Asi Shnabel's Blog

A ikido is a modern Japanese martial art that started in the early 20th century, evolving from a more traditional skills such as Daito-Ryu Aiki-Jiujitsu (led by the Takeda family for centuries), some traditional weapons skills like the wooden sword (Bokken), short staff (Jo) and more. the focus in Aikido is to peacefully and non-aggressively subdue an attack through a variety of techniques, conducted in a non-forceful way. Aikido mastery takes years of consistent and devoted practice but as skills evolves, it is second to none and extremely rewarding. The true reward is not in the techniques performed, but the development of the conduct that guides the practice and gradually becomes our nature. Traditional Japanese Martial arts were meant to develop the practitioner as a SAMURAI . The word "Samurai" is derived from the term "Samuru", means: "To Serve". Just like the understanding of a high degree soldier, or, and OFFICER, in the western concept, the Samura...

Shiatsu-Anma , Japanese traditional Acupressure therapy and bodywork, has served as part of traditional Asian medicine for centuries, aiding patients in promoting their health, alleviating many common ailments and even helping cure serious conditions, under the guidance of professional healers. This art is still in use around the world nowadays, promoting our natural healing powers in our bodies. The benefits of pressure therapy include regulating nerve control and removing accumulated tensions from various tissues, hence help the body's physiology recorrect itself and promote its natural metabolic balance. Shiatsu-Anma therapy can benefit the body both locally and remotely (reflexed effect) so to promote free and natural functioning. To most people, massage and bodywork are accepted as merely a casual relief of symptoms and therefore, single casual treatments are more popular in modern times. There are many factors that may contribute to that, such as costly treatments in a challe...

Pregnancy Treatments: Pregnancy is a wonderful natural miracle of preparing to bring new life on Earth. Naturally the Embryo’s growth is much depended in the mother’s health, life style etc. With modern fast & stressful life style pregnancy is often experienced through many hardships and unpleasant symptoms than may often undermine the mother’s health, and even affect the born-to-be baby. Modern lifestyle often affects many young women while being pregnant: working hard, coping with stress, coping with mass communication and technology, etc. thus turning a natural wonder such as pregnancy into a long, painful & tiring process, often accompanied by many unpleasant symptoms, complications, decreased immunization and body power, unstable sensitivity and more. It is well known that Shiatsu and Anma may assist much in the process of pregnancy, starting from alleviating pain & other typical symptoms common in pregnancy, and up to helping the natural development of the embryo insi...

For many centuries the source of our being, power and health is known among the sages in the far east as the body’s center of gravity, or the “field of longevity” ( Jap = Tanden; Chi = Tantien). For centuries this center was cultivated and maintained by healers, martial-artists and masters of many types of arts who believed that perfection depends in utmost utilization of this center, both physically and mentally. In fact, sources point three divisions of this center in our body: The upper “Tantien” (3rd eye) as the mental center of wisdom, the middle center (middle of the chest) as the center of emotions and conception and empathy, and the lower center as the physical center, the center of gravity in our bodies and source of our true strength. Breathing into and from this center (lower center) is considered as the most fundamental element in maintaining health and optimizing our body’s powers and functioning! In my personal experience over the course of practice I noticed a significan...

When I was still in Israel I had my uncle coming for a weekend visit with his wife. He was barely walking or standing and his wife was helping him. He said he had strained his back for the past 2 days real bad and don’t know what to do. It was a Saturday so he was resting and avoiding calling a Doctor. Than he asked me for help knowing I’m a Shiatsu therapist. I was looking at him for a moment and thought to myself…. his knees look a little stiff… So I asked him to carefully bent down on his knees and support himself with the nearby sofa, holding his hand on it. I instructed him how to do so and he actually cooperated, surprised it was not that hard to do. That he asked: “What’s next?” The next thing was chatting with him for a few minutes… maybe 5 or so… At some point I asked him to stand up again. He was a bit scared to do so, but finally did it and was very shocked to realize that the back pain was almost completely GONE! “How did you know, Asi?” he asked… I said humbly I didn’t but...

My first ever encounter with “Carpal Tunnel Syndrome” happened years ago in Israel, when I was employed in an integrative healthcare clinic. I was assigned to a woman in her 60’s who was an office worker and was scheduled for an operation on her hand due to having this condition. She was also smoking chronically and I could feel her body was very stiff. I came to realized that addressing the problem locally is just insufficient for a good effect. So it took me only two sessions to alleviate her condition to her great surprise and to lead her into canceling her scheduled operation since she got amazingly much better! During those sessions I worked mostly on her forearm (Meridians: Pericardium and Tripple-Warmer), pressing and stretching/rotating her hand and working on her upper back/scapular areas and neck to better circulate them. Her chest was very stiff (PC energy) so I had to palm pressure it to improve circulation and breathing a bit. After those two sessions she stayed more to wo...

One of my most interesting treatments happened only a short while after graduating the Shiatsu school. A family member of mine complained about painful bladder when urinating and a bloody urine for the last two days. She was in her 20’s and highly stressed at that time. I offered to help relax the body and gave her a 1-hour session. During the session I realized the body was highly stressed and required mostly a calm steady pressure (Shiatsu). Focus was put on the Bladder and Kidney meridians. Otherwise it was a general overall session in which she had to stop for 3 times and run to the towelette-room to urinate. The first break involved a big bloody discharge with no pain and the last break involved a totally clean discharge! At the end of the session she was very relaxed but completely “drained” and tired and went to bed to rest. The symptoms had totally disappeared! The next day she went to the doctor for a checkup and he diagnosed her as having had a bladder fungal infection. The ...