EP #75- The Art of Jin Shin and Japanese Healing with Alexis Brink, President of The Jin Shin Institute

[Music] And that's another thing that Jynchen brings to you if you're not very aware of your body, it will bring awareness to exactly what's going on. Jynchen is like a meditation in motion. You can do it anywhere and anytime. So anytime during the day you can for example hold a finger and you can just bring your body back into harmony with three breaths. Welcome back to another episode of Everyday Endorphins. This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Alexis Brink who's the director of the Jynchen Institute in New York City and has been a practitioner of the art of Jynchen since 1991. She's a licensed massage therapist and has taught self-help classes and workshops in New York City as well as different countries for many years. She's also taught Jynchen in hospitals to nurses and to teachers and to their students in the public school system. I personally find the art of Jynchen to be really fascinating because I don't think it's as well known as other Eastern healing practices like acupuncture or raky for example. Alexis and I have actually known each other for quite some time. Her son and I went to elementary school together and Alexis was kind enough to open me up into the world of Jynchen and offer me a session. So I had the opportunity to get to do a Jynchen session with Alexis a few months back and I really loved it. It was great to get that hands-on experience and really prepared me to dive deeper into this interview with her. So in this episode Alexis and I talk all about how she got interested in the art of Jynchen, what you can take away from the practice, how it works with your body, your mind and your spirit and certain techniques that you can do at home to bring more ease and peace into your mind and into your body. I'm so excited for you all to hear this episode but before we get into it make sure to like, rate and review this podcast on whichever listening platform you prefer. Hi Alexis, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast. Hi Stella, it's so lovely to be here. I really feel like it's a privilege to introduce the art of Jynchen to your audience. What I'm so fascinated by with the art of Jynchen is how it's, I feel like it's kind of this intersection between so many different Eastern medicine practices like raky and acupressure and I know you've been doing this for quite some time now and I'd love to start with learning a bit more about how you got interested in Eastern medicine and really becoming a pioneer in this space and leading the art of Jynchen Institute in New York City. Well, thank you for this question. I got interested because I came to New York to be a dancer when I was 18 years old from Amsterdam, Holland and I was working very hard to be a dancer and I heard my knee and it became a chronic knee problem and that's how I got introduced because I tried many different things, chiropractic anti-inflammatory medicine, even acupuncture and other modalities and nothing really completely healed my knee injury. It kept coming back and so one day I was introduced to the art of Jynchen and the woman who actually became my teacher, Philomena, she showed me some simple holds that I could do myself on my knee so that every time when I felt it come up I was able to do something about it and I never had to stop dancing again. So that's how I first got interested. The second part to the question because you asked about the Eastern modalities is that I also was looking for something that made me feel more connected and something that was bigger to me, bigger than me and the art of Jynchen really gave me that because we work with universal NRG and so it really connected me to a source that I was looking for. That's really fascinating and I also think that it makes sense that you develop a passion for this based on your own experience with personal injury and dancing can be very hard on your joints and on your body and it can be really difficult to be told that you're suffering with an injury or maybe you can't dance again and I think it's really powerful that you found this practice and it was able to heal your knee and you were able to kind of understand that you could heal yourself through this practice. How can people use the art of Jynchen to heal themselves using your hands? I know it's around energy healing and the practice of touch but what are some things that you can do or specifically in your case with your knee? What were some techniques you were using to heal your knee and to actually implement this practice? Well the practice has a technique to it also. So first you can look at the location of where the injury is and then you can see which pathways move through it and practice that energy pathway that moves through the injured area or what I did is I held the inside of my knee and the outside of my knee and just these two points between your two hands the energy starts to move and the energy starts to move through it. So it's always great to hold the injury. Let's say you have an injury on your upper arm. You can hold your upper arm and then hold the opposite inside of the knee and you get the energy to move away from the area. So that's very much how we work it. For example, if you have a headache you want to bring the energy down so you can hold the big toes and if you have a problem on your feet you want to bring the energy up. So that it's really simple and the art of Jynchen is really very easy to practice on yourself. So that's a big part of the practice is self-care and I've written a book so all the holds and everything is in there and we'll talk about that a little bit later I'm sure. Yes, well you've written two books which first of all congratulations. I believe these came out relatively recently in the past few years. I mean also with COVID my perception of time has been completely warped but you've written the art of Jynchen, the Japanese practice of healing with your fingertips and then also healing at your fingertips which are the quick fixes of the art of Jynchen. So the healing at your fingertips book is great because I'm looking through it right now and there's diagrams of people and it shows different practices you can do essentially for different issues that you may be having. So when some, Nia or feelings of irritability or hormonal balance so I find it just so fascinating that there's different ways you can position your hands on your body to redirect the energy. But how does this necessarily differ from acupressure for example? Well actually it is similar to acupressure but the systems are different. It's a different energy healing modality and the art of Jynchen was the father is a master dear Marai and he did a lot of research on it and so the pathways may be slightly different but all of these modalities come from the ancient traditions so acupressure also can be very effective. I personally love the art of Jynchen because there's whole system of self-care that you can do like the book you're just holding for when you have a little symptom you can place your hands do one hold and it will help to resolve it. So it's very accessible for self-help and that's really why I like it. And that's also why I like to share it with your community. I think with acupressure it's more difficult we don't really know what to do for self-care as much. When we talk about self-care also there's a lot of things we can do to take care of ourselves. There's the option to go exercise or get in some sort of physical activity. We can go seek out other treatments like acupuncture or cryotherapy. There's so many different wellness practices or wellness trends and not all of them are as accessible I think. Of course if you want to just get in physical activity you can always just go outside for a walk or a run or do an at-home workout but sometimes people prefer a gym membership or a yoga studio membership and if you go to acupuncture that requires going to see an acupuncturist like these aren't necessarily things that are you can kind of do at home whereas it seems with Jinshin techniques it's very much just you doing it to yourself and it's easy and it's something that you can implement in your day to day. So how do you see this practice being incorporated into what we can more broadly think of as self-care? How can we use this as a way to take care of ourselves? One of the interesting thing is that Jinshin is really already a part of us anyway. It's part of our innate wisdom and we are all born with this wisdom. For example a baby they suck their thumbs sometimes they help to self-suse their body they're helping their digestive system and they innately know where to go. or you place your hand on your shoulder. These locations, they have a practical meaning and a spiritual meaning. And for example, if you place your hand on your shoulder, it helps to release stress, it helps to breath, it helps to exhale. So it's very easy to incorporate it into your life because it will already seem familiar to you too. Maybe you're already doing these holds. So, Genshin really just brings awareness to what we already know. So it feels very natural. And also, I just want to go back to what you say about going to the gym. And that's a part of us to our physical body. And in Genshin, we talk about body, mind, and spirit. And all are very important. Going to the gym is as important as taking care of your mind and understanding your psychology as it's important as having your spiritual journey, spirit, body, mind, and spirit. All three are part of us. So it is really accessible and easy. And the philosophy of Genshin is also really important, which is also, I think, a difference. They don't teach it as much in acupuncture or acupressure. We really talk about the meaning of numbers and even astrology and lifestyle and body, mind, and spirit. Going back to that point that you made on the body and integrated with the mind and the spirit, earlier you mentioned that you came from a background of being a dancer. So you were very physically active. Do you feel like your experience dancing and coming to New York to dance shaped the way that you started to engage with the art of Genshin or shaped your understanding of these practices? Probably, yes, because dancers are really attuned with their bodies. So there is also definitely some dancers who become practitioners. But when I first started my practice, my whole practice was dancers because I worked on my dance teacher. And she said, everybody to me, anybody that has anything, she said, oh, go see Alexis. And so dancers are very aware of their body and exactly what's going on. And that's another thing that Genshin brings to you. If you're not very aware of your body, it will bring awareness to exactly what's going on. So if a location starts to hurt, it's like, oh, why is it hurting and understanding? Or why is it talking to me? And then we can treat it. Again, that's another reason why it's so accessible. Because we're really getting to know and understand what's going on with us, exactly. Yeah, and I think we're often so wrapped up in things that already happened in our lives or anticipating things that are going to happen in the future. Our minds are not in our bodies. We're elsewhere, almost 24/7. And in doing so, we're just not tapped into the present. And our bodies are always in the present moment. They're living through that. And so I think it's easy to feel pulled away from that body, mind, spirit, intuition because we're not taking awareness of our bodies. And I feel like it's not until we feel an area of pain or tension that it's like the wake-up call that something's wrong, or there's something that needs to be addressed. What are things we can do to prevent that from happening? Because I feel like at least in my own experience, I don't notice something's wrong until it feels like things have gone really wrong. If I get sick, all of this sat in. It's usually an accumulation of being run down and lack of sleep and building stress. So it's like once I reach that breaking point, then I recognize, oh wait, there's a problem. But how can we be a bit more attuned to our body and stay a bit more in the present and attuned to our bodily cues to sense if something might be a little off, or we may need to redirect our focus or attention elsewhere? That's a very good question. And when you start to practice the art of ginger, you start to become aware of it because ginger is like a meditation emotion. So anytime during the day, you can, for example, hold a finger and you can just bring your body back into harmony with three breaths and exhale. So that it will never build up is what you were talking about, that you're running too much and then you get depleted and then you get sick. It works really preventatively as well and it's really a great practice to start listening to your body and then being able to resolve whatever comes up and it really can work magically, I must say. I have a lot of stories, of course, that is like, wow, you know, and even for me, I've been practicing this for 30 years every time I put my hands on someone and I see the transformation happening in front of me. It's like, wow, it's really incredible how the body can change quickly right into here and now. And I don't know, what's that experience where you had a session also? - Yeah, I'm so glad you bring that up 'cause that's exactly what I wanted to talk about next. You know, I find that I'm very much a visual learner. So as interesting it is to discuss these concepts, I really wanna like fully immerse myself in it and see what it's like firsthand. So I had the wonderful opportunity to come to your practice and have a session. And I still have tons of questions that I would love to use this time to kind of address, but to give my listeners a little bit more of a clearer picture of what it's like to be in the room with Alexis and do, you know, jinshin healing. Essentially, I was lying on a table or, you know, a bed. I don't know what you would call that. Yeah, one of those little beds, I guess. - It's a yeah, it's a massage table and a very, very comfortable padding on top. So it feels very soft. - Yes, it was very comfortable. Also the practice is beautiful, very meditative. So you just feel instantly very calm when you walk into the space. But you know, I laid out on the bed and I believe you took my pulse, which is really interesting. And listen to your pulses to feel where your need is energetically and you feel everything in the pulses. Oh, the secrets of the universe. - Yeah, I mean, when I go to acupuncture and not every time, but oftentimes the acupuncturist will feel my pulse and she'll talk about issues with like my liver or my spleen or, and I'm just, I'm so fascinated about how these practitioners can feel energetically when something's off just by reading your pulse. So you did that first meet, like what could you feel? Like what are you feeling for when you're feeling a pulse and what are those signals telling you and how does that, you know, inform, you know, how you're going to do the treatment that day? - Well, first I listen to which side is in need? Is it the right side or the left side and the right side of our body has to do with our lifestyle? It has to do with the here and now, with the diet environment, whether when it's very hot, it will show up on the right side or stress. And the left side has to do with older or genetic things going on. And so that's the first thing I look at or I can feel in the pulses, right side or left side. And it's always about the balance we get out of harmony because one side or one part of the body goes faster, speeds or slows and brings the other side out of harmony. And then I listen for the body, the mind and the spirit or a chest line, waist line and hip line. So I feel where the energy is not free flowing in the chest line, waist line or a hip line. And then I listen to all the organ functions. So there's a lot to listen to and that's where it becomes a bit of a study. For me, Jenshin really became a lifetime study but what I like to present to particularly people your age and my children's age is how simple it can be and that with very simple holes you can harmonize your body. So I'm the practitioner and you take it home and hopefully take it into the world for yourself. Exactly. I mean, obviously my knowledge base is very minimal compared to how much expertise you have. And so I find it so interesting just how much knowledge you have around this. And when I was lying on the table, you were basically just touching different areas of my body, like sensing maybe where there was an energy imbalance or feeling out different organ systems like you mentioned. And all I feel is just touch, but you feel something completely different. So how would you describe what it feels like when you say, I'm feeling this area of energy? Is that a feeling of vibration? Is it like a pulsation? What are you getting on the receiving end as a practitioner to know where you have to go next? What I feel coming from your body is a pulsation and that's the energy spiraling from skin surface to core to the deepest part of your body. And that's also one of the reasons why it's so effective. And that's just by holding it. So no pressure really or no forcing or anything like that. That pulsation tells us if we are in harmony with the universal rhythm. So-- what I feel in the pulsation is what I like to do is bring the body back into rhythm with universal energy. And you know, energy is matter really in a different density and Einstein said that. It's, you know, matter is energy in a different vibration and it is. It's almost like a mirror. And so our individual body, our body gets out of rhythm, but universal energy for consciousness never is. So by practicing ginger, you bring it back into rhythm and that's where healing occurs. That's when your body starts to heal and you just when you get a session or when you work on yourself, you just feel very, very relaxed. Yeah. So I can attest to that. Coming out of the hour, I felt really relaxed and I was, it was like I was in a meditative state, you know, and it was a similar feeling also to sometimes when I come out of acupuncture, although like the modalities are different or like the actual practice is different, the feeling that I came out with was very similar. And maybe on a scientific level, it's about kind of like recalibrating the nervous system, like calming our stress response. And maybe that's what's kind of helping to find some sense of equilibrium in our bodies with our energy. There's an amazing documentary. I'm sure you're familiar with it, but if not, it's called heal. It's essentially kind of what we're talking about, like the power of, you know, our minds being able to heal our bodies and Joe D'Spenza, you know, all these other nurse scientists and researchers are in this documentary and they talk a lot about also like quantum physics, which I think also touches on what we're discussing because it's around energy. And so it's really interesting to see how interdisciplinary Eastern medicine practices are with also Western thought as well. It is because we use our hands to move energy. And basically that's it. We don't use any other tools. We don't use medicine. And that's it. And for Westerners, it can be a new concept, even energy. What is energy? Well, it's everywhere around us. I mean, we have our physical body. And then we, when we go smaller, we have our muscles and the blood and the tendons and the skeletal. And then when we go smaller, we have cells and then molecules. And then what holds it together, you know, in the end, it's energy. And so, yeah, that's what we're working with. So for me, the concept of energy is really real. And for some people who are listening, maybe that's a whole new concept. So I always say, be your own testimony and, you know, practice a hold and see what it does for you. And you can be amazed. Well, I also, you know, when I think of energy healing, the first thing that comes to mind is rakey. How would you describe rakey to be different or similar to the art of jinshyn? I think in a way, it's similar when you get into energy healing modalities. I think they're all similar because, you know, we all use the universal energy, right, to harmonize the body. But jinshyn, the work that mastermar I did is very specific. So, and I'm just going to throw in another term, but we call problems or symptoms we call them projects. Okay, it's either because they're fun to work with and they change easily. So from symptoms and problems we go to projects. And Jermari, he created very specific flow patterns and very specific combinations of holds to help projects. And so, when you come in and I listen to your polls, I create a treatment plan in my head and I give you specific flow patterns that will be interesting for that specific project. And that is different in rakey. It's more a general treatment. And this is very specific. So I think that is a big, a big difference. I really like that terminology around saying projects instead of problems because I think it as like a patient, for example, it feels more welcoming. Like it feels like there's nothing, quote-on-quote, wrong with you. It's not that there's a problem that you're facing. There's maybe a challenge, but you can view it as a project, something to work through. So typically with jinshyn sessions, you know, how I'm sure there's probably varies case-by-case with, you know, individuals that you work with. But how many sessions would you recommend someone would need to really start to yield those benefits? And, you know, what are some signs of success, for example, that someone should look for to recognize that these practices are working for them, that they're really helpful in mitigating their symptoms or some of the issues that they're facing? I usually recommend three sessions to really, really make a difference, but it also depends what project is and how long it's been there. Although it's very individual, sometimes I treat people, I had a lady from somewhere out of town and she had a neck project for 15 years. And she came for one session because she wasn't on and I didn't see her again. A couple of years later, she came back and she said, "Oh, that was great!" After the one session, it was completely gone. And so that was a surprise to me too, because she's had it for 15 years. For other people, it takes longer to peel the onion of 15 years for her to a one session. So that can happen. And again, it depends what the project is like, muscle projects, like back pain, neck pain can be very quickly because it's a muscle issue. And those release very quickly. If it's a deeper project, like having had migraines for many, many years, or then it may take longer. And often people come and they just, they will continue to come because they just make it a part of their life, really. The self-help, the conversations once in a while. Other people just come to relief symptoms and they come for a couple of times and then they move on. I like it when people make it a part of their lives. I think that is really wonderful because when you live and you build up stress and living your life, we build up energy congestion. And so it's always good to release it. That's why people go into meditation or yoga or something like that. But you were talking about before, just to unload and release stock energy. We just need to do that as human beings. We don't all the opportunity to live on a mountain top and meditate all day. We have lives, we have stress, we sometimes have a drink too much, whatever. And we need to take care of our bodies. And that's important. Definitely. I mean, I really resonate with what you just said. Around this time last year, I was in Bali and I went to get my yoga teacher training certification. And it was just the most serene experience. And I find myself now, since it's been about a year later, like reflecting on that time and missing, you know, having the luxury of having a long summer without any responsibilities, any obligations, getting time just for myself to work on bettering my mental health, my physical health, my relationship to myself, like it was just such an amazing time. And it's been difficult now because to your point, it's not like we can just sit on top of a mountain and meditate all the time, especially being in New York City, growing up here and just being raised in New York. It's so fast-paced. And I don't think I was fully aware of how the environment of growing up in New York shaped me until I left for college. And then also when I left for a prolonged period of time last summer. And so I think something I've been struggling with is figuring out how I can incorporate those good habits that I built last summer into a different environment being back here. It can feel really overwhelming to feel like, okay, I have to meditate again and I have to keep up my consistent yoga routine. And now I really want to try this practice and it can feel super challenging to piece together all of those aspects of self-care that I felt like I could just effortlessly do, because I have nothing else to think about last summer. So more broadly, what would your advice be as someone who is very invested in Eastern medicine practices? What would your advice be to young adults who are navigating just like the hectic aspects of life to kind of bring in those wellness practices into their day-to-day, no matter where they are. How can they do it in a way that's sustainable and in a way that feels like they have the time to actually do it and get excited to do it? I think first of all to know that with every exhale and inhale, every cycle of energy, we completely renew. So that's very simple. Anybody can do that and if you take three conscious exhalations and we let go in the exhale, we let go of everything we don't need so that we can inhale the abundance. That is one very simple thing that you can do every day. And then another simple thing, is holding the fingers. So you can hold your thumb and you're helping to harmonize worry. So you just simply hold your thumb with your right hand and let's say you're holding the left thumb gently and you wait for a pulsation to come up. In the beginning you may not feel the pulsation like I said that's the energy moving and that's fine if you don't feel it. So if you are a warrior just hold your thumb simply and take three breaths and just sit there for a moment and that you can do any time you can do it on the subway you can do it while waiting in an office you can do it in a zoo meeting nobody will ever even notice. And then the index finger helps to harmonize fear and that's a big one today also a lot of people have anxiety panic attacks index finger also helps with depression helps muscles so the index finger is also a wonderful one so as we're practicing this and I'm inviting their listening right now to join along in this practice observe which finger feels comfortable for you which one feels good to hold and that's probably the one that you need. Today in this moment tomorrow maybe a different one and then the middle finger helps to harmonize anger it helps also deep fatigue in the body helps the eyes and that's probably one of my favorite and if you notice often people stick up their fingers right when they're angry and instead you can now just hold your middle finger to help harmonize the anger this also helps with headaches and then the ring finger helps to harmonize sadness and grief helps the lungs allergies projects like that and then lastly the rate the little finger helps to harmonize the trying to or the efforting and that's very much what you're talking about to like always running ahead of yourself efforting trying hard pushing forward and helps the heart energy so it opens up to hard as well the little finger and then the palm of the hand is all inclusive helps everything so if you place your hands together a prayer position and also if you shake hands with someone you're touching their palms and so you can actually get a lot of information so we really have to hold world in our hands and this is a very very easy way to access healing on a daily basis and you can use the right hand or the left hand or both you can work all 10 fingers or hold one and that's a really great place to start thank you for walking me through that and also my listeners as well I hope you were doing that alongside the interview but also you can always come back to it it's always here for you I noticed my thumb and my pinky like that those were the fingers are felt the best and I felt a really strong vibration or pulsation with my pinky finger in particular so what that mean or is that signaling to me that there's a lot of effort or efforting that's going on or stress what can you answer that yourself is that true because usually the body doesn't lie so can you does that resonate with you you set the thumb for worry and then the little finger for efforting or trying hard yeah it does resonate I think today in particular was quite a stressful day with airport issues and travel problems but it that's at a good point actually because it really it goes to show how our bodies know like there's that bodily intuition and if you can kind of access that you can bring your mind in synchronicity with your body you can kind of conceptualize the awareness that our body just innately holds and and make meaning for men yeah it's all about the art of gentleness about getting to know and then being able to help yourself and you know that's just a wonderful simple thing and you can use it in emergencies too it's wonderful I mean when people faint or well you know when people have headaches or I'm as many time my children mom what do you do for this what do you do for that and asking for their friends or themselves a simple hold it's very accessible which is nice absolutely and earlier we talked a little bit about healing at your fingertips which is the smaller book that you've written that has kind of like the step-by-step guide different practices you can do for different projects whether it be anxiety or hormonal balance or whatnot but then you've also written the art of gentleness which is a bit bigger of a book and a bit more detailed I would say would you want to talk a little bit about the difference between the two books and what in addition is covered in in the art of gentleness in the larger book that you've published the larger book is really it's for beginners so every concept is explained what is energy how do we use our hands what do we hold but it all has a lot of information in there also about the organ flows and if you are familiar with meridians there is similar but there's the stomach flow and the spleen flow and kidney and liver so those are all in there as well as many flows so short little flows for eye projects and shoulder projects and working through the fingers what we just discussed the fingers are in there the hand mood dress there's a lot in their hand mood dress are in there and then also all the symptoms that are in the small book healing at your fingertips that's a little pocket guide that you can just throw in your bag and take around it's it's little and it's a pretty little book so I personally of course like the art of gentleness because it has a lot more information but you know both are great which one do you prefer which one do you tend to go to I really like the larger books of the art of gentleness as well because it does give a bit more of an explanation and I like also how at the beginning chapter one is titled the Jinshin effect and you kind of talk about different case studies maybe different people's experiences using it so for example there's a girl you mentioned in the first chapter who was on antidepressants for three years and I was really suffering you know from depression and was on medication but then eventually like through this practice she she started to improve with her symptoms and kind of had this complete 180 and you know you also mentioned other other people at the beginning and also I really like this book because I believe some of the photos in here you have your kids in and I went to elementary school with Tyler so shout out Tyler is in there and it's so funny to look through these because these photos I believe we're taken like a while ago we've all grown yes some of them were a while ago he's there when he's little with Rex the dog and then he's there when he's older but can I tell you one funny story about Tyler so he was in college he finished now like you and he called me from college in a panic mom mom my friend collapsed what can I do and I said okay Tyler just sit by his head and hold his location number for the back of his head and just sit and stay with him and then he said oh it's okay the EMS is coming in I said no just stay with him place your hands there and you know just just wait and then let the energy do its work and a few moments later I get a text I did it so the guy that I'm happy was totally fine didn't want to go with the EMS so in that way it's it's so simple and you can absolutely use it to emergency as well I feel like if I had parents that were in this field I would be calling them constantly like hey I have this problem like what should I do help me fix it and I think also there's something kind of I don't want to say magical because there is a lot of science that like is rooted in these eastern practices but there's something that feels a bit like mystical about it because it's harder to see and conceptualize and I think that's what makes it feel even more special and to feel it to know that you do have the power to make these changes and you these changes can actually be really monumental and it's really empowering just from what you just described we all have to power to heal ourselves and that is something that many people already know and again be your own testimony place your hands and see what happens yeah I think you know something I even experienced was just having you know an hour on the massage table and kind of doing this practice with you like it felt like I was being taken care of and I think you know different areas on my body where you were like applying the touch and feeling the sources of energy it really helped to calm me and I think there's also a lot of research out there I know this is different than Jin Jin but when you hug people you're releasing oxytocin which is a chemical that produces feelings of happiness and safety and security and so I think just physical touch in it of itself like you mentioned babies they learn how to self-sue that's in our it's in our nature, it's in our DNA. I think there's a lot to be said also from more of like a biological standpoint how these practices can affect you. And so when you're able to kind of calm your body, you're also calming your mind. And I think also a lot of like the stress that we feel is then manifested in our bodies. And then it becomes the cyclical thing because when you start to feel physically unwell, you can also feel mentally unwell. So it's really, really interconnected. Absolutely. You know a lot about it. It's absolutely true. You're saying. Well, I'm still learning and that's why it's so great to have you on as an expert. It really all makes sense. Like what you're saying makes complete sense. And I'm sure that people identify with that. It resonates, you know. I know you have this beautiful practice on the Upper East Side in New York. I'm the Genshin Institute. Earlier we talked about how you came to New York to pursue dancing and then you kind of fell into this. But in a more abridged version, can you take us through like the trajectory of your career and becoming a practitioner of the art of Genshin? You know what that process looked like and where you are today? Well, I just took a workshop with this woman, Filomena Dooly. And I was, I took the workshop and I didn't understand much of what she was saying because it's very complex. And I'd never really heard of energy. But I said, I felt so good. I said, this is what I want to do the rest of my life. And so I studied with her in her practice. And very quickly, I just started my own practice. And in the beginning, I would just call her for everything. What do you do? What do I do for this? I get this person with this project and that part, as she would give me protocols. And it worked like a charm. And so then I've started to feel more secure in my practice. I got my license as a massage therapist. And I just practiced and taught and shared and introduced it in the Netherlands and traveled. And then in 2015, I took over from someone else, the Genshin Institute. The lady Pamela, who founded it, she was older and she wanted to hand it down to somebody who would continue it. And so I really wanted to make it accessible for a younger generation. And so we are an Instagram. And I do a lot of live, some Facebook Instagram on YouTube. I have a lot of videos. And just really having fun with it and making it accessible to anybody. You also have a great interview or chat with Deepak Chopra on your YouTube page. So I definitely will direct my listeners to go check that out. Deepak is. Yeah, he's wonderful. Yeah. Yeah, so incredible. And amazing to kind of see also his support and interest in this practice as well. Definitely. He loves to practice and he's totally into energy medicine. And in his books, he explains why it works very well. That's how I first was led to him. And that's 30 years ago. He's been my friend for 30 years. That's a wonderful friendship. And I think it's also really special when you can find someone who can really distill these concepts down into something that's understandable. Because I think, especially to like the Western world, now it feels like there's more of this integration between Eastern and Western medicine and like viewing health from a more holistic lens, which is amazing, but I do think there's still a long ways to go to really get there. And so when I can find someone that I feel like I resonate with and I understand how they're explaining these concepts to me, it's just all the more pleasurable and exciting. Because then I feel like empowered to really try out those practices. So hopefully my listeners are feeling the same way with our conversation today. One question that I have is, you know, have you always considered yourself a spiritual person or did that manifest more so when you just got interested in Jenshin? Yeah, totally not. I think somewhere we all know we're spiritual beings because we all have experiences where you just feel connected to source really when everything goes well in one day and we just feel connected, everything is happening when we feel good. But coming from my touch background, no, I didn't know what energy healing was at all. I come from a very skeptical family. So no, it was all very, very new to me. Well, I think it's great that you've kept an open mind and it shows how you never know what can kind of come into your life and completely transform the events that follow. My next question to you is, are there any particular techniques that you do on a daily basis, whether it be in your morning routine or in the afternoon or before you go to bed that helps certain projects for you or just things that you do that you incorporate into your day to day that are, you know, Jenshin techniques. Yeah, Jenshin. Yes, I also do meditate for 20 minutes a day and I invite people to, when you have a meditation practice to work through your fingers at the same time, then you get double-wammy. So I meditate, I do, yes, I do this one routine flow on myself every day which is in the art of healing book, the art of Jenshin book. It's the main center source and it moves through all the shakras and I probably showed it to you too, helping all the glands in the body and all the shakras. So it completely helps to tell me, I do that one on myself every day and then yeah, often I do a little flow here and there during this. So I really do use Jenshin a lot. I also exercise a lot. I think again, all are important body, mind and spirit are all important. So physical exercise is important as well. I do that and yeah, just I think having fun and being as happy as can be is important because that sends positive endorphins into our system. You almost read my mind. My last question is on endorphins and it's something that I ask every guest that comes onto the podcast. What is something that brings you a bit of endorphins or joy in your day to day life? Well, I love speaking with you. It makes me very happy and it brings positive endorphins for sure. I love being with my children. They're adults, they're young adults not like yourself and I just appreciate every moment. The art of Jenshin brings me endorphins because when your energy harmonizes, you just feel happy and well and laughing is really important. So laughing with my friends and everyone friends that I grew up with and when I see or talk with her, we always laugh a lot and that's very important too. Absolutely. Laughing is very healing. It's important that you're able to laugh with your friends and your family and it's a quality I really I seek out for in my friends and family and people in my life. Talking to you today has also brought me a lot of endorphins and I'm just so so happy that we have the opportunity to get to do this interview and to get to do a session in person. It was so wonderful and I also feel inspired to kind of continue integrating more Jenshin techniques into my day to day life and kind of bring that more into my routine. Thank you again Alexis. Everyone that's listening can follow her and the art of Jenshin and the Jenshin Institute on Instagram. All will be linked to the bio of this interview and on my Instagram page. So stay tuned for that. Thank you again. It was such a pleasure having you. Thank you so much Stella and thank you for all your lit sinners. Thank you for listening and remember to like, rate and review this podcast on whichever listening platform you prefer. Don't forget to keep spreading endorphins and find things that bring you endorphins every day. See you next time.