acupressure

Yesterday, I was digging a trench. It was deep enough that I had to go below the hard pan, which is very hard on our property. So I was also using a mattock, to break up the earth. I am very healthy, but I have never been particularly strong, and I don’t do a lot of hard labour. Usually my back is the first thing to bother me, but I have been taking care of it lately. Yesterday, my number two weak point, my elbow, started hurting. When I went to bed it was sore and just slightly inflamed. As I was relieving the pain, I realized I had not mentioned this technique on my blog, yet, so here it is.

This is an acupressure technique, based on the Balance Method of acupuncture. It can bring fast relief for both acute and chronic pain in the joints. In order to make it easy to understand I will describe the technique only for very localized pain in one of the major joints of the limbs.

First you need to find a sore spot on the opposite limb on the opposite side. For instance, my pain was in the left elbow, so I found a sore spot in the right knee. The ankles go with the wrists and the hips with the shoulders.

Continuing with the elbow example, extend your hands straight out in front of you, palm up. If the pain is on the same side of the arm as the baby finger, look for a sore spot on the outside of the knee. Remember it is the opposite knee. If the pain is on the thumb side, look on the inside of the knee. The wrist and ankle are the same, the baby finger side corresponds to the outside of the ankle. For the hips and shoulders, the back of the hip corresponds to the back of the shoulder, the side of the hip corresponds to the top and side of the shoulder, the front of the hip corresponds to the front of the shoulder.

It may take some searching around to find the sore spot, but it will be obvious when you find it. It will be much more tender than anywhere else. Once you find it massage it with slow deep circles, for about one minute. You need to massage deeply enough for it to hurt some, but not too much. If it is very painful just press on the spot until the pain eases, or one to two minutes.

If you have relatively acute pain, like I got yesterday. Massage the point three or four times a day, for a day or two. As long as you don’t aggravate the problem, that should be enough to make it better. If your problem is more chronic, this technique can relieve the pain but may not be a long term solution. You may also want to try this technique along with my pain relief visualization.

In a previous post I talked about the powers of tapping acupuncture points and mentioned EFT. EFT is easy to learn to do on yourself, and it has pretty amazing effects when done thoroughly with a qualified practitioner.

Watch this great introductory video:

For thousands of years, people in the orient have been tapping acupuncture points to relieve headaches, improve their immune systems,and treat a variety of health complaints. In the past thirty years or so, several Western energy therapies have been developed, based on the acupuncture system. Many of these therapies also use tapping on the points for healing.

One of those methods, EFT, is great for dealing with post traumatic stress, allergies, phobias, and many stress related symptoms. You can learn the self-help basics of EFT here. If you are interested in EFT and find that you need more than self-help, contact me. I am happy to provide consultations, by phone or email. See my About page for my email address.

Beating Heaven’s Drum is a traditional technique for relieving headaches, dizziness, and waking up the brain. Cover your ears with your palms and tap the muscles at the base of the skull. Tap gently for about one minute.

Knocking at the Gate of Life is another traditional Chinese technique. The gate of life is the area where, according to Chinese Medicine, our basic vital energy is stored. Tapping the points associated with it helps to increase the flow of energy and gives a feeling of vitality. There are two points. The first one is about two inches below the navel and the other is on the spine, directly opposite the navel.
Stand with your feet a little wider than the width of your shoulders and place one fist just below the other and the other on your back opposite your navel. Then begin to turn your body, at the waist from side to side. As you turn, let your arms swing around. As you turn left your left hand should tap your back and your right hand should tap your belly. As you turn right your right hand should tap your back and your left hand should tap your belly. The arms should be very relaxed. Let the turning of the waist swing them around, without using any arm strength to tap your body. Do this exercise for a couple of minutes, every day.

Taping to boost the immune system. This is a modern technique, as far as I know. There are three points to tap. The first point is the last point on the Kidney channel. The Kidney channel is also associated with the Gate of Life. The point is just under the collar bone, in the depression just outside of where the collar bone meets the breast bone. The second point is on the breast bone, about two inches below the top. The thymus gland, an important immune system organ, is directly below this point. The last point is near the bottom of the rib cage. It is about level with the bottom of the little bone that sticks down from the bottom of the breast bone and about three inches from the midline. You will notice a little dip in the rib cage in that area. Tap between the ribs. These points stimulate the Spleen and the Liver, both of which influence the Immune system.

Tap each point, in order, about twelve times. The first and last points can be tapped on both sides at the same time. Breathe slowly and deeply while tapping the points. You can do this once or twice a day.

Self treatment for headaches is often very successful. There should be no need to reach for the extra strength pain reliever. One trick that sometimes works is “chasing the pain”. Try to pinpoint the exact location of the pain in your head. As you relax and put your attention on the sensations in your head, it is often difficult to tell exactly where the focus of pain is. The more you search for it the more it goes away.

Should that fail, try acupressure. Look for tender points in the webs between the fingers and the toes. Between the thumb and first finger it’s in the meaty area just above the web. I have a picture in a previous post. When you find a tender spot hold it hard enough that it feels sore, but not too painful. As the soreness subsides hold it harder. When it is no longer sore move to another point. Carry on until the headache is gone. That should take two or three points.

While you are doing the acupressure, it is also helpful to practice, deep relaxed, abdominal breathing. However, for some people with migraines, that can be counter-productive, so if the headache is getting worse, ignore the breathing. Instead, you could imagine you are standing barefoot, on a nice warm beach. Feel the heat of the sand warming your feet.

If you try all of those techniques and it doesn’t work, let me know. Tell me exactly what your experience is, and I can fine tune the self treatment for you.