The Amazing Journey of Gua Sha: It Turns Out Gua Sha Has the Effect of “Four Ounces Moving a Thousand Pounds”
Exploring the Deep Therapeutic Effects Behind Gua Sha
In the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) health culture, Gua Sha is an ancient therapy that stimulates specific acupuncture points on the skin’s surface to adjust Qi and blood, and to unblock meridians. I remember during the Gua Sha class, the teacher said, “Gua Sha has the effect of four ounces moving a thousand pounds.” At that time, I was confused, only knowing to scrape mindlessly, and was happy to see red marks. This should be a necessary path for every beginner in Gua Sha. My understanding continued until an offline class in the health class, which sparked my strong interest in scraping the forehead.
01
An Unexpected Experience
During an offline class, my partner scraped my forehead, and when I woke up, I surprisingly felt sore all over, cold, and had no appetite. The symptoms lasted for a day before gradually disappearing.Afterwards, I racked my brain but couldn’t remember the scraping process, as I had slept too deeply.Since the teacher was present during the treatment, it was undoubtedly a reaction from the scraping.This experience piqued my strong interest in scraping the forehead.
02
Practice and Discovery
After returning home, I practiced with four classmates from my group, first using the scraping method learned in the training camp to disperse knots, and then using their gentle techniques to adjust Qi. We discovered that the effect was greater than the sum of its parts, and we were both excited.I decided to find a few classmates during the offline class to try again, and unexpectedly, their feedback shocked me even more!Below are the treatment records and feedback from each classmate after scraping.
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In-Depth Reflection and Insights
Through the above practices, I have the following reflections: 1. The forehead is undoubtedly related to the gastrointestinal system, as everyone has a reaction of gastrointestinal peristalsis. 2. The forehead is traversed by the Bladder Meridian (Pangguang Jing), Stomach Meridian (Wei Jing), Liver and Gallbladder Meridian (Gan Dan Jing), and Governing Vessel (Dumai), which may relate to other reactions. 3. Both the practitioner and the recipient should be sufficiently relaxed for better results. 4. Concentrated practice on one area allows for deeper insights from a larger sample of observations. Teacher Xu emphasizes that to transform from seeing with the naked eye to seeing with wisdom, one must cultivate the body and calm the mind to perceive things that others cannot. A friend who has been my model since I started learning three years ago often asks me why it was so painful before, but now it doesn’t hurt and feels like it can penetrate. Perhaps besides practice, the essence of skill is also important! I don’t know when the skill was acquired, but during mutual scraping and moxibustion with classmates, I found that both parties unknowingly grew.
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