Best Way to Relieve Stress with Self-Massage



When yon are massaging yourself, try to clear your mind and focus on the sensation alone. It is important to be comfortable and to keep all your muscles relaxed.

Neck, shoulders and arms

  • Using your right hand, stroke from the bottom of your skull, down the left side of your neck to your shoulder, over your shoulder and down your arm to the elbow. Glide your hand gently back to the base of your skull and repeat two or three times.

Self Massage Best Way to Relieve Stress with Self Massage

  • With your right hand, use gentle kneading movements and work from the left side of your neck down to your left wrist. Gently glide your hand back to your neck and repeat.
  • Use circular friction movements to work more deeply into the muscles. Begin at the back of your neck, beside the spine, and work out to the side of the neck, and down to your left shoulder. Glide your right hand to your left wrist and work up your forearm to your elbow with circular frictions.
  • Repeat steps 1 to 3 using your left hand on the right side of your body.

 

Legs and feet

Sit on the floor with one leg extended in front of you and the other bent at the knee so you can hold your foot. Work on one entire leg first and then repeat the steps with your other leg.

  • Holding the top of your foot with one hand, use firm strokes along the sole of your foot from toes to ankle. Glide hand hack to toes and repeat three or four times.

 

  • Gently roll each toe between your thumb and first finger, and then give each toe a gentle pull.
  • Using both thumbs and firm pressure, work with small, circular movements from the ankle to the toes, covering all of the sole. Repeat step 1.
  • Bend the knee of the leg you have been working on and, starting from the instep, stroke both hands up the shin, over the knee and up the length of your thigh. Repeat this stroke two to three times.
  • With your knee still bent, draw both hands up from your ankle, and up the back of your leg. Repeat two to three times.
  • Using a kneading movement, work on the back of your leg, first around your calf muscle and then on the back of your thigh. Don’t knead your knee; instead use a light gentle movement around the kneecap.
  • Knead the top and sides of your thigh. Then use small, circular movements on any place that feels tight.

Abdomen and chest

  • With one hand over the other, stroke in a clockwise direction around your abdomen.
  • Using a gentle, plucking movement with thumb and index fingers, lift the flesh of tin abdominal area.

Self Massage 1 Best Way to Relieve Stress with Self Massage

  • Next, hold your right hand flat against your lower abdomen, pull your hand up firmly toward the bottom of the rib cage, turn your hand so that your fingers point across your body, and push across to the left hand side, then push down firmly with the heel of the hand from the rib cage to the lower abdomen. This movement assists the digestive process, which can become sluggish when we are stressed.
  • Move your hands to the center of your collarbone, and gently stroke from the center out to the shoulders using your fingertips.
  • Follow this with gentle, circular frictions around the chest and under the collarbone. Then repeat step 4.

 

At the end of this sequence you w feel calm, peaceful and relaxed.



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