Gua Sha Demystified

Gua Sha is an ancient healing technique with roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It roughly translates to "scraping". The technique was used originally as a treatment for overheating and for seasonal colds. One could use the edges of spoons or coins.

We've since discovered many other uses for the technique, and developed tools made specifically for the practice: with curves that contour your body, edges that are sharp enough to be effective and smooth enough to be enjoyable.

These Gua Sha tools of various shapes and sizes can be applied anywhere on the body. The long scraping technique is applied with considerable pressure. A type of visible bruising, called petechiae or Sha, is common and is actually a positive sign of effectiveness. It comes from blood vessels visibly breaking, causing microtraumas, which activates your body's natural healing and regenerative response specifically in that area. It's different from a typical bruise that might come from an abrupt impact. It's not as sensitive to the touch. The coloring ranges from pink to darker red, as opposed to bluish green or yellow. 

Some benefits of Gua Sha are improved lymphatic flow and blood circulation, oxygenating the tissues, relieving stagnation and encouraging movement of Chi,  repatterning scar tissue and adhesions in the musculature and connective tissue, improved flexibility and range of motion, detoxification, toning and contouring, smoothing fine lines and wrinkles, encouraging oil and collagen production, relief from TMJ, and the list goes on.

Gua Sha has been dubbed a natural temporary face lift. But more importantly, beauty and graceful aging is a welcomed result of prioritizing vibrant holistic health. Focus on the latter and the former will inevitably follow.

Gua Sha is available as an Enhancement to any of the Healing Sessions at Heartsong. There's nothing quite like experiential knowledge so try it in your next treatment.