Self-help abdominal massage is very simple. It is recommended that you practice steps 1-4 each day and take a whole hour once per week for the full routine for best results.
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- Lie on your back with feet flat, knees raised, supported by pillows.
2. Breathe long and deep, sending air pressure down to your sacrum all the way to your pelvic floor. Continue up all the way to your shoulder blades. Exhale, dropping your chest first, then your abdomen. Breathe gently this way throughout the session.
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Using a fingertip, at the rim of your navel, exhale all the way down, your fingertip descending with your exhale. Inhale and allow your fingertip to rise. Repeatedly, slowly, exhale and then inhale until you feel more at ease. Move your finger to another place around your navel’s rim and do the same. There are up to 8 places, like the directions of a compass, around the navel. Do this for 10 breaths at each place on the rim of the navel, every day to improve digestion and elimination and to relieve nerve, back or neck pain, water retention, and excess body weight. Works with all organs and body systems.
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4. Detox – move away from the navel, massage by pumping the belly, alternating with both hands (5-10 minutes daily).
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5. Starting on your left side: place your right hand on your abdomen, below your ribcage and your left hand on your lower ribcage. Exhale and allow your abdomen hand to descend, as you draw your ribcage over this sunken hand. Inhale and allow the lower hand to expand the ribcage upward with the breath by touching just underneath the ribcage edge. Do this slowly 3 – 5 times. Repeat on the right side.
6. Massage your lower abdomen in a circle by rubbing counter-clockwise a few times (left to right), then clockwise. Alternate gentle pumping with both hands. Massage deeply, but gently, from inside your pelvic bones up toward your navel.
7. Finishing touch – lay your hands flat and send heat to your abdomen, breathing softly for a few minutes.