In Seitai, “Steamed Towel Method” has been passed on to care for yourself. It is also called, “All-purpose Self Therapy”.
There are many Imoto-Seitai students who have spent nothing for their medical expenses for many years by using this method, along with Seitai exercises and How to utilize “colds and their benefits.”
On this article, I would like to tell you the way to do that. However, before that I must tell you the fact that “cure involves excretion.”
Many people call excretion caused by artificial healing (treatment) “healing crisis” and excretion caused by natural healing “symptoms,” but they are the two sides of a coin. When these excretory reactions are recklessly stopped, healing would halt.
Consequently, the body waste which is supposed to be excreted would change the form and appear as a larger “symptom” someday after. If we continue to stop the symptoms, the body will gather the toxins and eventually, cause a lump.
Therefore, I must explain the “meaning of symptoms” to you before describing the “Steamed Towel Method.”
The meaning of symptoms
In Seitai, most of the “symptoms” are regarded as excretions of waste products, representatively symptoms of common cold. Many people take this as “being sick” and try to stop them. However, it can be said that the body that does not excrete toxins is considered as a “actual sick body.” The same goes for the body that does not react to the abnormalities is the “abnormal body.”
It is a disorder of your body when you do not feel any pain even if you are injured. Likewise, it is a disorder not having diarrhea even if you have eaten rotten food. This is called “disease-free disease” body.
This is why a robust person who have never caught a cold often suddenly collapses from serious sickness caused by accumulated toxins.
In Seitai, it is said that “if you stop small illnesses, you will get a big illness.” In other words, excretion from time to time leads you to obtain good health.
Therefore, if something happens as a result of the Steamed Towel Method or the regular Seitai treatment, please do not panic and stop it. I have listed up the symptoms and their meanings below. If you feel uneasy even after reading this, please consult Imoto Seitai Leaders including me.
Pain, Inflammation
As a part of your body stiffens due to bruises, fatigue, etc., it gets cold because the circulation gets worse. Since it is partly in the state of approaching death, body attempts to restore the flow by expanding and refreshing the blood vessels by making eicosanoids: fever/pain-producing substances.
So basically if you cool down or stop the pain with painkillers, you will interfere the metabolism and more or less leave some stiffness in the body, which may eventually become “an old wound.” Meanwhile, warming up the part with Steamed Towel Method promotes the blood circulation as alleviating the pain. It may sounds odd, but this is because so the circulation is already improved that the “pain” is unnecessary anymore.
However, neuralgia that is not alleviated by warming up is not “excretion.” It may be said to be a real sickness.
Also you cannot apply this to head injuries, the place where the vessels are raptured.
Fever, Chilliness
“Heat is the power to live” as the baby is warm and the corpse is cold.
When body stiffens, the temperature fall or the circulation becomes worse, in other words, as it approaches death, those who have the power to live will get a fever to recover. Before that, the body feels chilliness as preparations to generate the fever and increases demand for the heat. Therefore, usually, we do not stop the fever until the process has completed. Once it is accomplished, the body regains softness, warmth, and circulation.
When a slight fever and/or chilliness is dragging on, since it means you have not been able to generate the heat well enough, Steamed Towel Method is also recommendable to stimulate the thermoregulatory center at the back of your head.
Cough, Sneeze
These are spontaneous exercises that shake to loosen the rib cage when ribs are stuck together.
A stiff rib cage can interfere with the dilation and contraction of the underlying organs, resulting in poor performance. Additionally, as there are many lymphatic vessels in the interstices of the rib, stiffness of the intercostal muscle inhibits the flow of the lymph.
So this is a demand by our body, when you let the cough or sneeze go freely, the ribs will be loosened and it will settle down naturally.
If you perform the Steamed Towel Method on the uncomfortable area, the course will proceed faster.
Conversely, if you eat too much during this term, it would harden the rib cage and prolong the convalescence. Eating less will also help progress.
Runny nose
Dripping runny nose is a reaction for moisturizing the dried, chilled lungs. Moisture is sent to the lungs when you breathe in. So, when you put a steamed towel on your face and inhaling the steam, the runny nose will stop. Whilst letting the mucus out thoroughly, the lungs will be refreshed and warmed.
Stuffy nose
When your digestive system is tired, the nose may get stuffed up, leading to the insensitivity of your nose. As a result, your appetite falls. If you take some medicine and continue eating more, your digestive organ will eventually be affected. Contrary, if you just take some break or reduce nutrients, your nose will be cleared before you know it.
Itchiness
On a spot with poor flow, the body intends to regain its circulation by causing itchiness and impel to scratch. Toxins which could not be detoxed due to diarrhea, etc. are often excreted from the skin. This also causes itchiness. If you stop this for a long time, the toxins would accumulate and your body may finally build lumps.
In Seitai, “If it is itchy, scratch it” is the golden rule. And if you scratch to emerge blood or pus, toxins are excreted more steadily, therefore, it is said to be “even better”. You will get back to the beautiful skin after they run out, but if you worry about it, apply the Steamed Towel Method to the affected area.
In case the toxins have seriously progressed, you may sense itching “deep inside of the body.” Steamed Towel Method is also very effective.
Usually, itching is reduced as soon as this method is performed.
Eczema, Atopic dermatitis
Although they are considered as some type of excretion from the skin as I mentioned in the paragraph of “Itchiness,” if it is too painful to scratch, you can choose Steamed Towel Method on the affected area. Normally, people attempt to “stop” them with steroids, etc., but for some people, it is not easy to prevent the itchiness permanently. Even maximizing the steroid usage does not stop the condition most of the time. That is why many people try to excrete using the Steam Towel Method instead of using other kinds of medication.
They seem to gradually recover over several years, suffering from excretion of toxins that have accumulated over several years. Even so, if DNA has already been damaged by steroids, it is difficult to completely recover. So it would be better to get rid of toxins with a steamed towel from the very beginning.
Vomiting, Diarrhea
When a person ingests rotten or poisonous food, sensitive one will vomit and excrete them immediately. If it does not make it in time, they will discharge it with diarrhea. Dull people would accumulate toxins without excretion. The quicker the better to dispel them, thereby, it will really help you to complete the excretion speedily and comfortably by applying the Steamed Towel Method on the vital point of liver which is called 痢症活点(Ri-sho-katten= detox accelerator).
Morning sickness that is prone to occur in pregnant women with bad stomach, is also the excretion of toxins.
People who have a stiff stomach from stress will be “dry heaving” as an instinctive action, squeezing it continuously, trying to loosen the stomach.
When people’s thoracic vertebra 5(T5) hardens, which links to the semicircular canals and perspiration, they may sometimes cause nausea by affecting the adjacent T6 which corresponds to the stomach(e.g. car sickness).
In Seitai, the above symptoms are regarded as excrement that should not be obstructed. We say it “All runnings are benign”. However, excretion which has been endlessly consuming your vitality regardless of applying the Steamed Towel Method can be said to be a “real disease” which is beyond the body’s natural healing power. Please consult your doctor in this case.
Steamed Towel Method
Well then, we are finally going to explain the Steamed Towel Method. Firstly, I will explain the principle of this method, followed by the fundamental and finally some precautions.
Principle of the Steamed Towel Method
Life is “breathing”. Breathing is to repeat absorption and excretion while repeating contraction and expansion. Humans pursue greedily about “absorption” such as nutrition and medicine, but as for excretion, they tend to lose interest. Because of that, we are prone to accumulate toxins in the body. Steamed Towel Method is the method to promote this “excretion” by stimulating with heat and steam, regain cell respiration, therefore, regain life force.
Specifically, it stimulates the sympathetic nerve and contracts the blood vessels by applying a steamed towel with “slightly higher temperature than comfortable”. As it gets cold, the parasympathetic nerve is stimulated, and blood vessels are dilated. By repeating this several times, it promotes the pumping action of the blood vessel itself. This significantly improves blood flow, excretion of waste products and metabolism. Obviously, the contract-expand movement of the surrounding cells is also promoted at this time.
Additionally, since your skin is directly exposed to steam, sweating would immediately begin as pores are opened. Along with perspiration, waste products are excreted from the skin. Therefore, Steamed Towel Method must be applied directly on your skin.
Basics of the Steamed Towel Method
1, Prepare one thick towel which is about 85 cm × 35 cm.
2, Fold the towel in a size somewhat larger than the palm of your hand.
3, Immerse in water and squeeze it leaving moisture to the extent that water does not drip.
4, Heat that up. When it is too hot, let it cool to the temperature not to scald.
Use a microwave … Heat up for 60 to 90 seconds.
Use hot water … Simmer in hot water and squeeze with rubber gloves to prevent scalding (rubber gloves over cotton gloves may be safer).
5, Apply it to the affected part. It should be higher than a comfortable, but lower than scalding temperature.
6, Warm up the same towel after it has cooled down ( approximately 3 to 5 minutes).
7, Lay it on the affected area again. Repeat several times.
Notes on the Steamed Towel Method
Please be careful not to scald yourself. If the skin becomes dark or hard by continuing this method for days, please stop until the skin returns. If the temperature is too high, it causes low-temperature scalding.
The essence of Steamed Towel Method is “to cool naturally down over 3 to 5 minutes” and “to spend some time while warming the same towel again”. This wave of temperature change precisely induces the pump motion. Please distinguish this from the methods of warming up continuously with hot pack etc.
Do not practice this method immediately after bruising, or when there is a possibility of cerebral infarction, the blood vessel is torn. Other than that, please stop this when there is “discomfort” by applying a steamed towel. Presumably there is something inconvenient for your body.
The Steamed Towel Method before or after taking hot bath is not very effective. Thermal stimulation to the whole body weakens the thermal stimulation to the limited part. It is effective to leave two to three hours apart.
When taking recreational drugs or alcohol, please restrain this method as the reactions are unpredictable.
Finally
It is impossible to write up all the details of Steamed Towel Method including the practical cases and the applications here. For more information, please click here:
Shimamura Seitai
Imoto Seitai Europe branch
Imoto Seitai Tokyo Headquarters
The aim of the Steamed Towel Method is to maximise the natural healing power in the human body. If you could fully utilise this method, at least, you will find that most of the over-the-counter medicines is unnecessary.
Please believe your internal power and give it a try, and if you feel that it exceeds the limit of your capacity, just consult a doctor. After that, combined usage with medical treatment on this method will greatly help your recovery.
If you have any questions about this article, please contact Shimamura Seitai.
Seitai encourages you to fight back against COVID-19
/by KensakuIn the middle of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many people are in fear wondering if they got infected with the virus and some are struggling against it at home with no effective medicine available yet.
Even under these difficult situations, so many alternative therapists are tying to encourage people by introducing possibly effective ways of saving yourself by maximizing your own natural strength. What I would like to introduce you is, Seitai.
“Seitai” is a Japanese traditional therapy, and it is a kind of massage and exercise in a broad sense, not medical treatment. So it is not possible to cure any disease with Seitai. However, it has quite unique techniques and theories, because Seitai has accumulated collective clinical experiences for the goal of “heal diseases by bringing out the innate power of the person” since old times when there were no medical equipment or effective medicines.
As a Seitai practitioner, I think this traditional Seitai knowledge should be useful especially during this difficult time and decided to introduce some practical tequniques you can try at home. It would be more than happy if you find any good out of this article.
The article is structured as follows:
1. Guidelines for medical consultation
Needless to say, follow the instructions on how to prevent infection and the standard of medical institution consultation provided by medical institutions in each country.
On that premise, I will write down how Seitai judges the possibility of pneumonia (and tuberculosis.)
Determine your health by „four beats per breath” measurement method
Even with a high fever, if your breathing rate corresponds to your pulse rate, you have a good chance of recovering with your self-healing ability, but if your breathing is shallow, you will be deprived of oxygen, which indicates your condition is becoming critical.
In a healthy condition, a person beats 4 times per breath. If it decreases to approximately 2 times or less, the person’s condition is considered as a state of emergency (SARS, pneumonia, tuberculosis, etc.).
The pulse at 3 times per breath suggests that you need to be cautious.
The pulse at more than 4 times is not considered as a problem.
Here’s how to measure it:
2. Why the lungs get inflamed
Inflammation is a biological defense reaction against abnormalities. In this case, against the new virus called SARS-Cov-2, your lungs may inflame to send many white blood cells, remove dead cells and grow new cells, as necessary.
Therefore, it is not desirable to force this inflammation to stop. There are some exceptions, however, where medical measures are taken to reduce this inflammation if immunity may cause an overreaction and destroy healthy lung cells (cytokine storm), resulting in acute respiratory distress.
As I mentioned, Seitai is not a medical treatment and medicine cannot be used. However, it has its own approach to deal with it by bringing out the patient’s “the power of breathing”.
3. Seitai’s approach to pneumonia
The pectoralis major plays an important role in the many muscles that are involved in breathing. And collarbone is hanging the pectoralis major like a curtain rail. The pectoralis major uses the collarbone as a support to help breathing, but as the strain on the lungs increases, it becomes increasingly fatigued and loses the resilience, unable to support breathing.
At this point, the pectoralis major gets thin and weak, and you feel the collarbone that hangs it stiff when you touch it due to the stiffness of the surrounding tissues (ligament, tendons).
In particular, if the joint near the throat called the sternoclavicular joint becomes rigid and cannot move, the throat is tightened and breathing cannot be performed, indicating you are in a dangerous condition.
Therefore, you need to relieve the collarbone, especially the sternoclavicular joint, and regain its own function to serve as a support for the pectorails major’s motion of expanding/contracting.
4. A steamed towel on collarbone
Collarbone is a very delicate part, and takes extra care even for professionals when they treat. So, here I will introduce the safest way for anyone, which is to put a steamed towel on the upper chest.
Steamed Towel Method
– Use a microwave … Heat up for 60 to 90 seconds.
– Use hot water … Immerce in hot water and squeeze with rubber gloves to prevent a burn (it is even safer with rubber gloves over cotton gloves.)
(After applying this method, you may cough harder temporarily, as a healing reaction. Please try not to suppress coughs.
Please strictly follow this instruction and do not use a hot pack or disposable warmer instead. Refer to this article for the particular reason of this.)
This rise and fall of the temperature induce the expansion and contraction of the muscles, which in turn induces the expansion and contraction of the lungs. Normally, this should help breathing easier. If this gives you pain, simply stop it.
5. Fasten collarbones
A bit more difficult technique is, to have a helper to fasten the collarbones with both hands to loosen the area around the sternoclavicular joint.
On the image above, „L(blue)” represents the left hand and „R(light blue)” the right hand. Firstly, put your right hand on the patient’s upper chest and then fasten it tightly with the left hand.
The collarbones of the patient with difficult respiration have gotten stiffer, but tightening them will make the breathing easier (this may sound strange, but haven’t you ever fastened your wrist when you feel pain on it after playing tennis or other sports? Fastening joint would relieve it, in principle.)
There is no rule for how long you should fasten it, but keep it about 30 seconds, and slowly release your hands when the patient’s breathing becomes slightly calm.
Ensure that the helper keeps the balance between the right side and left side of the patient’s body and does not wobble.
6. Convalescence of pneumonia
In Seitai, we say “Do not use the arms (don’t carry heavy things) for 1 year after pneumonia.”
The biceps connect to the shoulder joint, which connects to the collarbone and plays an important role in supporting the chest. Therefore, using arms before a full recovery of lungs will lower the ribs, which compresses the lungs inside and hinders the recovery of the lungs, or equivalently vitality of the whole body.
For your information, your palm skin tells a lot about the recovery of lungs since palm is closely related to lung. You may notice that the skin of the palms flakes off a while after pneumonia. This is called “molting of lungs”, a sign of recovery.
7. Conclusion
At this moment, the novel coronavirus is all over the world. Also, we have seen the outbreak of SARS, MARS or Spanish flu in the past. Infectious diseases have always attacked humanity and will have continued in the future. While it is undoubtedly crucial to prevent and/or delay the transmission through public health and treat it with sophisticated medicine, it is equally important “to enhance the vitality of individuals”.
The treatments described in this article have been practiced for respiratory symptoms such as ordinary pneumonia, asthma, etc. Therefore, it may be applicable to COVID-19, too. I hope the wisdom of Seitai helps people in the world.
If you have any questions or any experiences to share regarding this article, please contact me.
How Seitai deals with Burnout
/by Kensaku“Burnout” boils down to a feeling of being utterly exhausted from work. Once the memory of this feeling is associated with a workplace in your brain, just thinking of the workplace will make you tired. It is a kind of emotional trauma or a conditional reflex and I would like to leave it to specialists in that field.
As a Seitai practitioner, I would rather take the Seitai approach. Seitai is a unique Japanese therapeutic system that includes not only technical aspect but also philosophical one and focuses on mitigating an individual’s partial fatigue to help him/her live a full life. How do Seitai practitioners deal with “exhausted” patients? Here’s my perspective.
What is “partial fatigue”?
When your whole body gets tired uniformly, you can sleep deeply with a feeling of tired but pleasant relaxation and get up refreshed the next morning. In the modern working settings where jobs are highly specialized, however, you may not necessarily get this whole-body fatigue all the time. For example, office workers tend to feel tiredness from overuse of eyes and brain and dentists suffer from fatigue only in their dominant hands – something we call “partial fatigue”.
Although this partial fatigue may give an illusion that your whole body is tired, other parts of the body are actually full of energy and you cannot sleep deeply. This resembles a situation where you have some tired children and other children who are energetic, and try to get all of them to sleep in the same bed. The result is you are not refreshed the next morning. If this is the case, using the whole body until each body part gets tired uniformly will improve the quality of sleep. This is why a lot of people feel good after going to the gym for a workout after work.
However, once partial fatigue remains and accumulates over time, an aimless workout will not help get rid of partial fatigue and have a sound sleep anymore, because usually workout is not designed to relieve fatigue at particular spots. Seitai inherently focuses on spots. For those who feel partial fatigue even after workout, applying Seitai exercises and/or steamed towel method to the stiffest part or receiving an individual treatment by a specialized Seitai practitioner, should improve the situation.
What is “fatigue” in the first place? And how do you recognize it?
Fatigue is a state of lacking energy. In Seitai, energy is thought to exist in your resilience. In this sense, fatigue is a state where the body has lost its resilience. A resilient reed may hold out in a storm when even the strongest oak trees fall down. When it comes to falling down, children may stay intact, while the old suffer a fracture. In other words, when you lose resilience, the range of stress you can handle is narrowed.
This also has an impact on your sensitivity; when you are tired, you can easily be upset or depressed with a joke that you normally would laugh aside.
A person with an excellent intuition has the ability to read the other person’s desire from his/her expression. The slightest abnormality in behavior gives a clue: for example, they notice that the other person seems to feel chilly or thirsty, or they instantly understand the boss’s bad mood is coming from his missed lunch, not because the person had done something terrible to the boss. A person with this ability is also very good at parenting.
Being tired, however, even such a person can be less intuitive, less sensitive, and have a narrower perspective. This may hinder the ability to read the other person’s desire, causing failure in negotiations, increased mistakes and irritation of the other person by unconscious irritating behaviors.
In such a condition, their eyes look powerless and their appearance seems smaller than usual. If this is your partner or child, you will notice that his/her lying position is lower than usual in the morning. This is because the person’s body slowly moved downward when changing sides. If the condition is serious, the person will no longer turn in bed.
When the person is in good condition, his/her eyes shine and their appearance seems larger. The body moves upward, sometimes even upside down, in the bed.
Shimo-Tanden – a sign of fatigue or vitality
Among several signs of fatigue, the most reliable one is “Shimo-Tanden” which represents the comprehensive vitality of the person. To Yoga learners “a point between the root chakra and second chakra” may make more sense. It lies at three finger breaths above the pubic bone.
Lie on the back and gently press Shimo-Tanden down. Pleasant bouncing indicates you are full of energy. With this energy, you are undaunted by the boss’s criticism and are even willing to try harder to grow further. When Shimo-Tanden is depressed and not bouncing, you are vulnerable and may want to quickly go home.
You might wonder if it is fat that makes the Shimo-Tanden bounce, but there is a depression at anyone’s Shimo-Tanden when they are tired and lack energy, no matter how fat his/her belly is.
The same goes for short-tempered, noisy or clumsy persons. Their breathing is usually shallow and rapid. Their lungs are no longer bouncing, like a deflated balloon, causing their rib cage to gradually lower over time and ultimately be in a state that a doctor would diagnose as depressive psychosis. The difference in the thickness of the lung is known to cause restless sleep and nightmares. The key to clear up all these issues is a mechanism known to us as fever.
Benefits from catching a common cold
Baby’s body heat is high. The elderly’s body heat is low. This indicates that body heat represents vitality.
In Seitai, getting a fever and raising the body heat by catching a cold has been traditionally regarded as an irreplaceable function of homeostasis. By catching a cold, the human body induces infectious fever, which will, in turn, recover its resilience, enhance the immune system and mitigate the asymmetry.
See my article “How to utilize ‘Colds and their benefits’”.
The link to burnout
General characteristics of burnout include nausea, headache, and vulnerability to cold and flu. In my opinion, they are the result of your body’s effort to regain resilience.
When the body loses resilience and starts stiffening, circulation is reduced and the body temperature is lowered. To avoid this, your body has a mechanism where it makes good use of fever and pain to regain the resilience. When you have a fever, therefore, I recommend that you take advantage of this mechanism.
Focusing on the positive aspect of fever and thinking “Fever is good for me. Let’s take advantage of it” will relax you and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, resulting in better excretion (in Seitai, fever, sweat, cough and nasal mucus are considered a form of elimination of harmful substances. Nausea is a body’s spontaneous reaction to bring them out from the stomach).
On the other hand, a negative mindset such as “Fever is bad for me. I need to quickly bring down the fever to return to my work.” will make you tense and your sympathetic nervous system dominant, resulting in poor excretion.
When the body is not able to take advantage of the fever, it gets less flexible and resilient, and gradually becomes stiffer and colder. This can be compared to deteriorated batteries in a cell phone, which die quickly even after a long-period charging.
Do you remember your childhood when you used to sleep so much so that you closed your eyes and before you knew it, it was the next morning? We need that kind of natural, drug-free deep sleep no matter how short it is. Since you dream often and can no longer sleep deeply, sleeping long hours does not help wake up refreshed the next morning.
How can we relax, regain natural and deep sleep and recover from fatigue to get refreshed? Here’s my hands-on instruction.
Deep breathing method
This breathing method helps regain your resilience by directly focusing your energy on Shimo-Tanden, an indicator of your vitality. As the proverb says “Little and often fills your purse,” continuing this method every day will steadily enhance your Shimo-Tanden.
If you find yourself breathing deeper than before, you have done this method successfully. After you get used to this, you will be able to breathe by this method while sitting down or even walking.
Eventually, you will obtain a keen sense of energy entering and exiting Shimo-Tanden. Shimo-Tanden will instantly lose energy when you are forced to do a disgusting work. On the other hand, a challenging job you are excited about will boost your energy level at Shimo-Tanden.
The method of discharging negative energy
This is the best warming-up method which helps relax your diaphragm for deeper breathing when the deep breathing method does not work. It also guides you to a deep sleep at sleepless nights.
If you yawn, you have done very well. When breathing out, imagining you throw up bad energy and saying “Eww” aloud makes this practice more effective.
Lymphatic exercise
When your fatigue comes to the core and stiffens it, the thoracic 7 gets stiff, impairing the functioning of the spleen and immune system. Catching a cold will relax this T7. If you have not caught a cold for years, use this exercise to relax T7 to activate immunity.
This exercise is all about stretching axillary lymph nodes. If you feel your armpit stretched, you have done well. But if you don’t feel it, you may be over bending or twisting the torso.
Continue this seemingly simple exercise every morning and evening, and you may find your complexion is better after a few months. What’s more important than better complexion is that your immune response regains the sensitivity, which means your body can produce fever as necessary.
“All-purpose Self Therapy” to save medical expenses, and the meaning of symptoms
/by adminIn Seitai, “Steamed Towel Method” has been passed on to care for yourself. It is also called, “All-purpose Self Therapy”.
There are many Imoto-Seitai students who have spent nothing for their medical expenses for many years by using this method, along with Seitai exercises and How to utilize “colds and their benefits.”
On this article, I would like to tell you the way to do that. However, before that I must tell you the fact that “cure involves excretion.”
Many people call excretion caused by artificial healing (treatment) “healing crisis” and excretion caused by natural healing “symptoms,” but they are the two sides of a coin. When these excretory reactions are recklessly stopped, healing would halt.
Consequently, the body waste which is supposed to be excreted would change the form and appear as a larger “symptom” someday after. If we continue to stop the symptoms, the body will gather the toxins and eventually, cause a lump.
Therefore, I must explain the “meaning of symptoms” to you before describing the “Steamed Towel Method.”
The meaning of symptoms
In Seitai, most of the “symptoms” are regarded as excretions of waste products, representatively symptoms of common cold. Many people take this as “being sick” and try to stop them. However, it can be said that the body that does not excrete toxins is considered as a “actual sick body.” The same goes for the body that does not react to the abnormalities is the “abnormal body.”
It is a disorder of your body when you do not feel any pain even if you are injured. Likewise, it is a disorder not having diarrhea even if you have eaten rotten food. This is called “disease-free disease” body.
This is why a robust person who have never caught a cold often suddenly collapses from serious sickness caused by accumulated toxins.
In Seitai, it is said that “if you stop small illnesses, you will get a big illness.” In other words, excretion from time to time leads you to obtain good health.
Therefore, if something happens as a result of the Steamed Towel Method or the regular Seitai treatment, please do not panic and stop it. I have listed up the symptoms and their meanings below. If you feel uneasy even after reading this, please consult Imoto Seitai Leaders including me.
Pain, Inflammation
As a part of your body stiffens due to bruises, fatigue, etc., it gets cold because the circulation gets worse. Since it is partly in the state of approaching death, body attempts to restore the flow by expanding and refreshing the blood vessels by making eicosanoids: fever/pain-producing substances.
So basically if you cool down or stop the pain with painkillers, you will interfere the metabolism and more or less leave some stiffness in the body, which may eventually become “an old wound.” Meanwhile, warming up the part with Steamed Towel Method promotes the blood circulation as alleviating the pain. It may sounds odd, but this is because so the circulation is already improved that the “pain” is unnecessary anymore.
However, neuralgia that is not alleviated by warming up is not “excretion.” It may be said to be a real sickness.
Also you cannot apply this to head injuries, the place where the vessels are raptured.
Fever, Chilliness
“Heat is the power to live” as the baby is warm and the corpse is cold.
When body stiffens, the temperature fall or the circulation becomes worse, in other words, as it approaches death, those who have the power to live will get a fever to recover. Before that, the body feels chilliness as preparations to generate the fever and increases demand for the heat. Therefore, usually, we do not stop the fever until the process has completed. Once it is accomplished, the body regains softness, warmth, and circulation.
When a slight fever and/or chilliness is dragging on, since it means you have not been able to generate the heat well enough, Steamed Towel Method is also recommendable to stimulate the thermoregulatory center at the back of your head.
Cough, Sneeze
These are spontaneous exercises that shake to loosen the rib cage when ribs are stuck together.
A stiff rib cage can interfere with the dilation and contraction of the underlying organs, resulting in poor performance. Additionally, as there are many lymphatic vessels in the interstices of the rib, stiffness of the intercostal muscle inhibits the flow of the lymph.
So this is a demand by our body, when you let the cough or sneeze go freely, the ribs will be loosened and it will settle down naturally.
If you perform the Steamed Towel Method on the uncomfortable area, the course will proceed faster.
Conversely, if you eat too much during this term, it would harden the rib cage and prolong the convalescence. Eating less will also help progress.
Runny nose
Dripping runny nose is a reaction for moisturizing the dried, chilled lungs. Moisture is sent to the lungs when you breathe in. So, when you put a steamed towel on your face and inhaling the steam, the runny nose will stop. Whilst letting the mucus out thoroughly, the lungs will be refreshed and warmed.
Stuffy nose
When your digestive system is tired, the nose may get stuffed up, leading to the insensitivity of your nose. As a result, your appetite falls. If you take some medicine and continue eating more, your digestive organ will eventually be affected. Contrary, if you just take some break or reduce nutrients, your nose will be cleared before you know it.
Itchiness
On a spot with poor flow, the body intends to regain its circulation by causing itchiness and impel to scratch. Toxins which could not be detoxed due to diarrhea, etc. are often excreted from the skin. This also causes itchiness. If you stop this for a long time, the toxins would accumulate and your body may finally build lumps.
In Seitai, “If it is itchy, scratch it” is the golden rule. And if you scratch to emerge blood or pus, toxins are excreted more steadily, therefore, it is said to be “even better”. You will get back to the beautiful skin after they run out, but if you worry about it, apply the Steamed Towel Method to the affected area.
In case the toxins have seriously progressed, you may sense itching “deep inside of the body.” Steamed Towel Method is also very effective.
Usually, itching is reduced as soon as this method is performed.
Eczema, Atopic dermatitis
Although they are considered as some type of excretion from the skin as I mentioned in the paragraph of “Itchiness,” if it is too painful to scratch, you can choose Steamed Towel Method on the affected area. Normally, people attempt to “stop” them with steroids, etc., but for some people, it is not easy to prevent the itchiness permanently. Even maximizing the steroid usage does not stop the condition most of the time. That is why many people try to excrete using the Steam Towel Method instead of using other kinds of medication.
They seem to gradually recover over several years, suffering from excretion of toxins that have accumulated over several years. Even so, if DNA has already been damaged by steroids, it is difficult to completely recover. So it would be better to get rid of toxins with a steamed towel from the very beginning.
Vomiting, Diarrhea
When a person ingests rotten or poisonous food, sensitive one will vomit and excrete them immediately. If it does not make it in time, they will discharge it with diarrhea. Dull people would accumulate toxins without excretion. The quicker the better to dispel them, thereby, it will really help you to complete the excretion speedily and comfortably by applying the Steamed Towel Method on the vital point of liver which is called 痢症活点(Ri-sho-katten= detox accelerator).
Morning sickness that is prone to occur in pregnant women with bad stomach, is also the excretion of toxins.
People who have a stiff stomach from stress will be “dry heaving” as an instinctive action, squeezing it continuously, trying to loosen the stomach.
When people’s thoracic vertebra 5(T5) hardens, which links to the semicircular canals and perspiration, they may sometimes cause nausea by affecting the adjacent T6 which corresponds to the stomach(e.g. car sickness).
In Seitai, the above symptoms are regarded as excrement that should not be obstructed. We say it “All runnings are benign”. However, excretion which has been endlessly consuming your vitality regardless of applying the Steamed Towel Method can be said to be a “real disease” which is beyond the body’s natural healing power. Please consult your doctor in this case.
Steamed Towel Method
Well then, we are finally going to explain the Steamed Towel Method. Firstly, I will explain the principle of this method, followed by the fundamental and finally some precautions.
Principle of the Steamed Towel Method
Life is “breathing”. Breathing is to repeat absorption and excretion while repeating contraction and expansion. Humans pursue greedily about “absorption” such as nutrition and medicine, but as for excretion, they tend to lose interest. Because of that, we are prone to accumulate toxins in the body. Steamed Towel Method is the method to promote this “excretion” by stimulating with heat and steam, regain cell respiration, therefore, regain life force.
Specifically, it stimulates the sympathetic nerve and contracts the blood vessels by applying a steamed towel with “slightly higher temperature than comfortable”. As it gets cold, the parasympathetic nerve is stimulated, and blood vessels are dilated. By repeating this several times, it promotes the pumping action of the blood vessel itself. This significantly improves blood flow, excretion of waste products and metabolism. Obviously, the contract-expand movement of the surrounding cells is also promoted at this time.
Additionally, since your skin is directly exposed to steam, sweating would immediately begin as pores are opened. Along with perspiration, waste products are excreted from the skin. Therefore, Steamed Towel Method must be applied directly on your skin.
Basics of the Steamed Towel Method
1, Prepare one thick towel which is about 85 cm × 35 cm.
2, Fold the towel in a size somewhat larger than the palm of your hand.
3, Immerse in water and squeeze it leaving moisture to the extent that water does not drip.
4, Heat that up. When it is too hot, let it cool to the temperature not to scald.
Use a microwave … Heat up for 60 to 90 seconds.
Use hot water … Simmer in hot water and squeeze with rubber gloves to prevent scalding (rubber gloves over cotton gloves may be safer).
5, Apply it to the affected part. It should be higher than a comfortable, but lower than scalding temperature.
6, Warm up the same towel after it has cooled down ( approximately 3 to 5 minutes).
7, Lay it on the affected area again. Repeat several times.
Notes on the Steamed Towel Method
Please be careful not to scald yourself. If the skin becomes dark or hard by continuing this method for days, please stop until the skin returns. If the temperature is too high, it causes low-temperature scalding.
The essence of Steamed Towel Method is “to cool naturally down over 3 to 5 minutes” and “to spend some time while warming the same towel again”. This wave of temperature change precisely induces the pump motion. Please distinguish this from the methods of warming up continuously with hot pack etc.
Do not practice this method immediately after bruising, or when there is a possibility of cerebral infarction, the blood vessel is torn. Other than that, please stop this when there is “discomfort” by applying a steamed towel. Presumably there is something inconvenient for your body.
The Steamed Towel Method before or after taking hot bath is not very effective. Thermal stimulation to the whole body weakens the thermal stimulation to the limited part. It is effective to leave two to three hours apart.
When taking recreational drugs or alcohol, please restrain this method as the reactions are unpredictable.
Finally
It is impossible to write up all the details of Steamed Towel Method including the practical cases and the applications here. For more information, please click here:
Shimamura Seitai
Imoto Seitai Europe branch
Imoto Seitai Tokyo Headquarters
The aim of the Steamed Towel Method is to maximise the natural healing power in the human body. If you could fully utilise this method, at least, you will find that most of the over-the-counter medicines is unnecessary.
Please believe your internal power and give it a try, and if you feel that it exceeds the limit of your capacity, just consult a doctor. After that, combined usage with medical treatment on this method will greatly help your recovery.
If you have any questions about this article, please contact Shimamura Seitai.
How to utilize “Colds and their benefits”?
/by adminRecently I found delightful news. I would like to write down the benefits of catching a cold and how to bring out the positive effects, inspired by the article.
Seitai has persistently emphasized the benefits of catching colds for over 60 years. The founder of Seitai, Haruchika Noguchi had lectured about it in the 1960s. Seitai Kyokai(Association) compiled the teachings and published a book titled “Colds and their benefits” in 1986. My master, Kuniaki Imoto also published “Catch Colds! Run fever!” in 1995.
They say the cold is a series of spontaneous responses to recovery to the sound, balanced body on its own.
Although it may be in rare cases, it has been observed in the practice, that patients with the allergies, intractable diseases, and even last stage cancer had cured during the recovery of the cold.
This may sound crazy and pseudoscientific to you. However, according to this article, the author states
“For decades, studies have suggested that there is a link between the history of infectious fever and lower risk of cancer” and scientists found that “Infectious fever will considerably increase the number of Vg9Vd2 T cells circulating in the bloodstream until they account for as much as 60 percent of white blood cells.”
“Infectious fever plays a ‘key role’ in increasing gamma-delta T cells and enhancing their ‘immune antitumor competence’ over a person’s lifespan.”
As allergy is the disease that is caused by the immune system which is the hypersensitivity to harmless substances such as pollen, an insignificant amount of chemicals or flour. Some intractable diseases are suggested to be caused by malfunctioning of the immune system which attacks their own cellar tissues.
Infectious fever is an important function of the immune system. Thus, if you recklessly took antipyretics , your immune system would be hindered from functioning. Therefore when you take a medicine to put out the fever, you may end up with the low-grade fever for longer days. We regard this as the main cause of malfunction of immunity, from the perspective of holistic medicine.
Therefore, if you want your immune system to function sufficiently to enhance it, we recommend you to follow the points below when you catch a cold.
Seitai’s traditional approach to healing from the cold is:
1. Avoid taking any kind of cold medicine and solid foods.
The reason for avoiding cold medicine is formed as mentioned above. They will suppress symptoms of a cold. However, so these symptoms are the consequences of normal immune reaction and excretory reaction that will suppress the immune system and excretion of toxins.
When toxins are obstructed to discharge, they would stay in the body and eventually become another form of diseases.
The reason for avoiding taking solids is because eating is the activity of absorption. It is the opposite of excretion, therefore it interferes with getting rid of the toxins from your body. Nonetheless, we have to digest before absorbing and it demands some energy. As you may have experienced the time when you could not move after overeating. The energy to digest deprives our body to metabolize. It works as a brake on the metabolic system that should have been accelerated by the fever of the cold. As a result, the cold tends to drag on for a longer time with coughs.
In short, “Cut nutrition and Empty your stomach!” Please remember to take plenty of liquids such as water, tea or clear soups as much as your body demands.
We don’t recommend to have any intoxicants during the cold. I have heard of some people taking alcohol when they catch a cold. It may induce perspiration to metabolism, but also harden the liver. The latter is more problematic in the long term.
2. Work as usual as you can.
This advice may be opposing common sense. However, when you have a fever, your body is ready and protective with high energy. So if you keep the first advice, you may find yourself surprisingly easy to work. And your activity will accelerate metabolism. Have you never heard that some athlete set the best record running a high fever?
3. Stimulate the occipital (the fever center) with Steamed Towel Method.
This is not necessary when the fever rises to enough temperature (about +1.5℃) and goes away naturally. But when the fever doesn’t properly rise and go away, or you still feel the chills, try this method.
Prepare a steam towel(thick face or hand towel) with boiled water or a microwave oven. Fold it to hand size. This steam towel must be slightly hotter than comfortably warm.
Apply it on the back of your head, directly on the skin.
Reheat the towel as it cools and applies. Repeat the process 3-5 times.
This frequency of hot temperature and steam stimulates the fever center which is located in your occipital efficiently and safely. It will induce the natural process of fever as an immunological response.
4. Keep calm and keep avoiding solids for 16 hours when the fever goes down.
When the fever goes down, the body has been exhausted and become negligent. In this duration, the body temperature will be measured as slightly lower than the average.
During this low-grade fever, continue taking liquids and avoid eating solids. If you try to obtain nourishing and start eating solids, your liver may get swollen. When this happens, it will not be easy to heal properly. If you don’t keep your body warm, the cold can come back and stay with you for a long time.
After this recovery period, slowly start with liquid with low nutrition. When the fever lowers, returning to the normal temperature, gradually shift to solids with less nutrition then, to a normal diet.
For example, start from the chicken broth soup without the solids for breakfast, potage soup for lunch, then chicken broth soup including the solids such as vegetables and meat for dinner. Gradually shift to normal food.
If you want to stick to the original style, let’s start from rice water made from boiling the rice with water, then rice porridge, tofu, finally the normal food. This will put the least burden on your body.
When you have followed this advice, it will take a significantly short time to recover from the cold. Seitai practitioners think catching cold should be healed within a day.
Simply speaking, the best example is kids who suddenly gets a high fever, but they are active as usual. They don’t have any appetite, and suddenly fall asleep before their usual bedtime. They look perfectly fine the next morning. This is the best manner to catch and recover from the cold.
If your body can do this, you may find yourself with more beautiful skin, toned body, vanishing ailments or arthritis, etc. This is because metabolism is thoroughly activated by the fever and the excretions.
Seitai method often promotes the opposite points from the contemporary sayings. However, their effectiveness has been empirically confirmed by the practitioners. They have also been partially certified by medical researchers.
Mindfulness and Seitai
/by adminI heard that the Mindfulness is really popular in western world, also Holland in these days. They say the idea of Mindfulness came from Zen or Yoga, and presumably the necessity has been increasing for contemporary us tend to regret the past and worry about the future.
Haruchika Noguchi, the originator of Seitai method had always brought a book of Zen with him, The Record of Lingji. We would say that is the bible of the Linzai sect, and the core creed of this book is
“On your lump of red flesh is a true man without rank who is always going in and out of the face of every one of you. Those who have not yet confirmed this, look, look!”.
Wiki – Linji Yixuan
Today, Seitai is irrelevant to any religion. However, it seems to me that the fundamental thought of the Seitai method is really affected with this ideology of Zen.
Dr. Kuniaki Imoto says “Mind and Body are One” and “If you have to all the way out to take a waterfall or something for awareness, it is nonsense“. Certainly, if to balance our body means to balance our mind, there is no need to go anywhere but here for us.
Seitai is a method that brings out true human vitality by gathering your strength into “The centre of axis“. Gathering strength is the same as gathering attention. This is something simple but forgetful for us living in this complicated modern society.
Why do not you try this simple Breathing Exercise below and gather your strength into “The centre“? You may find yourself getting vitality and mindfulness at the same time.
Spinal Breathing Method – 脊椎行気法
It seems like a really simple and easy way in words, although you might not be able to breathe into your lumbar, because of clogged feeling in anywhere in your spinal bone. That vertebra is the cause of your symptom. When you continue this breathing as moving the bone slowly and slightly, the clogging will gradually be eased up, and you will become able to breathing deeper and deeper.
This is the way to approach to “The perfect health” with relieving each clogging in this way. It can be said that this is the ultimate breathing method that is easier said than done.
Seitai vs Shiatsu, Massage
/by admin“What is the difference between Seitai and the other therapies (Shiatsu, Massage, etc.) ?”
This has been the most frequently asked question for me.
Unfortunately, so Imoto Seitai is the only one method I have learned to the depth that I am not able to give the answer with confidence.
However, I would like to leave here a humble note about the differences I suppose so, based on my experiences.
Respect for Life
The very first thing we learn when we initiate into Imoto Seitai is, “Never forget the deepest respect for Life”. Obviously devotion to learning the technique is important to the learner, meanwhile, sometimes they tend to forget “the training partner’s life” that is only one in the world, in the training process.
Even professional practitioners sometimes likely to touch the patients body as routine work, when they are busy, but we regard this as extremely rude behaviour for their lives. One of my teachers used to say that “If you forget the feeling of awe when you touch your patients, you should resign being a Seitai practitioner.
Kouketsu
If you have some interest in eastern medicine, you may know “Tsubo”, the vital point, that is actually a slight pit on your body surface. I have once heard the reason why it is called Tsubo (pot, in Japanese) , and that was because it contains a precious treasure in it. In Imoto Seitai, we are taught that there is a treasure that is called “Kouketsu” in this very subtle hollow.
Kouketsu is felt like a small grain of rock salt which has a sharp edge. When you succeed in catching the edge in a right angle and press it with your finger, specific stimulation would transfuse into your body and reverberate toward the problematic place in your body.
However, it is not enough to just give it a push, but necessary to press it in appropriate pressure and stand still in there for appropriate time to produce the effect. This “Kouketsu” had been one of the secret knowledge of some grand masters of Acupuncture. So they found it through their long time experiences, they cuddled it and have descended to only few disciples.
Although this part is a very fundamental of the Seitai techniques. Kouketsu will perform the maximum effect through some more procedure, but I shall omit that in here.
The central axis
As well as catching the Kouketsu in a right angle, we Imoto Seitai practitioners do “Gather the strength of the body into the centre of axis”.
This diagram is an extreme instance though, when you got tired, your posture may go from the left to the right, spreading out your scapulas and ribs laterally.
Human body has the power to gather their parts into the centre when they are fine, and in this time, so the spinal column supports their own weight that they do not feel it. Therefore they are able to move or think promptly and spontaneously.
Also when the human body’s strength gathered into the centre, an ineffectual strain would be solved and the body would relax, then hematic, lymphatic and neurological flow would improve. Therefore excretion of body wastes, superfluous fat, etc. would ameliorate, too.
In Imoto Seitai, practitioners are always conscious of this “gathering into the centre” thing during the treatment and the leading exercises. This is the principle on dynamics which Dr. Kuniaki Imoto have found through his long and enormous clinical experience.
Techniques of Imoto Seitai is compiled based on this principle, and we call it as “Jintai-Rikigaku(human body dynamics)”.