Have you traveled by plane over a long distance? Then, you certainly have experienced jet lag after arriving at your destination. What do you usually do? Drink more fluids? Try to stay awake with the locals so that you are exhausted by the time night falls and sleep? How well has it worked?
So, here is an idea on how to apply Jin Shin Jyutsu to help cope with jet lag.
12-Body Function Energy: Origin vs. Destination
The energetic pattern of the 12-Body Function Energy is aligned perfectly with the rhythm of our days where we live. When we travel across time zones, however, we find ourselves with energetic pattern fit for one time zone while our bodies are located in a different zone. But what if you used the time of travel to help the 12-Body Function Energy daily pattern adjust to the time of destination. All you had to do is adjust your wristwatch on the airplane to reflect the destination time and give yourself one of the 12-Body Function Energy flows that corresponds to that time.
Here is an example. Let’s say you travel from Chicago to Hawaii across four time zones and the ride takes about 10 hours. So, when you board the airplane at 10 am in Chicago (the time of Spleen), the local time at Maui will be 6 am, the time for Large Intestine. Just give yourself Large Intestine for the next two hours. Then, at 12 pm Chicago time and 8 am Maui time, give yourself Stomach flow. Two hours later, it will be time to harmonize the Heart flow, and then Small Intestine, etc. By the time of your arrival at Maui, the 12-Body Function Energy pattern will have been adjusting to Maui time already for the entire duration of the flight.
If you want to try this approach, here is a table with a quick summary of the flows, their corresponding time and the anchor steps of the harmonizing flows. That is unless you prefer to simply refer to your own JSJ notebooks.
Fatigue Flow
An even easier JSJ flow, and my favorite, is simply to address the resulting fatigue from the travel. I switched from the harmonization of the 12-Body Function Energy to simply Fatigue self-help quickies when I began traveling with my kids while they were still babies. I guess, it is hard to reach out for the small toe and pubic bone when you have a baby in your hands trying to sleep. Most of the time I felt so restricted in my movement, that all I could do was to hold my fingers. So, I did the Eight Mudras, each one of them being a quickie for the Fatigue flow and all. After the 13-hour one-stopover airplane travel, I was able to even rent a car and drive for additional 3 hours without feeling too worn out.
The Eye Flow
And here is a flow directly from our textbooks [T1, p.24 ] which I have heard is good for jet lag as well. I have never personally experienced it so I am putting out there for others to try it out. Carlos Gutteres mentioned it during one of the 5-Day Seminars I attended with him. Since it is not a flow that one can easily perform on oneself, here is what Carlos offered as self-help alternatives.
Right Eye Flow Helps Left Eye
A. Left Hand on Right center underarm, Right Hand on Left SEL 20 (3rd step of the flow on p. 24, T1)
B. Left Hand on Right center underarm, Right Hand on Left SEL 21 (4th step of the flow on p.24, T1)
Left Eye Flow Helps Right Eye
A. Right Hand on Left center underarm, Left Hand on Right SEL 20
B. Right Hand on Left center underarm, Left Hand on Right SEL 21