Gua Sha (pronounced gwa-shah!) is a tool (or multiple tools) used to scrape the skin to increase blood circulation. Thousands of years ago, ancient Chinese medicine practitioners used scraping tools to increase blood circulation and heal the body.
When you give yourself a Gua Sha massage, you're actually scraping all the water and lymphatic fluid under your skin up to the edges of your face, then pulling it down your neck to drain. It's kind of gross, but also cool, right? It moves all the blood under your skin, so your face is plumped up with fresh, fresh blood after the scraping.
In Chinese medicine, Gua Sha comes in the form of spoons and other objects (which are completely different from all the scraping stones you see on Instagram). Typically, scraping is made from jade or rose quartz stones (jade is known for its purifying and healing energies).
Here, I discuss Gua Sha as a facial massage tool. However, there are much larger tools that can be used to scrape on the body. I'd love to find an acupuncturist to learn about all the amazing things Gua Sha can do for my body, because I've seen how it helps my face!
Benefits of Gua Sha
Improves blood circulation
Gua Sha is a tool for increasing blood flow to the face. The circulation itself has many benefits, from reducing inflammation, adding radiance to the skin, anti-aging, and more.
Helps with lymphatic drainage
Have excess fluid on your face? Gua Sha can help with that. Lymphatic fluid is basically all the fluid that comes from the lymph nodes but has not fully returned to the cardiovascular system. Massaging the skin helps drain the fluid from the face (nausea) and Gua Sha is the perfect tool to get all that fluid out of the body.
Relieves Muscle Tension
As you scrape Gua Sha across your skin, you will begin to feel an immediate relaxation in your face. For years, everyone thought I had TMJ disorder because of my jaw problem, but it turns out that when I was stressed (which was basically all the time), I would clench my jaw in my sleep. As soon as I started using Gua Sha, I immediately noticed that my jaw was less tight and more relaxed than ever before.
