One of the core ideas of traditional Chinese medicine is that emotion, habits and health are intimately interconnected. When your relationship with food is imbalanced, you're likely out of balance in other areas. Whether you want to lose weight or you are losing weight and don't understand why, acupressure can help restore balance to your entire system.
Theory
Issues with food often reflect a need for an inner sense of connection or emotional nourishment, according to Iona Teeguarden, Jin Shin Do acupuncture practitioner and co-author of "A Complete Guide to Acupressure." As you practice acupressure to help resolve any problems with overeating or undereating, you must nourish yourself on all levels through making healthy food choices, self-nurturing and pursuing activities that help you feel fulfilled on emotional and spiritual levels.
How It Works
Acupressure balances your appetite and fluid retention by releasing stagnant energy. Under normal circumstances, qi flows abundantly through energy channels, called "meridians," that run throughout your body. Press points--also called acupoints or pressure points--lie along the meridians. These points act like gateways for the flow of energy, according to Acupressure.com. When you stimulate the points, they release any stale qi or tension and begin to draw energy more abundantly.
Considerations
One of the most predominant underlying causes of weight imbalances, according to TCM, is spleen qi deficiency. On an energetic level, the spleen helps transform food into qi--vital life energy--and distribute energy to all areas of the body. It also supplies the energy that drives your mental focus, according to Anasuya Batliner, Asian bodywork therapist, in an article published on her My Body Wisdom website. When you worry or overwork, spleen qi is quickly drained and your body doesn't have the fuel it needs. The good news is that acupressure massage, applied to the spleen qi meridian, can help revitalize your energy and curb unhealthy cravings.
Expert Insight
While you're trying to replenish your body's qi and strengthen your spleen through acupressure, focus on eating cooked foods, advises Batliner. Raw vegetables, cold drinks or food that comes directly from the refrigerator all cool down your system. Your body has to heat food up before it can derive energy from it. Warm drinks, soups and stews are soothing for your spleen and help you feel more nourished. Ginger, nutmeg, hot chilis, black pepper and cinnamon added to your food or drinks will also warm your system, Batliner suggests.
Massage Options
To stimulate the smooth, efficient distribution of qi throughout your entire body, focus on the spleen meridian, which runs up the inside of the leg, advises Deborah Mitchell, medical writer and author of "Natural Medicine for Weight Loss." Massage the instep of one foot, moving in tight circular motions to the area just in front of your ankle, then up the inside of the leg to hit the first 11 points along the spleen meridian, according to the acupressure chart at the Yin Yang House website. When you're finished with one leg, massage the other. Mitchell advises focusing on SP6, the point that is four finger-widths above the ankle, and SP9, just below knee, under the curve of the large bone that sticks out on the inside of the leg. Press and hold, then massage each of these points for a minute or more. Avoid stimulating SP6 if you are pregnant.
References
- "A Complete Guide to Acupressure: Jin Shin Do"; Iona Teeguarden and Pierluigi Duina; 2002
- Acupressure.com: Welcome to Acupressure.com
- Anasuya Basil: Spleen Qi Deficiency---A Nutritional Perspective
- "Natural Medicine for Weight Loss"; Deborah Mitchell; 2009
- Yin Yang House: (SP) Spleen Meridian---Graphic
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