With the work that I do I have the ability to work with the physical body and create a difference for the whole person, affecting their mental and emotional wellbeing at the same time as their physical wellbeing. And sometimes the most magical part of that occurs through touch. Touch is such a powerful technique, yet so simple, that it can sometimes be forgotten as a technique that brings about change.
I will quickly touch on how touch can help (like what I did there?) before moving onto acupressure.
Touch has the capacity to sooth and tells the mind and body that it can be calm. With this the cardiovascular system can stress a little less and the vagus nerve jumps on board to produce oxytocin (the love hormone) and creates a compassion response in the body, which I use to create compassion for yourself for past behaviours and actions that you’ve done and hold onto that might not be in your best interest now. Think about touch as a technique that can hit the reset button when we touch the right point in the body at the right moment.
Alright, we get that touch is important. Now with acupressure I use my fingers to stimulate the same acupoints that acupuncturists use. They use needles to stimulate the point, I use touch.
Western medicine practitioners associate the benefits of acupressure to:
Reduce muscle tension
Improved circulation of blood and lymph
Stimulation of endorphins (natural pain killers)
Lets explore these in a little more depth.
Reducing muscle tension means we can assist the body to relax, and when it does this, the body can restore and rejuvenate itself meaning everything functions better than it did in the tense and restricted state.
Improving the circulation throughout the body means more blood can be pumped around the body, more easily so there is less effort by the heart. And in the same token we can remove waste in the form of lymph more easily from the body. And if we remove this waste we can reduce our chances of being sick because we aren’t causing blockages in the body to drag us down.
And the final point of stimulating endorphins means we can have a hormone impact on the body. By pressing acupoints we can allow the mind and body to respond differently on a chemical level, reducing the pain we perceive and increasing our happy hormones (dopamine and serotonin). More of these happy hormones pumping through our body means we will feel better mentally and emotionally after treatment with acupressure.
Add these benefits onto the benefits of touch and you have a really targeted way of treating many issues people face.
And the health problems that benefit from acupressure are:
Anxiety
Pain
Headaches
Nausea
Fatigue
Mood
Sleep
Hormone balance for issues such as menstrual pain
It is generally thought that acupressure is very safe and can be beneficial for many areas of wellbeing.
Therefore acupressure can be a great alternative if someone is afraid of needles (such as those used in acupuncture) or when working with young children who won’t stay still long enough to have needles in place.
If you want to talk about how acupressure could be the turning point in your health and wellbeing, please get in contact with me on 0401 638 067 or at michelle@tigereyewellbeing.com.