What Your Emotions Are Trying to Tell Your Body

The 5 Attitudes of Jin Shin Jyutsu® - and the Simple Way to Start Releasing Them Today

By Dr. Rachel Hill

I sat down in class last week and felt something I did not expect: I felt like a beginner.

Twenty-eight years of practicing Jin Shin Jyutsu. And yet sitting in that room, receiving these teachings again, I found myself hearing them as if for the first time.

Not because I had forgotten, but because I had lived more since then.

More grief. More fear. More seasons of carrying things I didn't know how to set down.

The art had more to say to me now, and I had more capacity to hear it.

That is the nature of Jin Shin Jyutsu. It meets you exactly where you are.

Today I want to share one of the most useful and accessible parts of this ancient Japanese healing practice: the Five Attitudes.

These are five emotional states—Worry, Fear, Anger, Grief, and Sadness—that the body holds when they go unprocessed.

And the beautiful thing is that there is a simple, free, always-available way to begin releasing each one.

You already have everything you need. It's at the end of your arm.

The Art of the Creator Through You

Jin Shin Jyutsu (say it like: jin-shin-jit-soo) is an ancient Japanese healing art that works with the body's natural energy system through gentle touch.

The name translates roughly as "Art of the Creator through a compassionate person."

The foundational idea is simple: the body is an energy system.

When that energy flows freely, health and wellbeing are the natural result.

When it becomes blocked or stagnant—through injury, illness, chronic stress, or emotions that haven't been processed—the body signals its distress.

Jin Shin Jyutsu works by gently touching specific points on the body to help that energy start moving again.

No needles, no equipment, no special training required for the self-help practice. Just your hands.

The Physiology of Your Feelings

Here is something that might shift how you think about your feelings: emotions are not just psychological events. They are physiological ones.

When you feel worried, your digestive system responds. When you live in chronic fear, your adrenal glands and nervous system register it.

Western research in fields like psychoneuroimmunology is now confirming what this art has understood for centuries.

The body keeps score. Emotions that aren't processed don't disappear. They settle in.

The Five Attitudes are the five most common emotional patterns that the body carries.

Each one has a corresponding finger hold—a way of gently signaling the body to begin releasing it.

How to practice: Gently wrap the fingers of one hand around the indicated finger of the other hand.

Apply light, comfortable pressure—no squeezing needed.

Hold for 3–5 minutes, or until you feel a softening, warmth, or a gentle pulse. Breathe slowly. That's it.

The Thumb: Holding the Weight of Worry

Notice that babies instinctively suck their thumbs. Long before they have language for what they feel, they reach for this built-in self-soothing tool.

Worry is the mental habit of circling. It lives in the future—rehearsing what might go wrong.

In the body, worry lives in the digestive system.

When worry takes up residence, the gut is often the first place it shows up. Bloating. A heavy feeling. Irregular digestion.

The self-help hold: Gently hold your thumb. Take slow, deep breaths. Notice what softens in your jaw, your shoulders, and your belly.

The Index Finger: Bringing Fear Home

When we are frightened or accusatory, we point. The index finger leads the way into blame and judgment.

But when you point outward, you are really pointing back at yourself.

The fear being projected belongs to you, and it is asking to be held, not launched.

Chronic fear is exhausting in a way that sleep doesn't fully fix.

It shows up as deep fatigue, lower back tightness, and a persistent undercurrent of anxiety.

The self-help hold: Gently hold your index finger. Let the shoulders drop. Bring the pointing finger home—toward yourself, with compassion.

The Middle Finger: Transforming the Fire of Anger

The gesture we use to express rage—raising the middle finger—is not a cultural coincidence.

It is the body instinctively reaching for the energy of Anger Attitude.

Jin Shin Jyutsu offers a different relationship: hold it gently, and let the anger move through you rather than out of you.

Suppressed anger tends to show up in the body as tension.

Headaches at the temples. Tightness through the jaw and hips. A general sense of being stuck or frustrated.

The self-help hold: Gently hold your middle finger. Breathe into wherever the tension lives. Let the energy move.

The Ring Finger: Honoring the Heart’s Grief

We place the wedding ring on the ring finger—the finger of Grief and Loss.

Marriage is a profound commitment, and with it comes the acceptance of inevitable loss.

Grief Attitude lives in the chest and the breath.

You may know it as that tightening across the front of the body or the inability to take a fully satisfying breath.

The self-help hold: Gently hold your ring finger. Take slow, full breaths all the way to the bottom of the lungs. Allow yourself to release.

The Little Finger: Dropping the Performance of Pretense

Do you remember extending the pinky finger while holding a tea cup? That performance of refinement—trying so hard to be "fine."

Sadness and Pretense are held together. They are two sides of the same reality.

Pretense is what we do when we perform a state we don't actually feel—the smile worn like a uniform that masks genuine pain.

This effort places a real load on the cardiovascular system and often leads to insomnia.

The self-help hold: Gently hold your little finger. Allow your heart—beneath the performance and the practiced smile—to simply be present.

You Are Your Own Medicine

One of the things I love most about Jin Shin Jyutsu is how completely accessible it is.

You do not need an appointment. You do not need equipment.

Hold your thumb while you watch television. Hold your index finger while you wait in a parking lot.

These are not small things. They are invitations for your body to begin releasing what it has been carrying—often for years.

I am still discovering places in my own body where the Attitudes have taken up residence quietly.

Still learning what it means to tend to myself with the same presence and care I have offered others.

That is the invitation I extend to you today. Simply to place one hand on the other, breathe, and see what your body has been waiting to tell you.

Ready to explore how Jin Shin Jyutsu and holistic therapies can support your healing journey? Book a free consultation call with me to explore personalized guidance for your extraordinary becoming.

--Dr. Rachel