ACUPRESSURE FOR HEART CENTERING

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This acupressure point is a jack of all trades: anxiety, heart palpitations, crummy sleep, nausea, indigestion, coughs, colds, and grief. All these issues can be worked on in this quick lesson — and it feels great too.

Combine this point with a guided meditation if you're working on emotional wellness, sleep, or grief and you'll have an amazing one-two punch!

In this video you’ll learn.

• How to find the Ren 17 acupressure point

• What it’s good for and why

• The best ways to stimulate it
  

Nicole

Nicole Lange

LICENSED ACUPUNCTURIST
HOLISTIC FERTILITY EDUCATOR

• VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

  Hey, it's Nicole Lange here and this is The Baby You Want TV. Your channel for whole-you evidence-based holistic fertility info.

  If you love this channel please be sure to hit the subscribe button so you'll get notified whenever we add something new. Now, let's move on and it's time for another acupressure quickie.

  The other day I was looking for some pictures or a video covering a point that I really really love to use in treatments that I wanted to send to a patient. And then I realized there's not really any super great videos out there on this point and almost all the pictures of the point are shown on dudes. Which I get, because the point we're going to do today is basically right dead center on your chest.

  But come on, boobs are something a lot of us have and we deserve some representation. So here's this video, and I'm going to call this point the heart centering point, but it does so much more as you'll find out in a second.

  It's technically called Conception Vessel 17, CV17, or Ren 17 when you look it up. And it's pretty easy to eyeball. It's basically on the middle of your breastbone, AKA your sternum, and it's right on the line where your nipples would be if you didn't have boobs and your nipples were right on your torso.

  So, let me say it another way. If you can visualize where your nipples, let me say it again, nipples would be if your breasts were totally perky and straight up, and then draw a line between them, this point is on that line right smack dab in the middle of your breastbone.

  Now, no worries if you aren't perfect finding it, especially if you're doing acupressure where you can massage and tap the whole general area, you don't have to get it exactly perfect. Just go along the midline of your sternum and you'll be good to go.

  So what can you use this point for? A better question might actually be what would you not use this point for because you can use it for a ton of really good stuff.

  First off, it's for your lungs. So think about coughs and colds and congestion and asthma. Even just feeling short of breath or stressed and anxious and feeling tight in your chest. This is a fabulous point for lungs and breathing stuff all around. If you've done the Lung7 acupressure video you'll also know that the lungs are the organ Chinese medicine associates with grief and sadness. So think crying, sobbing, wailing, [three sharp inhales], it's all lung function, right? So this is a great point for grief, sadness, and tearfulness too.

  Next, this point is very near your heart and it's thought to be helpful for heart centering hence the name that I gave this video. So think about sleep and calm and literal heart sensations that can come up with a big emotion like a heavy chest or heart palpitations.

  And I'm not just being figurative here either. Research from the International Society for Autonomic Neuroscience showed that acupuncture on this point, and I quote, "improves the body's ability to maintain control of the heartbeat rate and rhythm through vagus nerve activity." Which is just fancy medical speak for it calms your nervous system and specifically settles your heart rate for real.

  This point is also used in Chinese medicine for digestive issues where stuff is going up when it should be going down. We'll often use it for hiccups, for heartburn or reflux, for nausea and even vomiting. Again, these are all examples where digestive stuff is going up, but it should be going down.

  The fact that this point does so many different things makes it a fantastic acupressure point for lots of bodies, especially bodies that are on extra hormones because hormones can sometimes lead to lots of seemingly different symptoms. Maybe you're on estrogen and your feeling tearful and anxious and a little bit queasy and you can't sleep very well. This single point would be a great point for treating all those things at once.

  Last but not least, this point is a common point to bring energy to the chest to support lactation. There are even studies that show that stimulating it increases breast milk production.

  Now I know you might feel like you're a long way from lactation if you're dealing with infertility, but file this point away for down the road and I hope you'll have one more good reason to use it later.

  My favorite way to stimulate this point is either with a stick-on needle that you can leave on, ask your acupuncture provider if you're seeing one, or by using your fingertips to tap and percuss, as in percussion, as in just drum on your entire breastbone. Which I'm not going to do because it would be really noisy on my microphone.

  It can actually feel really calming and good to start on this point and then move out over more of the chest. Especially the top above your breasts in between your ribs. It can also be nice just to press and circle or do whatever floats your boat. Just be sure you don't go too low, keep it kind of light, and listen to what your body likes.

  That's it! Conception Vessel 17 or Ren17. Great for a whole lot of things including chest, lung, digestive, and emotional issues. And it just generally feels good to tap on.

  Try it out. Let me know how it goes in the comments. And don't forget to subscribe, or better yet, go to thebabyyouwant.com and sign up for my newsletter down at the bottom of the page. You'll only get about two emails from me each month and they'll let you know about any new videos I put on the YouTube channel and you'll get notified about new blog posts, guest articles, and more.

  I hope you're loving what you're learning. I'll see you again soon.