Hi, I'm Hilary Talbott, acupuncture physician and clinical herbalist, coming to you today from St. Petersburg, Florida. Today, we will be talking about acupressure points to treat anxiety. Now, if you've ever experienced anxiety, you know that it can diminish your quality of life, popping up at times where you don't want it to. So, I'm going to show you just a couple quick techniques that you can do to hopefully minimize the anxiety in those instances. Now, because anxiety affects most of us in the head, and we tend to obsess and over think about a lot of things, these points are going to be located on the head. They're two of my favorites. They are a series of points actually, Bladder 3, all the way back to Bladder 7. Now, to find the bladder meridian, it's really quite easy. The bladder meridian actually starts here in the inner canthus of the eye, and Bladder 2 is located here, just at the divot in the medial portion of the eyebrow. So, once you find that, you'll just drag your fingers back until you hit just behind the hairline. There's often a little divot here in the skull as well. And, this is Bladder 3, and this is where the points start, and they continue back to Bladder 7, which is about one or two finger breadths back. And, these points, when they're utilized in this way, we refer to them as two dragons. So, slaying the dragons of your anxiety. So, what you'll do is you'll just start with firm pressure, with the tips of your finger, because we're working on the head. And, you'll pulsate in a circular motion, and work your way back through the bladder line, relieving and tension that you might be feeling in your face. Now, always while treating anxiety, a big relief other than acupressure can be the breath. So, while you're doing this, taking some nice deep breaths into your belly, and exhaling longer than you inhale, will actually help to alleviate the anxiety as well. So, these two things together can be really useful. And, if you're not in a public place, or somewhere where you feel like you'll be embarrassed, you can actually make an audible exhale by kind of gently constricting the back of your throat. And, what that does, is it kind of helps to discharge any tension or negative energy that your body is holding that's kind of causing the anxiety to accumulate and get worse. And, another point that is often very helpful, and I've showed you many times, is Yin Tong, the extra point located right between the eyebrows. And, this point is akin to the third eye. So, it would be said that this helps to calm you, and actually see things for what they are, which sometimes, with anxiety, we tend to overwork our minds, and think about things that haven't even happened yet. So, if anxiety is something that you experience more than say once a month, and it's not fleeting, it comes at inappropriate times, and especially if it's something that you experience on more days than not, then I encourage you to seek treatment from your local acupuncture physician. Acupuncture and herbs can be a really effective, non-invasive way to help treat anxiety, and give you feelings of self-control in conquering anxiety. I'm Hilary Talbott, and that was acupressure for treating anxiety.
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