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Under Pressure?
Acupressure Stress Relief at your Fingertips
Tension Headache?
Find the Point: Rest your index and middle fingertips on your eyebrows. Let your fingers glide out toward your ears until you reach the indentation in bone structure at your temples.
What to do: Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and apply pressure there gradually. Continue pressing as you rotate your fingertips in small circles,
up to 3 minutes.
Why it works: Tension headaches and migraine headaches are caused by the tightening of shoulder muscles, chronic neck tension, and facial muscles. This acupressure point helps relax tension and also releases sinus congestion that contributes to tension headaches.
In a Panic?
Find the point: Touch your pinkies, fingertip-to-fingertip, at the bottom center of your breastbone (typically it's where your chest meets the top of your abs). Find the indentation right between where your index fingers meet.
What to Do: Gradually apply pressure with your three middle fingers until you feel a little soreness. Keep your fingers there firmly as you breathe in and out deeply for two minutes.
Why it Works: When you panic or are anxious, your chest tightens and your breathing becomes shallow. This point releases chest congestion and the muscular tension that contributes to uptightness.
Stressed Out Stomachache?
Find the point: Measure two-and-a-half finger-widths down from the center crease on your right wrist.
What to Do: Press your thumb firmly on this point, placing your fingers under your forearm. Breathe deeply so your belly swells when you inhale. Hold for one minute. Switch wrists and repeat on the other side.
Why it Works: Under on the job stress, abdominal muscles tighten, causing nausea-this point connects to those tight abdominal muscles.
Acupressure Tip Sheet*
Acupressure Therapy is an ancient Asian healing art. What’s the thinking behind it? By pressing
certain points on your body, you can release built-up muscular tension in other areas.
* Use at least two fingers when you're pressing a point, because you'll cover
a wider area and it will lessen any soreness you may feel when applying pressure.
* Press until you feel a good hurt (like the way your muscles feel after
weight lifting). If you don't feel a difference right away, it might be because you have more muscles in that
area, so gradually add pressure.
* Close your eyes, inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth, and
focus only on where you press.
* When possible, have a friend do these moves on you so you can concentrate
even more on relaxing.
By Margaret Magnarelli, Associate Editor
Originally published in Seventeen Magazine 2004
1440 Broadway, 13th Fl., New York, NY 10018
margaret_magnarelli@primediamags.com
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