ABDOMINAL MASSAGE – CENTERING & SOOTHING
Aromatherapy for your Abdominal Health
On the back of my last blog on hand & feet massage, an esteemed colleague and friend, Emma of Earthflower Therapies, suggested I should follow it up with a blog on the benefits of abdominal massage.
Tummy, belly, abdomen, stomach, whatever your preferred word, it is an absolute vital area of our anatomy. It houses our entire digestive system, our main breathing muscle; the diaphragm, other organs like the spleen, pancreas; strange organs that most people have no idea what they do…. Our solar plexus sits in the abdomen, for some, this is where they believe their sole resides, for others its home to the 3rd Chakra, the Manipura, the seat of our self-esteem and also where we feel anxiety.
A complicated intricate system whatever your beliefs. Finely tuned and working for us without much conscious effort, a typical part of our autonomic nervous system. However, it can easily be disrupted by stress. When we feel alarmed or anxious our adrenaline levels rise in order for us to react. This is our ancient fight or flight response – something we’ve all heard of – part of this response is for the body to divert blood and energy away from areas that don’t necessarily need our full attention at that moment of stress. In response to this our digestive system may stop working efficiently, and could lead to digestive disorders.
So how can massage and essential oils help?
The internal flow of the digestive tract work in a clockwise direction, so looking down at your belly button, deep inside, your large intestine is processing your breakfast up the right hand side of your body across and above your belly button and flowing down the left hand side of your body, towards the exit! This can get sluggish, stuck, a simple but effective massage of this are can bring relief, calm and stillness that can be quite surprising to the recipient.
Not everyone likes having their tummy touched, your therapist may not even offer abdominal massage, but it’s something that you can easily do yourself. If you don’t want to move your hands you can just place them over your tummy, something this can settle the digestive system and even calm the breath.
A suggested blend for you to use
To 20mls of base/vegetable oil add 2 drops of Coriander seed- Coriandrum sativum, 1 drop of Sweet Orange – Citrus sinensis and 1 drop of Peppermint- Mentha piperita.
These oils are indicated for digestive stress/disorder, they have been used traditionally for many years to re balance digestive patterns. If you don’t have any essential oils just use a base oil!
Then follow this routine:
-
Lie on your back (you can bend your knees if more comfortable)
-
Place your hands centrally over your belly button and quieten your breathing. Place one hand on top of the other and reach down to the bottom right hand side of your waist, just above your groin.
-
Now in a clockwise direction slide your hand up toward your ribs, continue across your tummy, above your belly button, and slide down the left-hand side of your body
-
Repeat this for a few minutes, start gently and slowly build the pressure, but keep it comfortable and slow
This should hopefully bring a sense of calm, a feeling of connectedness and tranquillity.
Enjoy!