at SEL 20. Hold for 2 to 5 minutes until a pulsation, swirling sensation or effervescent sensation is felt underneath both sets of fingertips. Next, move the left-hand fingertips to under the middle of the right cheek (SEL 21) where a tender spot can be felt in the cheek bone indentation directly under the same longitudinal line under the eye. Hold for 2 to 5 minutes, feeling for sensation under the fingertips holding the opposite back of the low skull (anchor), and under the fingertips holding the cheekbone. Next, move the left-hand fingertips to under the right collarbone directly under the same longitudinal line under the eye (SEL 22). Hold for 2 to 5 minutes or until sensation is felt under both the left and right fingertips.

Testimonial: This Self-Help is my go-to when I first feel the nasal drip starting, or I have that “feeling under the weather” feeling. While at school, I could feel a cold coming on, so I applied my hands on the back of my head and down the opposite side of the face where the sinuses are and felt great relief, the sinuses drained and cold symptoms disappeared. I could get back to work with energy. Sometimes I would need to repeat this, and the more I did it, the more effect it had. This can be done while sitting, but is most comfortable lying down in bed.

Sore Throat Remedy
Simply hold your little finger, placing the other hand’s fingers gently around the pinkie. Hold your pinkie as gently as you hold a child’s hand. No pressure or effort. It does not matter which one. The more you hold it, the more effect it has. Hold the little finger for any discomfort of the throat for 2 to 5 minutes, as often as you like.

It may seem odd that holding only one finger can help alleviate discomfort in the throat, but it has to do with the energetic pathway that you are “jumper cabling” when holding the pinkie. That pathway goes through the throat, as well as the elbow, shoulder, chest and more.

Testimonial: My son, who was sick with a sore throat, called me from college to ask for a Self-Help suggestion. I told him to hold his pinkie. Two days later, I called him back to ask how his sore throat was. He answered, “What sore throat?” He had forgotten that he had one.

Jin Shin Jyutsu Self-Help is not a substitute for medical attention. It is complementary with Western medicine and can be used in conjunction with medical protocols. 

Julianne Roshan Dow is the Founder and Director of the Dow Integrative Institute located in Kent, CT and online. She is a certified Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner and Self-Help teacher, and a yoga teacher who integrates several different healing modalities to help others with their emotional and health needs. She has worked as a private practitioner for the past 15 years, and in the Integrative Medicine Department of a hospital. Her area of specialty is women’s health and fertility, emotional well-being and animal health. Connect at JulianneDow.com. See ad, page 5.