Background
Over the past five years, the European Shiatsu Federation has undergone a radical transformation from within.
From the late 1990’s onwards, the ESF devoted a period of time to creating a research project, planning, realising and then publicising it. There then followed a long period of political lobbying, building on the research project. Although initially promising, results were scant and resources eventually began to drop to levels where these efforts became unsustainable. The energy of the group began to change. The representatives from the member associations started searching for a new approach – a more grassroots approach.
This gradually led to the initiative called Shiatsu Without Borders. The essence of this movement from within has been to first consolidate the existing membership by establishing internal unity and harmony. From that point, the ESF membership has sought collaboration with other Shiatsu associations in Europe and around the world. A series of on-line meetings was initiated, one of them being a powerful global meditation involving key Shiatsu practitioners and activists in specific parts of the world.
These meetings and meditations led to an initiative from a Shiatsu practitioner in the UK, Snezhana Stoeva, who proposed what many have envisaged but never managed to create: Shiatsu Resources Worldwide. This project aims to collect stories from around the world and place them in an accessible format for the global Shiatsu community to enjoy, employ and multiply.
Connecting our Global Community
We learn from others about what can be done and what is more difficult to achieve. We learn the how as well as the why. We learn what these projects cost in terms of energy and even money and what they achieve in terms of benefits for the people receiving treatment and for the practitioners themselves in different ways.
From the many, we create the one. This provides fuel for new ideas and initiatives – by making the concerted efforts of Shiatsu practitioners, teams and schools from around the world available to the global community, we create new synergistic energy forms.
Practically, our aim is to gather the adventures, the graft and the spirit of Shiatsu in multiple settings and present them here on one website. We hope that this presentation will inspire you to share your own stories and ensure that the global Shiatsu community becomes even greater than the sum of its individual parts.
