Jade gua sha tools have been used for centuries in China and Asia for health and healing.

My first experience with jade gua sha was on my first trip to China by myself, not with a group.  I had scheduled with the hotel in Beijing to provide a Chinese medicine doctor to help me get over jet lag when I arrived.  I met him at the front desk, and while we were being introduced, the doctor took a piece of jade out of his pocket and started scraping it on the back of my neck.  He said I looked like I had been exposed to germs or virus, and wanted to clear that up first.  He had scraped the area at the top of my spine, in one direction, until I couldn't stand the pain any more, and that's when he said "done".  And I felt amazingly better.  However, the scraping raises the "sha", the blood, and it looked like I had a big bruise, that lasted about three days. But when I was on the streets of Beijing, local Chinese people pointed at me and smiled approvingly for accepting one of the most helpful traditions.

Using gua sha tools isn't usually something done by Chinese doctors. We western people keep aspirin, cold remedies in our medicine cabinets to use when we are not feeling well.  The Chinese people pull out a gua sha tool and scrape a body part.  Raising the "sha" unblocks the qi that is stuck, and when it flows smoothly, health returns.

The doctor and I became friends.  He taught me taiji (tai chi) and qigong in exchange for my teaching him yoga and Reiki.  We found a jade  seller in Dandong, who took us to a jade carver in Xiuyan.  My doctor friend told him several styles to carve, and I started selling jade gua sha tools here in America, one of the very first sellers. 

Unfortunately, some sellers are promoting jade gua sha tools as wrinkle removers for the face.  That is a terrible error.  Using the gua sha tools on the face breaks the small blood veins in the face that can cause permanent discoloration.  If you want a jade wrinkle reducer, use jade rollers.

The legend of the jade gua sha tool is that during the Cultural Revolution in China, the professional Chinese doctors were either murdered or sent to be with the peasants.  They had none of their Chinese herbs or healing tools with them.  But they were able to get flat stones of jade to use on sick people.  The jade gua sha tools were not the nicely carved ones you see today.  They always had scrapes on them, chips or cracks, because if they appeared to have value, they were taken away from the doctor.  My doctor friend was a Barefoot Doctor, as they were called, near the end of the Cultural Revolution, and he still preferred the natural healing method of gua sha therapy. 

The jade carver we found to make the jade gua sha tools for Ying Yu Jade web site was a traditional jade carver, so although he could make smoothly polished tools, he always added a mark to them, to remain traditional.  The mark is usually a scratch or scrape through the flat surface.  It took me 13 years to convince him to make them smooth, but every now and again, he surprises me with the "marked" tools.

The jade gua sha tools are different shapes and sizes.  So choose the one(s) that appeal to you, that you think you would be comfortable using.  Most people choose several styles, so they can be flexible with how they use them.  When you purchase from Ying Yu Jade, I include a basic information sheet about using gua sha.

And of course they are natural and genuine Chinese jade, the kind of jade used for centuries.

Restless leg can be painful as well as annoying.  Here are natural methods to help treat restless legs.

Restless legs often start when you are sitting and trying to be "composed".  Then the legs start twitching,  you might start tapping your foot, wiggling your legs.  Or you're laying in bed, and the restless legs start. Sometimes you get out of bed, walk around, and then think that helped.  Or you move to another bed and move those legs forcefully to try to settle them.

Some people try putting a bar of soap at the end of the bed near their feet.  While the soap itself probably doesn't help, the placebo effect might.

Here are two more suggestions:

1.  When you feel your restless legs, lay flat on your back.  Slowly point your toes straight up, then pull your foot, with your toes still pointed, back toward your head as far as you can.  You will feel a stretch in the back of your calf.  Hold it for 10 seconds, then relax the calf muscle. Take a deep, slow breath.   Repeat 10 more times, each time pulling the calf muscle as tight as possible, but without hurting yourself.

2. Use a Ying Yu Jade acupressure roller on your legs when you feel the restlessness starting.  Roll it slowly over each leg, including thighs, calves and both sides of the foot.

You can follow the acupressure roller treatment with the muscle stretching in the above (#1) technique. 

And then use the acupressure jade roller to finish. 

Another technique that is helpful for restless leg is Yoga Nidra.  If you have a smartphone you can use an app that is helpful for learning because when your legs are restless, it can be difficult to focus.  The app with instructions helps you center the technique.

I've been working like crazy trying to get my 2016 business taxes organized and ready for the accountant.  I haven't had time to add new products, discounts, newsletters because you know the rules:  taxes must be filed, and filed correctly.

Keeping track of sales and expenses for income taxes is my lowest priority.  The only reason I do it is for the IRS tax requirement.  Truth is, I have never really cared about making a lot of money, big profits from selling jade online.  Yes, I have to sell enough to pay for all related expenses, and make a reasonable profit for living expenses, but if you are a long time customer, you know that I will offer you a great discount, give you a good deal if I know you are a jade lover.  And the reason is that I have a true passion for jade.  And I want to share all this beautiful, good energy jade with the world, with customers. 

That's why Ying Yu Jade will always offer the best quality jade: jade bangle bracelets, jade pendants, jade carvings, jade health tools.  I started buying jade directly from my jade carver in China in the year 2000, and introduced this good quality in the online store.  I offered jade items like gua sha tools, jade yoni eggs and ben wa balls, the colorful "river jade" bangle bracelets to USA and western countries first.  Then, unfortunately, jade sellers who cared more about profit that honoring the Chinese tradition of buying and selling jade honestly, started selling fake jade, making up stories about "jade", and offering poor quality. And some sellers even posted fake complaints about Ying Yu Jade to not only hurt my business, but the entire jade selling business. 

I can't tell you how often the first question I get from new potential customers is "is your jade real?"  Too many people have been defrauded by jade sellers. 

That's why you can belive  I truly do have a passion for jade, to have continued offering the best quality jade at the best prices.  If I didn't have this passion, I would give it up for all the unpleasant related work of not only doing taxes and all the required booking, but the fake attacks by competitors, and distrust that jade shoppers bring from their negative experiences of buying jade.

Ying Yu Jade will always stand by the guarantee that we sell genuine and natural Chinese jade and Burmese jadeite, and all of our jade is "as described". 

Thanks you for your interest in Ying Yu Jade.