Benefits of ear rubs – ear reflexology
During the Winter Olympics the youngest Russian figure skater Yulia Lipnitskaya was getting her ears rubbed before her performance. I guess it’s a common practice in Russia to massage the athlete’s ears before the competition. This week I’m going to talk about the benefits of the ear rub.
Ears have been used to diagnose and treat ailments for centuries even in ancient Egypt. There are many acupuncture points on each ear. 200 is the most # of auricular acupuncture points that I’ve read that correspond to different body parts, feelings, and ailments. That’s a lot of points in the tiny space. Just like the reflexology of hands and feet, ear represents the whole body. The mapping of the ear reflexology is based on the image of an upside down fetus imposed onto an ear. In general, the outer edge represents the outer body parts such as shoulder, elbow, arm, and leg. The inner edge represents the spine and organs.
First take out the earrings. Use your thumb and index finger to rub down the outer edge of the ear. Now I’m indirectly massaging my toes, heel, ankle, fingers, arm, elbow, shoulder. The earlobe represents face and eyes.
Then rub the inner edge of the ear. This ledge inside represents the spine. Now I’m massaging the spine and the organs such as bladder, kidney, pancreas, liver, stomach, lung, and heart.
When you rub your ears you are stimulating the entire body to increase the blood flow, energy, and focus level as well as relieving pain in a specific body part. Also it helps you to calm down and relax. Ears are small and very accessible so the ear rubs are the quickest full body massage. But if someone asks you to massage, I wouldn’t just massage the ears and say done. It will not fly at least with me. I will talk about specific points some other time.
Whether you are an athlete or not, try rubbing your ears before you perform or compete and see if it helps you. If you haven’t seen Yulia Lipnitskaya’s ear rub video I have the link in my blog below.
Happy Massaging!
3-14-14 Benefits of ear rub http://bit.ly/mm-032414
Yulia’s ear rub (courtesy of Rachel on Vine): http://bit.ly/yuliaearrub
