Preventive care and Chinese medicine have traditionally gone hand in hand. In fact, prevention is one of its most important pillars. With that in mind, we also consciously chose the name of the practice: Nurture Your Nature.
The name refers to the idea that there are natural actions you can take to support your health and well-being. Acupuncture is an example of this, but massage also plays an important role in this. With the massage exercise described below, you increase your body's resilience, support digestion and promote relaxation of the body and mind.
Within the tradition that gave rise to this exercise, it is even seen as a way to contribute to a long and healthy life. Definitely worth trying out.
The massage exercise
You can perform this exercise while standing or sitting. Do the massage daily for 30 days and experience the effect for yourself. In general, the more regularly you massage, the greater the effect. Breathe in and out calmly and deeply while performing the exercise.
With the palms up, place the sides of your hands in your sides, just below the ribs, at the level of the liver and spleen. Push firmly but comfortably and gently move the hands forward and backward.
Then:
- for women: make the right hand into a fist with the thumb on top of the index finger and place it on the stomach. Place the left hand on top
- for men: switch left and right
Massage the abdomen in circular movements clockwise, at least 72 times. This direction helps with constipation.
Then massage the abdomen in counterclockwise circles, at least 54 times. This direction can help with diarrhea.
If you mainly suffer from constipation, only massage clockwise. In case of diarrhoea, massage only counterclockwise. If you have no specific complaints, you can alternate both directions.
Finally, massage the lower back at the level of the kidneys with the backs of your fists. Do this as often as you feel comfortable.
Need more relaxation?
If you need extra relaxation or deepening, you can combine this massage with breathing exercises. For example, consider the 4-7-8 breathing exercise or the Wim Hof breathing exercise.
If you want to delve further into self-massage, Kum Nye Yoga might be interesting. This involves a lot of gentle movement and massage to relax the body and mind. You can read more about this or search YouTube for examples and explanations.
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The image and description of this exercise are from yang-sheng dot com. Unfortunately, this website is no longer active.
