Self-Massage: Ayurvedic Oil Massage (Abhyanga)

Lesson 8 Self Abhyanga Ayurvedic Oil Massage.

Today we are going to perform Self Abhyanga Ayurvedic Oil Massage.

Daily Abhyanga practice is one of the crucial and essential parts of the Ayurvedic daily routine that today in our modern life it is more important than ever.

A daily Abhyanga practice giving yourself an oil massage every day restores balance of all the biological agents that govern the body and mind.

It enhances overall well-being,

Longevity and enlivens our internal modeling intelligence.

Regular Abhyanga is especially grounding and relaxing for those with an ungrounded or unstable nervous system or emotional state what in Ayurveda we call the Vata Dosha.

But everyone of all body types substantially benefit from this practice of giving yourself an oil massage every day.

Abhyanga especially enhances number one lymphatic drainage.

This is the factor,

This is the fluid that is responsible for draining all the toxins in our body as well as circulating our immune system.

It enhances blood circulation.

It enhances the microbiome living on your skin since your skin and also your gut is the home to the highest amount of species of microbes which are the microorganisms and the bugs that do all the hard work for your body's mechanisms.

So when we do this self oil massage we are feeding and enhancing the health of the microbiome living on our skin.

Abhyanga also enhances the ability to tone,

Shape and strengthen the body.

It is a great to prevent injuries and protects against any excessive strain that might be undergone with exercise or physical work.

Abhyanga enhances youthful skin and a radiant energetic body and most notably as I said Abhyanga pacifies the nervous system.

Your skin is the largest organ.

It has more nerve endings than any other part of your body.

So when you anoint oil on those nerve endings and then you massage them it profoundly helps ground and strengthen the nervous system.

The skin now is becoming known in medical fields as the third brain because the skin is home to trillions of nerve conductors,

Microbial colonies and epidermal keratinocytes which are the sensory and signaling pathways that are highly receptive to the environment,

To oils and to touch.

So let's get into the technique of how to lovingly anoint yourself from head to toe with warm oil.

This practice is called Abhyanga and I'm going to share with you the full version of how to do it and then at the end I'm going to share a quick version.

So get your space ready and this audio is going to guide you into going through Abhyanga.

The full technique of self Abhyanga.

First of all find a warm and comfortable private space.

You can sit naked on a towel or on a towel on a yoga mat and have a bowl of warm oil.

Now what oil to use?

You can use sesame oil in the winter or if you're in a cold climate.

You can use plain coconut oil in the summer or a hot climate or if you have sensitive skin that is prone to redness,

Irritation,

Itchiness,

Dermatitis because coconut oil helps soothe that irritated heat in the skin.

Sesame is heating that's why we'll use it for the winter or coconut is cooling we use it for the summer.

You can also use a medicated Ayurvedic massage oil which is ideal.

You can use other massage oils like almond oils but better to stick to traditional oils as sesame and coconut have the ability to penetrate the layers of the skin and even penetrate the bodily tissues and they also won't oxidize like for example if you were to use olive oil on your skin that could oxidize and create some blockages in the sweat pores.

I suggest you keep the oil in a stainless steel bowl as that way it can be easily heated up by sitting the steel bowl on top of a mug of hot water,

Steaming hot water.

This way the steam will heat up the oil pretty fast in a stainless steel bowl.

Other ways you can heat up this oil we want to warm it up is you can put oil in a pot or a pan and heat it on the stove on a low flame and then transfer it into a bowl.

You can also put any bowl of an appropriate material in a bigger bowl of hot water.

So now you're sitting with your towel and your bowl of warm oil.

The first step to start the massage is to start by lubricating your whole body as if you're moisturizing your whole body.

Take generous amounts of oil in your hand and start from head to toe.

Start at the head,

Get oil under your hair,

Under your scalp,

Lift up your hair,

Pull up your hair if you have hair or long hair especially and oiliate there under there the scalp.

So you want to your scalp to be generously oily.

Then we're going to massage the face.

You can move to the ears,

The face,

All around the face,

The nose,

Behind the ears,

The neck and now move down to the chest.

Massage your chest.

The armpit region,

The axilla region,

The belly,

The whole torso.

You are oiliating.

Now move to the back.

As much as you can reach,

Massage your back.

Bring your hands behind you to access as much of your spine as possible.

Maybe you're putting both hands at the lower back or you're giving yourself a hug.

When you give yourself a hug you can kind of get to the ribcage,

The back of the ribcage and of course behind your neck,

Behind your shoulders as much as possible.

Now we're going to move to the arms.

If you identify more with the feminine you can massage your left arm first and if you're more with the masculine you can massage your right arm first.

So start with the oiliation.

We're only oiliating at the moment,

Not massaging and you're going to just be putting oil on both of your arms.

The armpits,

Whole arms,

Wrists and the hands.

Now we're going to move to the thighs and the whole legs and the hips.

So start at the hips,

The pelvis,

The groin.

We want to massage that area in the genitals.

We're going to just oiliate for now and then the thighs,

The knees,

Calf,

Full legs,

Feet and toes.

Now your whole body should be well lubricated.

If not,

Pause this audio and once you've finished completely oiliating the body,

Just having a good generous amount of oiliation,

You can then return.

Now we are going to start the actual massage.

Before we start I want you to know that the main purpose of the strokes are to soothe and stimulate the tissues gently and to pacify the nervous system via the connections the skin has to all the inner organs and systems within our physiology.

So the point is to be gentle,

Not too deep or strong.

Step one,

The head.

The head is the most important.

It's the seat of our nervous system.

So your head should be well lubricated.

If not,

You can pour some more oil on the crown of your head and for those who don't want to get their hair so oily,

Which I understand especially if you have long hair,

Just applying a few drops of oil on the crown of head and rubbing it into the crown and pressing it is enough.

So if you have long hair perhaps you're doing a full head oil massage once or twice or a few times a week.

So whether you're doing it or you're doing the little amount of oil on your head,

We're going to start at the crown and we're just going to press the crown of our head and give it a bit of a rub,

Rubbing oil into the crown of our head with the center of our palm.

The crown of our head is located at the front fontanelle at the top of your head.

So just pressing oil in the crown.

Now we're going to move to the whole scalp.

Like washing your hair or washing your head if you don't have hair,

You're going to be washing your hair with oil.

So getting your fingertips,

You want to be quite vigorous with the head.

So you're massaging this oil in,

Adjust it to your comfort level.

You can make like claws with your fingers.

Keep your fingers firm and with your claw fingers,

Your claw hands,

Make circles on the head.

Do circles with both hands all around the head everywhere.

Don't miss a spot.

Top of head,

Side of head,

Back of head,

Near where the head meets the ears,

Near where the head meets the neck.

You want to be vigorously and well massaging all of the head.

You can keep your fingers strong and straight and with the fingertips move your hands and fingers from the center of your head towards your ears,

Back and forth.

You want to be massaging well.

Now we've kind of activated,

We've give some strong massage.

You want to gently pull the roots of the hair if you have hair.

Grab the roots and not pulling the hair but grabbing the roots and giving a gentle squeeze,

A hold,

Activating those parts of the brain.

And then you can massage your whole hands wherever you can using the flat parts of your finger pads rather than the fingertips.

You can do strokes circular,

Straight,

Back and forth,

Whatever you prefer.

Continue the head for a couple or few minutes.

Step 2,

The face.

As if applying sunscreen on your face,

With both of your whole hands massage up and down your whole face.

You can massage your forehead sideways with one hand,

Side to side.

You can move to your cheeks with both of your hands.

Stretch out your hands strong but relaxed and with the center of both of your palms massage your cheeks in circles.

Perhaps you can go up and back,

Up and back and around.

Massaging your cheeks in circles with both of your hands you can move to the temples.

You can move to the ear region,

Up and around,

Circles up and back,

Up and back,

Both.

And then with your index and your middle finger,

If you wish,

You can scissor up and down your ears.

So we're now at the ears.

With your fingers you're kind of running your index and middle finger up and down the ear like a track.

The track is the ears.

Now take a moment to dip one finger of each of your hands in the bowl of oil and stick them right inside your ears.

We want to get oil deep into our ears.

We want to lubricate that part of the ear as it's the part that protects the brain,

Is the gateway to the brain.

With your thumb and index you can massage your earlobes behind the ears.

This is home to essential energy points or vital points and nerve endings which we call marma points in Ayurveda.

And now you can massage the chin with your fingers and your thumb pressing the parts of the chin and the jawbone or your,

Like you did with the ears,

You're in between your fingers massaging the chin.

Now we're going to move to the neck.

Step three,

The neck.

This is a simple side to side on the neck with both of your hands.

You can move to the back of your neck,

Back and up and around.

In the front of the neck you can go up as well towards the chin strokes.

Then you can move to the chest.

Moving to the chest,

Massaging your chest,

Especially those breast muscles,

Those pectoral muscles,

A lot in the armpit.

Really using your flat parts of your hands on the armpits,

The front of your body,

The front of your armpits before we get under there.

And you can also go under there and with the tummy,

Particularly clockwise motions on the tummy.

If you're looking at your tummy,

Your belly with your hand,

Whatever hand is comfortable doing clockwise motions.

Really relaxing the tummy,

Perhaps squeezing the tummy a little bit,

Going deep in seeing how soft your tummy can be.

Hopefully you're on a light stomach and you can go deeper in.

Now you can massage the back,

Perhaps start with the lower back since we're coming from the tummy to the lower back and just as much as you can start with the sides of your torso,

Just above the hips,

Circles up and around like a butterfly,

Butterfly strokes as I call them,

Up and around.

And then going on the sides and more towards the back,

More towards your spine as much as you can reach.

Then we can move up the spine and we can now move to hugging yourself.

So as if you have for example your left hand behind your right ribs under your right auxiliary,

Under your right armpit.

Again your left hand under your right armpit to reach the back and your right hand above your left shoulder to reach behind your shoulder,

Your left shoulder.

So kind of moving that back and forth,

Switching that from the right and the left so that you're getting under the armpits at the back of your body and above the armpits,

Above the shoulders of the back of your body.

And you can do both those as much as you can basically massage the back.

And once you've done that we're going to move to the arms.

If you're feminine you can start with the left side,

If you're masculine you can start with the right arm.

So start with the shoulder,

Circles on the shoulders.

One of the general principles of Ayurvedic massage is circles on the joints.

So we're going to go circles on the shoulder and then long on the limbs.

So we're going to go to the upper arm,

I'm going to go up and down,

Up and down.

And then we're going to move to the elbow,

I'm going to go circle on the elbow joint,

I'm going to go up and down,

Up and down the forearm.

Really getting that muscle in what's comfortable.

The beautiful thing about self-hypnosis is that you go,

You can feel your pressure and that's why it's such a safe thing.

That's why during pregnancy it's more advised to do self-hypnosis younger rather than have it done by a practitioner because there's kind of no risk of going too strong or activating pressure points that may cause problems.

So now you'll be massaging your forearm up and down,

You can go to your wrist,

Circles on the joints,

Kind of just turning your wrist in your hand and getting as much as you can in the wrist and moving to the hand.

Especially getting those muscles on the sole of the hand,

In between the bases of the fingers and the top of the hand.

Each finger giving the fingers perhaps a press all along the finger,

Pressing starting at the base of the fingers and moving up the finger,

Pressing it and going through each finger of the right or left hand,

You're starting with,

Whatever one you're starting with.

And then if you feel you might want to do full up and down of the whole arm,

Passive strokes and then you can move to the other arm.

So again starting with the auxiliary region,

The armpit,

Around the shoulders as well,

Circles around the shoulders,

Then up and down on the upper arm,

Getting the trapezoidal muscles,

The muscles towards the back of your arm and more gentle of course on the biceps,

This is the beauty of self-ab young that you can feel which muscle,

The sensitivity levels of that.

Elbows,

Circles on the elbows and then forearm up and down,

Up and down.

Moving to the wrists,

Circles on the wrist,

Maybe you're going more concentrated on the wrists with your thumbs and your index finger,

Little points,

Bottom of the wrists,

Top of your wrist and then the hands,

Really pressing,

Getting in between those hand muscles,

In between those metatarsals and again each finger,

Pressing each finger,

Little presses until you make your way up the finger,

Cover the whole finger with a good press or even grabbing the whole finger with your other hand,

Your whole hand so you can fit your whole hand over one of the fingers,

Giving good press.

Now we're going to move to the lower part of the body,

You can start at the hips,

If you're feminine start with the left side,

Masculine start with the right side.

I'm going to start on the groin,

Really that hip joint,

You're going to grab both of your hands and like you're holding a big thigh,

Literally you are,

Grab the pelvis and as much as you can circling around the pelvis,

Around the hip joint,

So in the groin basically and then giving some circles and then we want to go down the leg,

Up and down the leg with more pressure going down,

It's the same with the arms,

With the limbs we want more pressure going downward,

This is going to help improve the vata dosha or what we call the governor of the nervous system and everything's moving down,

So from the hip to the knee,

Up and down with these two big hands,

That's got to fit over your thigh as much as possible and putting more strength,

More on the downward motion,

These thighs are big seats of the lymphatic system and the groin is like the mulam,

The root of the lymph,

So we're pushing this down,

We're enhancing that lymphatic circulation and then we're getting to the knees and the knees we're kind of going around circles,

Circles can be like flat hands going around both of your hands circulating the knee joint using your thumbs to be more deep in the knee,

So just little movements with your thumbs and being able to move the thumbs back and forth,

Back and forth in really small movements all around the knee,

However you like,

Massage of the knee and then move to the calf muscle,

If you haven't already you can bend your legs slightly with your foot flat on the floor and then really basically just downward motion is enough,

No need to go up,

Just down and down,

One hand after the other,

Like you're milking a cow with a very big udder which is your calf muscle,

Down and down and down and down and down pushing that lymph down,

Now we're going to go to the ankle and we're going to again circles around the joints,

That's the general principle,

So with flat parts of both of your hands circle the ankle and you're going to go to the foot now,

Grab your fingertips,

The flat parts of your finger,

Not the tips but the flat parts of your pads of your finger and run them along the toes of your metatarsals which are the bones of the feet,

Run them along and massaging the top of the foot then going to the sole of the foot,

One of the most important parts of self-repair,

The sole of the feet,

As much as you can,

Whether you're like you're tying your shoelace but you're grabbing your fingers under your feet or you're bringing your leg to a cross kind of legged position where you can sit your feet in your lap with your sole facing you and massaging that with your thumbs and then once you've given your ankles especially a good massage,

Toes a good massage,

Feet good massage,

You can move to the other leg so move to the left or right leg and start again at the hip joint,

At the pelvis,

At the groin doing circles with these big hands,

Trying to kind of hold your whole thigh with your big hands,

Keep that circumference of the groin joint intact holding and then pressure going down,

Going down with both hands in a strong way and then circulating the knee joint however you like with the concentrated strokes with your thumb and then going down to the calf muscle,

Lifting,

Bending your leg,

Foot flat on the ground so that you can just have a nice runway like you're milking an udder of a cow but that's your thigh and really strong going down,

Not really strong but more strong going down where that's comfortable then moving to the ankle giving some nice circles of the ankle with the flat of your palms and massaging the top of your feet,

The soles of the feet,

The sides of the feet,

The toes giving them squeezes and then that's it,

You can sit cross-legged and enjoy for a moment,

Take a moment sitting cross-legged or sitting whatever comfortable,

Fully relaxing the belly,

The jaws,

The armpits,

The genitals,

Any part of tension in your body relax and enjoy now before I share with you the short version of how to do that I want to mention some things about Abhyanga in general,

I hope you enjoyed that Abhyanga practice,

That self oil massage,

Now what do we do?

Well you want to leave the oil on for a minimum of eight minutes from when you moisturized,

From when you first applied the oil so it's been more than eight minutes if you like you can go straight into a shower however it's ideal to leave the oil on for 45 minutes even 30 minutes is great,

20 minutes is great so you could do some exercise now if it's warm you can sit and meditate now if it's not warm put some what the Ayurvedic community calls Abhyanga clothes,

Some clothes you don't mind getting oily or a blanket or sitting on a towel keeping warm and meditating because it is important after 50 minutes or one hour maximum for you to shower either wash it off in a shower or wipe the oil off,

That is because of the toxins have pulled out,

Been pulled out by the oil,

Oil is lipophilic which means it pulls so it's been pulled out toxins we want to wash after,

After you've washed you can apply oil as much as you want and you can also moisturize as much as you want but that first time of the day that we apply oil on our body it has that action of a lipophilic pulling action so it pulls the toxins we want to wash that off so that's the main things you need to know also when is Abhyanga contraindicated when would you not do Abhyanga?

When you are sick with fever or cold or if you're a woman or anyone who is menstruating or during the first trimester of pregnancy these are some times where you should not do Abhyanga otherwise every day Abhyanga is part of the daily routine just like bathing is also part of the daily routine not only do we bathe ourselves and wash ourselves but before we do that we put oil in our body and we lubricate the skin before washing it so we just did Abhyanga full Abhyanga for about 15 to 20 minutes you can perform that yourself for that time you can use this audio recording as much as you like until you get the hang of it but really it's just the principles of Abhyanga you will develop your own strokes your own way of giving yourself and your unique body a massage we are going to get to the short version but besides the short version you can do this full version for 10 minutes 5 minutes 30 minutes if you want to take it really slow it doesn't matter you find your own groove it's that principles of first moisturizing the whole body lubricating the whole body and starting with the head going to your toes now for the short version of Abhyanga this is for times when you don't have time and it's a very quick part of just lubricating the marma points the vital energetic points of our body which when we apply oil that can go throughout the whole body and pacify all the things that we mentioned like nervous system and the blood circulation and the sensory organs so with your oil even if it's not warm just take some oil and rub a bit dip your fingers in the oil and a bit into the crown of your head put some in your ears rub some on the tip of your nose around the nostril periphery area so that you kind of inhale that oil up some in the belly button apply some oil in the center of your palms just a little bit of oil and on the center of your soles of the feet and that's simple takes less than one minute it's just that putting the oil to those essential parts of the body so even if you want to write this down or you remember it after but it's crown of head is nostrils belly button center of hands center of feet this will give that Abhyanga effect every day before bathing what time of the day to do Abhyanga any time before your shower it can be in the morning or the evening whenever suits your schedule and that's it simple and essential daily routine which you will get the hang of and how can you go without lubricating your body just like how can you go without bathing your body every day so please let me know how you feel about this practice I would love to know this is one of the daily routines in Airetta there are many more for the more you see our full course on creating a healthy and conscious daily routine on insight timer full course on many other parts of the aerobatic daily routine where Abhyanga is just one of them and enjoy the shield of armor that you gain against stresses and the nourishment and strength that you in do to your nervous system and your whole physiology with self Abhyanga aerobatic oil massage I would love to hear about your experience please leave a review on insight timer review on how you experience this and later how your progress is with self Abhyanga I'd love to know thank you