You know that awful feeling you get when you need to go to the bathroom but things aren’t, um, moving along? Ugh. We’ve all been there. People have been known to try any number of tactics to remedy the situation: Over-the-counter-laxatives, exercise, coffee, flax seed, drinking a tablespoon of olive oil, ANYTHING just to go number two. Apparently, curing constipation doesn’t have to be quite such a production. Nor does it need to involve hours in the bathroom with a laptop and a sandwich. (Unless that’s where you like to go to chill out. Hey, no judgment.)
Thanks to the wonders of acupressure, there’s an easy way to fix things. According to the lifestyle blog Wisdom of the Moon, there’s a spot on our bodies where we can apply gentle pressure to get things rolling. Nicknamed the “poop button” (for real), this spot is located in the middle of your stomach, “about three finger-widths directly below your navel.” All you need to do is press firmly on this spot for about a minute or so while focusing on your breath (just like you’re at yoga…only hopefully you’re in the privacy of your bathroom).
Acupressure and acupuncture experts call this spot Conception Vessel 6 (CV6) or the “Sea of Energy” — it got the nickname poop button from a mommy blogger. According to these experts, CV6 is one of the most important acupuncture points, as it is traditionally consider the center of the human body. Stimulating this point, then, unleashes a bevy of benefits. One of them is obviously poop. In addition to improving digestive issues, CV6 allegedly also addresses infertility, impotence, and sterility … so watch out for that, eh?
This spot is also known as “Conception Vessel 6” and it’s also “capable of harnessing the inherent but dormant energy of the body, and so greatly enhancing its capability.” CV6 does more than help you poop and harness energy. According to Acupressure.com, this spot “strengthens the body’s internal condition especially the colon, immune system, sexual urinary reproductive system, and heightens your ability to heal yourself.”
If you’re feeling skeptical, you wouldn’t be the first. Although acupuncture has been an integral component of Chinese medicine for thousands of years, the debate over its legitimacy as quote-unquote real medicine dates essentially dates back just as far. Advocates for the technique say it is a viable alternative to traditional medicine and can be used to treat many common health problems; cynics say it relies largely on the placebo effect; and you? Well, you get to be your own judge.
Having said all of that, before you go pressing on the mystical zone known as the poop button, be warned — the rumored reaction time is relatively quick, whether you believe in acupuncture or not. But if you’re close to a bathroom and feeling backed up, simply use your fingers to apply pressure to the spot for roughly a minute while inhaling and exhaling deeply. Before you know it, the poop button might just make a believer out of you.
