Working with the Body

Recently - since about December, I have been becoming more engaged in working with my body. Interestingly, my intuition has been guiding me on this journey. Let me tell you about it.

It started with the purchase of an acupressure pen (get yours here (affiliate link)), which I used casually on my neck which has my whole life been tight. After a few times, I was using it and happened upon a pressure point which had been revealed. I dotted around and found more pressure points which I stayed on for longer. As I experimented - I also found pressure points on other parts of my body. I like to use the pen every so often.

I felt like my own intuition was guiding me towards these points. When showing people the pen I recommend they do it to themselves as they will naturally know where needs attention.

Another practice I have endeavoured into is paida lajin, which involves slapping the body to increase blood flow. I also rub the body like my legs for instance - sometimes quite vigorously. This invigorates the muscles bringing blood to that area. I like to follow where I feel an urge to move to, that’s intuition guiding you to different parts of the body.

Another note I’d like to touch on is tapping. There are different kinds of tapping. It loosely originates in Chinese medicine. I like to tap my chest and other parts of my body. Sometimes I feel slightly pain when doing this, I heard in this YouTube video (qi gong, a Chinese practice) that if you “find a sore spot, keep tapping!” (They use tapping in qi gong) so I do. But not harshly.

This works in a similar fashion to rubbing and slapping, but brings blood to more pin pointed areas.

One final practice I do, and have done a bit of in the past before I began these more recent endeavours, is that of self massage. You can use oil, just your hands (you can even do over your clothes for a loose massage), or I’ve used these massage bars from lush which are awesome. The parts of your body you can reach benefit from massage, such as the arms, feet, legs, chest. It’s a nice, warming, self connecting practice.

Over time, I’ve started having more energy and confidence and I wonder if it’s down to my body being more in balance because of these practices. I’m facing my challenges with a new mindset, and I feel the relaxation and “zen-ness” I feel from these practices has aided to me having these new perspectives.

Try them out for yourself, see how you get on!