Meet Shai Hasan

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shai Hasan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shai, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I believe that finding our purpose is the main goal in life. It often starts with a small hobby, skill, or talent and evolves into a dream that we pursue. Here’s my story in a nutshell.

My name is Shai, an Israeli Jew with roots in Arab heritage. Although my childhood dream was to pursue a dance career, life took me through the military, and eventually, I found my true calling in the Sunshine State.

I was born on the morning of Rosh Hashana Eve in 1986, and my name “Shai” means gift. Growing up in Rosh Ha’ayin, a town 30 minutes outside Tel-Aviv, with roots tracing back to Yemen, I gained an early understanding of the world’s diversity during my annual trips to the US as a professional dancer for Jewish communities.

After serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, I moved to New York City with aspirations of a dance career. However, the city taught me valuable life lessons, and I realized that dance wasn’t my destined path.

Determined to find my true passion, I delved into self-exploration. While working briefly at a friend’s hair salon, I learned the art of haircutting, but it wasn’t my calling. This experience, however, led me to discover my talent for touch and my passion for massage therapy.

Introduced to Thai Massage by my friends, I found my true calling. Combining my dance background with this therapeutic art, I began a path that resonated with me. Encouraged by positive feedback from friends and family, I decided to pursue my massage therapy license.

My journey took a turn towards holistic healing when I discovered Qi-Gong, an energy work practice that amazed me. A three-day workshop left me with a sense of deep healing, clearing emotional baggage and trauma that had been blocking my Qi flow for years.

In 2020, amidst the chaos of COVID-19, I passed my Florida state exam and embraced the pause as an opportunity to focus on my practice. Every experience, pain, and moment of grief transformed into fuel for my healing journey. My purpose became clear—to be a healer for others and myself, inspiring others to embark on their healing journeys.

The journey continues, and I’m excited to share more insights, practices, and stories with the world.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Thai With Shai Inc. started with the idea of becoming independent and self-employed, free to create the life I wish to live, free from the constraints of bosses and rigid schedules, and free from giving my time and energy in places I do not want to be.

After experiencing the impact of COVID-19, I came to realize the innate healing abilities within ourselves. This realization led me to explore further the body’s capacity for self-healing during the lockdown. I spent hours delving into the intricacies of the body’s systems and how to harmonize their functions. My perspective shifted when I recognized the distinction between my true self and my physical body. I am an awareness, a ball of energy seeking equilibrium between spirituality and a deeper connection to God, the divine or universal energy on one end, and materialism, worldliness, or physical existence on the other. This is the essence of life – finding balance in all that we do.

I have been curious to see how far I could take my healing practice. Given my background, which includes childhood trauma, addictions, fear, lack of self-esteem, and confidence issues, I have decided to dedicate the next few years to deep education and consistent practice. I’d be focusing on meditation, yoga,
Qi-Gong, Reiki, heart coherence, mindfulness, breathwork, veganism, and other practices that enhance my energy self-healing capabilities. I intended to embody the lessons and sensations as second nature, embracing them and using all that knowledge to sculpt my practice, Thai With Shai – Holistic Thai Yoga Massage Practitioner.

I’ve learned that no one can truly heal you but yourself. You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves, right? We can try our best to help others in our community or close circle when they are facing an issue, but we can’t force our help on them if they don’t want it. For example, if someone faints because they are dehydrated and need water, you can offer them water, but they must be the ones to drink it. Similarly, if someone needs help crossing a flooded street and you offer to carry them to the other side, they must accept your help and hop on your back. In other words, we can create a bridge for them to cross, but they must be willing to take the step.

This is how I view my healing practice: I construct a bridge for my clients to the other side, but they must be the ones to cross it, taking the journey step by step to the other side. Every step they take and embrace brings them closer to their goal. Each step is a lesson, a piece of knowledge, and a practice that they take upon themselves to heal their energy because everything is energy; who we are in our body begins with understanding who we are energetically. Our energetic body reflects in our physical body. To connect with our energetic body, we must learn to temporarily nullify our physical body.

Every time we sit down to meditate, we get on our yoga mat for a flow, we sit with our emotions, especially the hurtful ones, and embrace them, we delay instant gratification by avoiding foods, acts, and thoughts that give us a dopamine rush, we allow ourselves to embrace our physical sensations across the whole spectrum, from pain to divinity.

You might be wondering how all of this is related to Thai Yoga Massage. Well, when you think about it, massage involves touch, and it’s important to emphasize that it is a therapeutic touch. Touch is the earliest form of healing. When a baby cries and is comforted by being held close to their mother’s heart, the baby calms down. You may have seen a video of a baby elephant running around, slipping and falling on its face; it’s adorable. The first thing the baby elephant did after getting up was to run to its mother and seek comfort. When you’re feeling down and need a hug, don’t you feel better after receiving one from a loved one?
Touch heals, especially when you are open to receiving it as a therapeutic art.

Receiving a massage might present some challenges. It can require you to teach your body to let go and even force it to do so at times. You may notice that your mind keeps processing information that isn’t helpful at that moment, leading to emotions and stress that manifest as tension in your body. Over time, you can increase your awareness and learn to call your energy back. This means being able to switch from a stress response, which depletes your energy, to a relaxation response, where you redirect your energy and allow for healing to occur.

You can visit my website at www.ThaiWithShai.com or find me on Facebook and Instagram at @ThaiWithShai.

Please reach out, say hi, and share how you enjoyed reading this.

I am located on E. Sunrise Blvd, which is a 5-minute drive from the beach if you are ever around Fort Lauderdale, FL.

I offer Table and traditional Thai Sessions, both based on Thai Yoga Massage principles and techniques.

You can book a session with me online through my website. Take advantage of my special welcome offer – $20 OFF your first session!

Thank you for listening to my TED talk. 😉

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

As a child growing up in Israel, I always felt the urge to break free from my surroundings. When I moved to New York City at the age of 24, leaving my family behind was difficult, but I was determined to carve out a new life for myself in a land of endless opportunities and freedom.

As a high school student, I was constantly stressed and irritable, seeking solace from the challenges of daily life. Dance became my outlet, allowing me to cast off negative energy and immerse myself in the music and movement. This experience taught me the importance of maintaining a hobby to express my creativity and relieve stress. Even today, dancing remains my favorite form of meditative therapeutic healing, offering me joy, peace, and harmony.

Another valuable lesson I’ve learned is to always be honest with myself. I realized that deceiving myself only leads to disappointment and confusion.
No matter how painful, embracing the truth is essential for personal integrity and peace of mind.

Determination, self-expression, and honesty are the cornerstones of my life. I believe that by identifying and cultivating our core values from an early age, we can lead a more genuine and fulfilling life. This journey requires continuous self-reflection and growth, but the rewards are well worth the effort.

What are your top three?

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

Buddha once said, ‘All suffering comes from the mind.’ Suffering is caused by attachments and desires, which are mental constructs. Understanding the nature of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path to its cessation can help overcome it. The mind is the product of brain activity. Imbalanced brain activity can cause different conditions that ultimately lead to suffering.

These days, when I look at my body, I see a machine, a vehicle. Similar to a car that runs on different systems in synchronicity, our body, which is built of 11 different systems, needs to function coherently to achieve the best performance.

To illustrate, consider a car with its engine and computer. Without a computer, the ride might not be as pleasant, with no AC, no radio, and a bunch of dashboard lights flashing. However, the vehicle can still get from A to B. Without an engine, though, there is no vehicle.

This analogy applies to our body: Our brain is the computer, and our heart is the engine.

There are five different ways in which our brain and heart directly communicate: neurological, biochemical, biophysical, energetic, and quantum. By practicing heart coherence, I can promote balanced brain activity, expend less energy fighting stressors, and redirect that available energy towards healing, creating, and manifesting the life I wish to live, ultimately reducing suffering.

I incorporate this practice into all aspects of my life, especially when I am dancing, flowing on my mat, and treating my patients.

Understanding how the body’s inner technology works and how to bring everything into balance has had the most significant impact on my journey. Recognizing that I am a human-machine has opened the door to countless possibilities. Any thought I can entertain in my mind, feel in my body, and take the right actions to achieve can manifest into my reality sooner or later.

I learned all this and more from Dr. Joe Dispenza’s book “Becoming Supernatural”. It did wonders for me, and I believe it can do the same for you. It’s the best $12 I’ve ever spent.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ThaiWithShai.com
• Instagram: @ThaiWithShai @Shai.Hasan
• Facebook: Thai With Shai