Breast self-massage is simple. Breast self-massage is fun. Breast self-massage helps prevent cancer since well since detect it. Breast self-massage helps keep breast skin supple. Breast self-massage is a way to be intimate with your breasts. Breast self-massage is a piece of women’s wisdom. Breast self-massage is safe. Breast self-massage is free.

Lots of of the women I’ve talked using say they don’t do breast self-exams, though most think they ought to. No one wants to look for (or, heaven forbid, find!) cancer. We’ve been trained to avoid danger, and seeking cancer sounds like seeking problem. Our bodies are influenced by what we believe, so how can it be safe to spend time all month doing a breast self-exam, worrying if we’re about to discover a lump? But we feel guilty when we don’t.

And what are we supposed to feel when we touch our breasts anyway? They feel whole of lumps! Most of us aren’t sure how to touch or examine our breasts or what we’d do if we did feel something in reality suspicious. Our guilt and confusion make it each even extra complex.

Breast self-massage offers a way to allow go of this tension and pay for inside touch using yourself. This comforting, nurturing self-massage is a pleasurable and relaxing way to get to know your breasts. It avoids the worry of checking for cancer, even as providing an magnificent early-warning system should cancer arise. Common, loving touching of our breasts allows us to recognize normal breast changes with no fear, and gives us period to respond thoughtfully to abnormal changes. Breast self-massage is also a quiet, focused time that allows the Wise Healer Within (see page 83 of the book) to alert us to any changes that need our attention.

Infused (not main) herbal oils are an crucial element of breast self-massage. When herbs are infused into oil, active plant components are liberated and be able to be massaged into breast tissue – where they help out reverse irregular cellular changes such as hyperplasia, atypia, precancers, and in situ cancers. It’s quickly and pleasurable to make your own infused oils (see page 297), or you can pay for them (see page 75). But if you don’t have any, plain olive oil works fine.

If you already know breast self-exam techniques, agree to them inform your fingertips during your breast self-massage. If this is all new to you, take some months to learn about your breasts with self-massage before doing breast self-exam. They complement each other: Agree to the pleasure of the massage infuse the exam, and agree to the effectiveness of the exam inform the massage.

WHEN SHOULD I DO MY BREAST SELF-MASSAGE?

At present. Anytime. Each the time. Sure, your breasts are less lumpy at several times of the month. But you can do breast self-massage whenever you desire, even if you’re lumpy. If the finest period for you to pay notice to yourself is when you bleed, because that’s when you take time to be alone, then that’s the era to do breast self-massage. You may perhaps do it each week and get to know how your breasts change using your cycle and using the moon, but most probable you’ll do it every month. I like to do my breast self-massage when the moon is new.

HOW DO I Prepare BREAST SELF-MASSAGE?

First, make or buy some infused herbal oils or ointments. You’ll decide some, as each offers unique benefits.

Then, create a comfortable, private place where you can lean back: in a warm bath or propped up with cushions inside bed. (Protect linens and clothing from oil stains.) Arrange yourself there, bare-breasted, using your infused herbal oils close at hand.

Allow your eyelids fall. Put your hands on top of your heart and hum. Cup your breasts using your hands and hum. Imagine or visualize energy streaming out of your nipples. Agree to your breasts and heart to open and circulation since you hum.

Open your eyes. Transfer any herbal oil or ointment to your palms. Rub your hands together briskly until they feel warm. Place them on either side of one breast and hum.

Cup your fingers alongside or below your breast, thumbs touching and up since high on the chest as possible. (If your breasts are very large, rest the true breast inside the correct palm and massage using the left thumb, starting in the armpit and moving toward the center of the chest.) Press inside and slide your thumbs down toward the nipple, pressing the breast tissue into your fingers and palms. Stretch your thumbs up toward the collarbone again, but a little farther apart, press in and slide down.

Continue until your thumbs are because far apart as possible (the middle of your chest and your armpit). Do again, gradually growing pressure, but only as long as it feels terrific. Caution : There is a slight possibility of spreading breast cancer through vigorous massage, rough usage, or very deep pressure.

Transfer more oil or ointment to your palms and rub your hands equally. Cup your breast as before, thumbs up and touching. Hum. Repeat the earlier pattern, but break up the stroke: Instead of a long, slow, glossy stroke, handling your thumbs to make a lot of overlapping short strokes, gradually moving down the chest. Try a range of degrees of pressure.

Raise the arm of the breast you’re massaging, and put your hand behind you or on your head. If your breast leans to the outside, prop a pillow under that shoulder or lean on top of. Cover your breast using your free hand and hum.

Dip your fingers into your oil or ointment and, starting in your armpit, press the fingerpads of your first two or three fingers down with sufficient pressure to hold the skin, and make a small circle. Don’t agree to your fingers slide on top of the skin. Keep making small circles (using sufficient pressure to feel the underlying structures) as you trace an imaginary spiral from your armpit around and around your breast, growing always slighter until you reach your nipple. (If it is hard or impossible for you to exercise your fingerpads, exercise your palm.) Cover your breast using your hand and hum.

Curl your fingers into your armpit and gently grasp the ridge of lymph-rich tissues and muscles that extend from the take on down into the breast. Move up and down this ridge any times, using little squeezes or long glides or tiny spirals or your own strokes.

As you touch your breasts, imagine or envision your fingertips emitting healing pink sparkles that embrace and feed your breasts. Let your fingerpads sink deeply into your breasts. Let some held distress to be soothed by the balm of the infused herbal oil/ointment. Agree to overactive power be calmed by the rhythm of your fingers circling, circling, spiraling, spiraling.

Use extra oil or ointment with your fingerpads, making large gliding circles from midchest to under your breast, up toward the armpit and on top of and around, again and again, with a steady rhythm.

When you’re done massaging your breast, close your eyes and relax. Hum. Call to your Wise Healer Within as you hum.

Massage your other breast, starting from the beginning: Put your hands over your heart. Hum. Cup your breasts. Hum. (Is there a difference among the breast that has already been massaged and the one that hasn’t yet?) Rub your oily hands briskly equally; hold either side of your breast and hum. Extend your thumbs and massage since before, including each of the previous strokes and ending with your eyes closed, relaxing deeply and allowing yourself to contact and listen to your Wise Healer Within.

AFTERWARDS . . .

Following your breast self-massage, take a moment to record your experience. This will help you learn more fast what’s usual for you. You can draw a map of your breasts to improve you remember what you’ve felt. Try using colors. Write down any messages offered to you by your breasts or your Wise Healer Within. If you like, make up a tiny song to hum during your massage.