Eastern medicine adherents believe that colds or the flu can occur when cold, moist energy from the atmosphere enters the body, especially through acupressure points at the back of the neck. Stimulating these points with pressure and massage will reduce cold and flu symptoms. Keeping these areas warm will help prevent them.
Apply acupressure to these points using your thumbs, fingers, palms, or the side of your hand to apply steady, stationary pressure for three to five seconds. Repeat this firm pressure for three to five times.
- Poong-mun (Wind Gate, BL12): Two finger widths on either side of the second thoracic vertebrae. This is the most vulnerable point where cold and damp energy may initially enter the body.
- Dae-chu (Great Hammer, GV14): Right below the 7th cervical vertebrae. You can locate this point by bending your head forward and finding the biggest bone where the neck and the shoulders meet. Place your finger right below this bone. Now return your head to an upright position. Make sure you find the point after the head has returned; when the head returns to an upright position, the location rises slightly. You can also tap over this point with a cupped hand.
- Joong-bu (Central Treasury, LU1): Place your middle fingers in the hollow areas directly below the protrusions of the collarbone just outside your upper breastbone. Press this point with your thumb or make a fist with your right hand with your thumb folded in and gently tap this point on the left side. Do this for one to three minutes and then switch sides. If this is too painful or if blockages still remain, rub the pressure points with the pads of your fingers.
- Oon-mun (Cloud Gate, LU2): Just below the collarbone on either side of your shoulders. Press this point with your thumb or make a fist with your right hand with your thumb folded in and gently tap this point on the left and then the right side for one to three minutes each. If this is too painful or if blockages still remain, rub the pressure points with the pads of your fingers.
Never press an open wound, swollen or inflamed skin, a bruise, surgery scar, varicose veins, or broken bones. Avoid acupressure if you have a skin infection, or a serious heart, kidney, or lung disorder. Avoid it in the area of a known tumor.
By treating yourself with acupressure, you not only gain enhanced health but also experience the truth: your body is not you, but yours. Through self-healing you gain the power of self-control. By using a combination of methods including meridian exercises, deep abdominal breathing, meditation, and acupressure, you can improve your health while feeling more alive yet serene.
You can learn more acupressure points as well as simple exercises for common health symptoms in my book Meridian Exercise for Self-Healing.
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Ilchi.com creates the best and the most useful e-mails that I ever got in my life. I wish everything that you get in the mail and e-mail had such a content of usefulness and clarity.
Thank you so much for these powerful healing tools.
A few years ago I did an acupressure healing on a friend with severe and chronic sinus problems. She had had sinus surgery in the past to no avail.
I used some of these techniques which I found in Human Technology at the time. The next day she called and said, ” Alyse, I don’t know what you guys are doing over there in Dahn Yoga but whatever you did for me yesterday created a miracle, I slept pain free for the first time in 10 weeks. Can you come again tomorrow? ” I explained that it was not me but she and energy that healed her body. Till this day she just shakes her head in wonder.
It feels wonderful to be able to help someone in this way. Thank you so much for the chance to reach out in a healing way.
This is very helpful, thank you!
I found this article very helpful! When I teach my senior outreach group, I often use acupressure points to relieve common symptoms.
Thank you!