So as part of my ever-expanding attempt to cure some weird nerve/tendon/muscle pain in my shoulder and arm, I recently let the acupuncturist try something new. Gua sha.
Gua sha, pronounced gwahshah, which is Chinese for scraping, was offered to me as a way to get the blood moving in a specific area but also something that wasn’t as intense as cupping, which I have already tried and loved, but wasn’t appropriate for the fold of my arm which is much too delicate. So I thought, why not?
While ‘why not?’ has been known to get me in some hot water from time to time, on this occasion it led me to an experience which could easily be a regular part of my practice.
Gua sha is the practice of using a tool, in my case a shallow porcelain spoon, to apply pressure and essentially scrape the skin. Gua sha is used to relieve pain and tension and even though it can cause some light bruising, it does not hurt. Or at least it should not if you are with a practitioner who knows what they are doing, like mine. The bruises often show up as purple or red spots known as petechiae or sha. Hence the name.
So what was it like? It honestly felt a little odd to have someone using a spoon I might normally eat ramen with on my arm but it didn’t hurt and I didn’t really bruise, although there were some sha, for me they were red but more like stripes instead of spots, on my arm where the therapist was treating me.
The real measure of its usefulness, however, was later, after I had been home for a few hours. I had an extreme response in the best possible way. I wasn’t thinking about it; I was distracted by my phone, and I went to reach for something with my other hand, picked it up and then realized how far I had stretched and how little pain I had felt.
When I say I was surprised, it is an understatement. I have no idea why scraping my arm with a spoon made inside my arm hurt less, but it did.
Why am I telling you this? Well, because I hope you lean something new, and I hope if you are having pain you might find some new information that will help you, and because I learned something.
“What did you learn?” you may be thinking, “You led a lady scrape your arm with a spoon you’d normally use for miso soup.” I can almost hear your incredulity. I mean, I get it, it’s a spoon, but it was more than just an interesting moment.
What I learned wasn’t necessarily about gua sha, but more about myself. Don’t get me wrong, learning there is another tool I can use to relieve pain is nothing to sneeze at. But the larger lesson I walked away with was a reminder that sometimes you need to suspend judgement to give something new a chance. Had I refused the spoon scraping experience I wouldn’t have known that it would actually help, and while I would probably have felt justified in refusing to let someone scrape my arm with a spoon, I would have missed something whose outcome I actually liked. Was I thrilled by the process? No. But did it have a great effect? Yes. So even more than just allowing yourself to accept new things is the idea that you not only have to just go for it sometimes, but then you have to give something new a chance to actually work.
Which, in terms of life is a pretty good lesson.
Duct Tape and Dreams 