The Lid of Desire…
I blame my husband but we began this HUGE hunt for the ‘right lid’ for Gua Sha.
Before I go into ‘what is the right lid and how can YOU find it’, let’s start with WHAT IS GUA SHA.
It’s a Chinese Medicine Qi-moving method, where you use a stone, spoon or a LID to scrape along the skin to break up stagnation. Often this can result in a rash-like appearance on the skin. This petechiae (red dots under the skin) is indicative of ‘sha’ or Yang Qi moving to the surface and stagnation is breaking up.
I’ve always been taught with a porcelain soup spoon.
But you don’t need to always go out and BUY the next fancy tool. Instead, my husband began looking for jar lids so he could hand these out to clients as at-home self-care.
One person’s trash is another person’s treasure!
It does take some exploring to find the ‘perfect’ lid because you don’t want to gua sha with something sharp that can break or irritate the skin. The lids we found to give the perfect scrap were lids off of jam jars as they have this slight rounded edge at the base of the top. Every jar lid may have imperfections so you want to run your finger over the edge and feel for a smooth finish. Nothing scratched or chipped as this new found tool of yours is mean to glide across your skin.
That said, gua sha can be used with oil and without oil, so in choosing a lid, you can test immediately by scraping along the jaw or the the palm up side of the forearm (I feel to be the most sensitive areas) to determine if this tool is right for you.
*Remember it’s not about pressure, you could almost think of it as a deep rub if ‘scraping’ seems a little intense. Gua Sha flows in one direction (not back and forth) and most often in the direction with the Qi flow of the both.
TAKE A LID & TREAT THE LUNG
This video demonstrate WHAT kind of lid you can use but also (initially) shows you how to drag down the Lung Channel of the arm. I continue to gua sha the entire forearm but you’ll
Click here to watch my video on Instagram. And see how you don’t have to have the fancy tools to get what you want out of a Chinese Medicine!
BENEFITS:
❤️ moves Qi in the lungs
❤️ can diminish pain or stiffness in forearm
❤️ connects with the nervous system as you affect the dermis
INTERESTED IN MORE WAYS YOU CAN APPLY CHINESE MEDICINE IN YOUR HOME?
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