Acupressure Therapy
“Acupressure is the practice of applying precise pressure, usually fingertips to various points on the body with the goal of balancing life energy called as Qi in Traditional Chinese medicine or CHI in the west”.
Acupressure Means Curing diseases by application of pressure on specific body parts such as Foot, Hand, Face, Ear etc. Application of pressure on foot and hand is known as Response Centres or Reflex Points. Points located on body in the path of energy are known as Acu points or meridian points. All these types of pressure points are known as Acupressure Points. Acute, Chronic or severe Diseases can be cured by Acupressure therapy.
ACUPRESSURE - AN INDIAN THERAPY SYSTEM
Acupressure is evolved form of the ancient Indian deep massage therapy. Acupressure means treating the body by applying pressure on specific points called pressure points, located in the hands, feet, face, ears, legs, back , neck and other parts of the body. Acupressure is suitable for everyone.
Contrary to the popular belief Acupressure-pressure points has not been brought to India from China and other countries but Chinese visitors to India while returning back took Indian Ayurveda Texts to China and propagated the belief worldwide that Acupressure was their gift to the world.
Ancient Indian texts mention exhaustively about Acupressure. It will be informative to add here that, the centuries old Indian tradition of wearing, bangles, kadas (thick bangles), amulets, anklets, lockets, earrings, nose rings etc was a form of simulated Acupressure therapy in those times.
Sources indicate that therapy was included in Ayurveda, the traditional holistic system in India. The first texts with details on Ayurvedic principles and practices were written sometime between 1500 and 500 BCE. Ayurveda took the approach that illnesses occurred when individuals lived out of harmony with thei environment. Touch therapy was used within Ayurveda to help create balance. Sanskrit records have also indicated that massage had been practiced in India long before the beginning of recorded history.
In the Indian book of Ayurveda about 1800B.C.there is an indication about the massage & Acupressure being used for the purpose of healing. How, when and where this system originated lacks consensus but on the basis of certain ancient documents, it is assumed that acupuncture and acupressure, which work on similar theory, were first conceived by Indian thinkers in primitive times. It was form here that the knowledge of these sciences disseminated to certain other countries through students, pilgrims and tourists. Research in Russia has endorsed this contention. On the basis of this research, it is said that the art and science of acupuncture originated in India, not in China, as is believed by most people in the world. This astounding revelation is made in the publication 'Indiskaya editsina Drevneruskom Vrachevaniyii' (Indian medicine in ancient Russian treatment of diseases) by N.A. Bogoyavlensky published in 1956 by the Gosudarstbennoye Izdatelstvo Meditsinkoi Literaturi (State publishing House of Medical Literature), Leningrad Department.
According to Bogoyavlensqone of the prominent scholars of China of VIIth century, Heu;Tsangspent many years in Nalanda University in India. On his return to his own country, he wrote a book in which he described in details the teaching work done in Nalanda University, particularly in the medical science. Another prominent scholar from China, I. Tzin who visited India in 673 A.D., also studied in Nalanda University for many years. In his works, Tzin describes the customs of Indian people, their clothes, food and occupations. He call India a 'Noble Province'. He also mentions that the Indians are imparting medical knowledge to the Chinese viz the complete are of treatment by ricking, now called acupuncture. He also confirmed the flourishing of various branches of medical science in India. Chinese translations of many Indian manuscripts on philosophy, astronomy, mathematics and medical science have been preserved in various libraries in China till date. From China, Indian writings on medicine also circulated to Tibet and some other countries.
Bogoyavlensky's book also contains an interesting and revealing illustration which shows various points and areas in human body for purpose of curative cauterization and acupuncture. This illustration dates back to the first century A.D. and was procured from Eastern India. These early writings undoubtedly establish India's pioneering role in the field of acupressure and acupuncture.
Interestingly, reflexology historian Christine Issel has mentioned that certain traditional paintings of feet of Hindu God Vishnu are covered in symbols coinciding with reflex points, which corroborate that acupressure was widely practised in earlier times in India. Mr. Stanley Burroughs in his book "Healing for the Age of Enlightenment" has tried to authenticate that this sort of medical treatment was known and practised in many parts of ancient India.
