Chinese Fire Cupping

The Chinese gave birth to this philosophy of healing from the inside out, starting back thousands of years ago in the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th centuries BC). They believe in the total balance of the body’s ying/yang properties.  So many people fear the Chinese massage (and especially the cupping), but I couldn’t wait for the experience.  I strolled into this small family run massage clinic close to Expo Village in the Pudong district of Shanghai.  Not sure what to anticipate, the next thing you know I am having pressure points drilled with elbows and limbs stretched out like play-doe! (…Of course I am lovin’ it!)

Then my new friend (Sunny, in photo above) looks at me and says in very limited English- Cupping??? The next thing I know this ball of fire appears out from nowhere and the look on his eyes was priceless when my head sprung up!  The rest is history; the small beta bowls were stripped of their oxygen and stuck over specific pressure points.  Imagine having an octopus sucking your back for ten minutes. The feeling was foreign, yet not painful (I know someone who would argue that comment), then the release comes.  Simply Bliss!

So, after several friends and family saw these photos they first told me I was crazy, yet somehow I created intrigue in so many.  Fir st it was, “David you are insane, look at your back!…why would you do that”?

Simply put, why not?