Here’s the Rub: Learn How to Give Yourself A Stimulating Towel Massage

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Step 1: As you dry off, start with a hearty towel rub to the head to draw oxygen to the brain. While rubbing your head in a circular motion with your hands or towel, sense the movement originating in and around your ribs and shoulder blades.

Step 2: Gently rub the towel in circles around your eye sockets with your first knuckle or the palm of your hand, while still feeling the movement originate near your ribs. Try to feel as though your liver–located just below the diaphragm on the right side of your body–is moving with your arms and helping to generate the eye circles. In Chinese medicine, the eyes represent the opening of the liver meridian and are thus considered to be more closely linked to the liver than to any of the other organ networks. Therefore, rubbing your eyes should relax and bring blood to them while helping your liver get ready for a new day of filtering toxins from your body. In our increasingly chemical-laden world, the liver can use all the support it can get.

Step 3: With your towel or fingers, gently pull the skin away from the base of your nose and out toward your ears. Then give yourself an overall face rub and pay attention to the light, tingly sensation on your skin afterward.

Step 4: Massage around your ears, giving a soft tug here and there. If you’re feeling frisky, work on sensing movement in your kidneys. Why, you ask? In Chinese medicine, the kidneys and ears share an energetic connection in much the way the eyes and liver are related.

Step 5:Give your thyroid, at the base of your throat, a little caress. This hard-working gland is responsible for metabolism and providing energy for activities.

  • Published on Jul 1, 2003
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