Benefits of Gua Sha

Posted on November 1, 2023

What is Gua Sha?

Gua sha is rooted in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). According to the principles of TCM, your qi (pronounced “chi”), or energy, must flow throughout your body so you can feel your best. When qi becomes stagnant in certain areas, it’s believed that health problems can occur. With gua sha, a practitioner will use a smooth-edged tool to gently scrape areas of your body where there is inflammation or stagnant qi to help improve circulation and promote healing.

The benefits of Gua Sha

It’s been reported that gua sha can help relieve several health conditions. Gua sha is good for musculoskeletal problems, especially major ones like tightness in the shoulders, legs and back. It can also help alleviate tension headaches, migraines, neck pain or swelling in your body. Gua sha can even help with anxiety and fatigue.

Gua Sha for the face

You’ve probably seen people rubbing gua sha stones across their faces on social media and wondered what was going on. Gua sha has been proven to help relieve tension in the face, reduce puffiness and inflammation, and it can even help reduce sinus pressure. However, since the musculature of the face is much thinner, you’ll want to avoid applying too much pressure as you’re working on this area.