Reaching those difficult places in Acupressure and Reflexology

If you’re treating yourself, you can easily reach all the reflexology points and many of the acupressure points; however, some of the acupressure points require a bit of twisting and stretching; and still others may not be reachable at all! You may wish that you needed acupressure only on the easy points, but most people want to reach the points on the back the most. That’s when a few tools can come in handy. Here are a couple of suggestions:

• Two tennis balls and a sock: The easiest and perhaps best tool you can ever have is simply made up of two tennis balls and a sock. Put the tennis balls in the sock all the way to the toe, and then tie the end of the sock so that the balls are held tightly together. Voilà — an acupressure tool! Simply place this tool of advanced technology between your back and the floor when lying down, or lean against a wall with the sock between your back and the wall (this technique works well when you want less pressure than your full body weight). Experiment by moving, rolling, and pressing to create the pressure you want on the areas you most need.
• Professional acupressure tools for the back: The best type of tool we’ve found for back acupressure points is anything with a knob ending on a curved or S-shaped rod. You can position the curve around your body or over your shoulder to place the knob exactly where you need it. A little leverage is all you need for just the right amount of pressure to feel the ahh of relief.

Of course, feet are pretty easy to reach — you probably need tools only if your thumbs get sore (this applies to both acupressure and reflexology). In that case, you may want to try any of the hand-held acupressure tools with knobby ends. They allow you to apply pressure but still give your thumbs a break. General stimulation on your feet is also good, and you can buy lots of rollers and massage mats for pressure point stimulation of the feet. You can easily find acupressure tools on the Internet — simply perform a search, using Massage Tools or Acupressure Tools as your keywords.