So, we’ve heard of Gua Sha for the face… but what about other places on the body?
Recently, facial gua sha has become quite prevalent. Gua Sha uses a jade tool to lightly draw across the face, neck, and chest in certain patterns to move fluid retention, stimulate microcirculation, release tight face muscles, soften wrinkles, reduce acne and scars, and promote collagen production.
Gua sha is a practice in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which we scrape a tool along people’s skin to produce a therapeutic effect.
Yes, it is mostly marketed as a facial and cosmetic tool. However, Chinese Medicine commonly uses Gua Sha on the rest of the body too!
Here are just a few things I commonly use it for:
- Sore throat
- Neck, shoulder and back tension
- Headaches
- Cough
- Chest tightness
- Feeling emotionally stagnant or repressed
What can you use to perform Gua Sha?
Tools such as a Chinese soup spoon, jade gua sha tool, animal horn or bone, or a jar lid, TCM practitioners perform repeated pressed strokes over specific channels on the body to obtain Sha. Sha relates to any kind of pathogen trapped in the body – whether it be cold, heat, wind, stagnation, or damp
Practitioners can often feel along the channels in your body to detect stagnation and can focus on moving it with this scrapping technique. It may not be as gently performed as facial gua sha, I find body gua sha to be invigorating and stimulating.
