Self-Massage

It’s cold outside. It’s almost winter. Did we even have fall? I can’t really feel it. When the weather gets cold, there are many things to worry about. Snow, rising cost for heating and so on. But the one that I used to worry a lot was my body. Why? Because I usually get stiff neck when the winter comes around. For those of you who suffered from it know how painful it is and how it can affect your entire day! As the temperature suddenly drops my body gets really stiff and it affects my entire day. One effective way to deal with this was to see a chiropractor but the problem with this was the cost. Once I ran out of the number of visits allowed by the insurance, the cost goes up ridiculously! The chiropractor’s office made a plan for me. The plan was something like this. To visit 3 times a week for 2 months and 2 times for another 2 months and 1 time for a month. Each visit costs me around $100 without my insurance coverage. Yay!! This is over $4000. (Don’t get me wrong. I believe there are chiropractors who charge less than this. This was just my case) Well…I can wait until the next year’s insurance kicks in but I am in pain now! I don’t want to wait.

I needed to find an alternative and much more cost effective way and the one I found to be very effective was self-massage. I did research and read some self-healing massage books. I applied what I learnt from the books and research to myself and it was amazing! Here are some tips for self-massage.

For Shoulder

Place your right hand on your left shoulder and left hand on your right shoulder.

Press the trigger point, knots or tensed muscle area using your middle and index fingers for about a minute. While you are pressing them, close your eyes and breathe deeply.

For Hand

Spread your right hand and grab the muscle between your thumb and index finger with your left thumb and index finger.

Start to massage that area for a minute. And Switch. Massage your left hand the same way.

Close your eyes and breathe deeply while massaging your hands.

For Feet

Sit down and grab your sole of your right foot with both of your thumbs.

Start to massage your sole with firm pressure.

Press firmly the point slightly above the center of the sole for 10 seconds.(About 1/3 of the foot below the tip of your index toe)

Do it to the other foot.

Also for those of you who don’t have a strong finger to massage yourself, there are a ton of self massage tools you can use. You can purchase them online like Amazon at a very reasonable price.

Also check this video. It shows you how to effectively massage your feet (It also shows you the point on your sole I mentioned above)  

http://www.changeyourenergy.com/change-tv/158/Two-Minute-Tip-Rejuvenate-with-Reflexology

Are you ready for this winter? I am!