 In day-to-day life when people feel stressed or feel anxious the tendency is to always reach for a substance. Now that substance can be food, it can be coffee, it can be a medication. But in my experience the two fastest ways to calm the nervous system are either through breathing or through somatic exercises like physical exercise. Now in this video I thought I would highlight four acupuncture points that you can do acupressure on or self massage that will often really help down-regulate and calm the nervous system. Hey guys I'm Dr. Alex Hine, doctor of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine and author of the health book Master of the Day. Before we jump into this video I've put together two very important links. The first right below the video is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine. The second is for a free guide. Four daily rituals that can potentially help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. So check them out right there below. Now the very first point that is often massaged I have a very fond memory of doing judo when I was a child. I was working with a teacher called Dr. Lee, a Korean man who was a very very high-ranking judoka. One of the classes we were doing you know a wrestling, a noir on our knees and the two of us young boys bonked heads and we both started crying. Now Master Lee came up to me and he took my hand and he started massaging this point and it was so painful. This point right between the thumb and the index finger, the fleshy pad. Massaged it so so so painful and I remember within a minute I was no longer crying and my head wasn't hurting. Now this point called Hugu is large intestine 4 and it's one of the points we use. I mean it's associated with the large intestine. It's called the UN source point of the large intestine. But this point in particular is often used for digestive issues and headaches and it's also used for colds when you catch a cold or a viral infection. But Hugu is one of those great points you can use for stress, for headaches, or in general if you want to calm the nervous system down. So there are a few ways of stimulating Hugu that I would recommend. One is just massaging it right, massaging it just in a clockwise fashion and applying pressure until it's a little bit sore. So sometimes it's a bit of a weird sensation Hugu. But the other way is apply pressure, let go. Apply pressure, two, three, let go. Apply pressure, let go. Apply pressure, let go. So that's the very first point Hugu. The second point is called Shanzhong, which is Shanzhong is really the center of the chest. So it's really an anatomical reference. So Ren 17, let's just say intuitively where you feel the center of your breast bone, your sternum to be, it's pretty clear if you go from your throat to the xiphoid, really the top of your epigastrium, and you find really what feels like the center of your sternum. This area is called the Mu point of the pericardium. Now pericardium in Chinese medicine is often called the xinbao, the heart protector. And it's interesting because this area in the body, through cultures all over the world, people instinctively cover their chest when they feel fear or when something is very heartwarming or endearing, people intuitively do this. So the heart is almost the holographic mirror of the nervous system. Because when people feel love or when they feel connected or when they feel afraid, people tend to instinctively protect the chest. But in particular, people don't clutch their stomach. When they feel fear, they clutch their chest. So there's something intuitive and primal, instinctive about covering this area on the chest. This area is often needled for chest related issues, shortness of breath, chest discomfort, heart pain. And the way I recommend really activating this area is one of two ways. The first is taking your palms like this and just clockwise circles, one, one thousand, two, one thousand, three, one thousand. So this sort of tempo and just doing that for five minutes straight. This is one of those motions that for people who have anxiety that prevents them from falling asleep or people who wake in the middle of the night, doing this for five to 10 minutes is often the thing that helps them get to bed. As opposed to relying on a meditation tape or some kind of cognitive behavioral therapy, a somatic exercise is often 10 times more effective than anything cognitive. Trying to change your thoughts, try changing your body because the anxiety is often in the body, not in the mind. So that's a very effective exercise. The other one is tapping. So I would say try both of these and see what is more calming. Probably the palms will be more calming, but there's a Qigong technique where you say ha, like HA, ha, and you tap the pericardium point here to help open this area. So that's the second point, Shanzhong. The third point Tai Bai is Splene 3, so the Yuan source point of the Splene channel. Now this point is often used for issues with the stomach, the intestines, the pancreas, bloating, gas indigestion, issues going on the intestines, changes in bowel movements, that sort of thing. One of the main benefits I've seen of Tai Bai, massaging this whole channel, the Splene or in the kidney channel, is that it helps people descend the Qi, right? Calm the nervous system down, especially for insomniacs. So for this point, very often massaging it and running your hands along the channel, including going into the point kidney 1, Yongchuan, underneath the foot, will be very, very helpful for helping with sleep, helping calm the overall nervous system. And in China, there's really a folk practice of foot baths. People who can't sleep are viewed to basically have, you know, too much Qi ascending, so it can't descend into sleep. So people will do hot foot baths before bed, sometimes even with herbs and spices in them. And it's quite a relaxing thing. It's worth trying if you've never done it before, but massaging those channels often is very, very soothing. And the last point is really gallbladder 20 or bladder 10, this area. Now this area is called feng shui or tian zhu, tian zhu being celestial or heavenly pillar. And these points on the back of the neck, for one, is obviously a physical location, the suboccipital areas where people hold a lot of tension. Most of us are sitting at deaths all day, but also these points are often needled not only locally for tension there, but often when people get colds and viral infections for headaches, flus, things like that, you know, the second point, tian zhu is a window of the sky point. I think that's what they're called in English. And these points are often used for psycho emotional conditions. In my opinion, the best way to help this area calm down or really to really down regulate the nervous system is to have someone lay on their back and just gently put your hands on their suboccipital area, place your fingers into that little suboccipital ridge, right, where you feel the skull and just apply gentle pressure and some traction. And this is one of those things that for people who are severe insomniacs, they may honestly be exclusively relying on medication. And this somatic exercise can be the one on its own that helps them fall asleep. The effect in the nervous system is incredibly profound. So one of the ways you can relax this is during the day, you can just massage it obliquely like this. And alternatively, if you obviously have someone there, the absolute best way is lay down and have someone just put their hands under your head, put some traction in the suboccipital area and just cradle the head for five to 10 minutes. A lot of people will just fall asleep doing that alone. So these four points can be incredibly useful. Hugu, Shan Zhong, Tai Bai on the foot, and Feng Shui or Teng Zhu. So next time you're feeling stressed, try some of these techniques for these points and let me know how you guys feel, all right? Check out those links below the video before you go and I'll see you soon.