MEXICO CITY, Jan 4 — After the euphoria of year-end festivities, there’s nothing quite like treating yourself to start off a new 12 months. Janzu, a new water-based energising treatment that comes from Mexico, eases physical and mental tension in water warmed to 34°C.

Janzu, a new aquatic energising treatment, is like an invitation to get away from it all, immersing you in warm water so you feel renewed. The water and weightlessness combine to bring physical and muscular relaxation and set your buried emotions free.

The practice of janzu (Chinese for “peaceful river”) originated in the 1990s in India and was developed as a medical treatment by the Mexican Juan Villatoro. Inspired by Shamanic regression techniques, janzu is like an aquatic dance in which letting go is crucial. You let yourself be guided by a practitioner who has been trained in gentle movements, stretches and massages of a few pressure points to activate energy. The treatment also involves immersing your head in the water for three-second periods.

Janzu encourages you to symbolically leave all your cares and worries in the water in a sort of psychological “deep cleanse.” “As well as relaxation, janzu encourages self-reflection. The regressive effect of the water and the act of being carried creates feelings connected to life in the womb,” explains Marie Hemelsdael, a Paris-based janzu practitioner and psycho-motor therapist.

This treatment is recommended to help with muscular pain and stiffness, migraines, stress-related symptoms, trouble sleeping and water phobia. Pregnant women can find it beneficial, especially to relieve muscle tension. The sessions require a very attentive practitioner who can adapt to each patient: “I’m very aware of the person’s facial expressions, breathing, muscular tone, so I can best guide them and ensure that they feel good,” says Marie Hemelsdael.

Unlike Watsu (“water” + “shiatsu”), a similar practice, which originated in the 1980s in northern California, “water massages do the work,” says Marie Hemelsdael, “there’s no meridian pressure in janzu, as you have in Chinese medicine.” The treatment is described by its fans as being less static, with wide movements one after the other in a fluid sequence. “To go on this journey, we ask the person to immerse themselves in the water from the very beginning by putting on a nose clip,” explains Nicolas Sommer, a practitioner and trainer based in France and the West Indies. — AFP-Relaxnews