Powerful Acupressure Points to Increase Your Focus, Memory and Concentration

If you find yourself unable to focus on your work or distracted by your thoughts, both your enjoyment of and the creative process itself can become a muddled affair. This can cause your motivation and therefore dedication for your creative projects to plummet, perhaps in turn affecting your creative confidence. Yet when your mind is balanced by attending to these simple acupressure points, your thoughts too can be made sharp as a single star in the night sky.

According to the tenets of Taoism and Traditional Chinese Medicine, a disharmony of the mind leads to everything from poor concentration to insecurity, confused thought, anxiety, forgetfulness, restlessness and even insomnia too, all of which can be remedied using these simple but effective techniques.

When able to focus, and work undistracted, your creative offerings can naturally be more prolific and far more fun to produce, which is after all one of the finest aspects of the creative life, the joy in it. The ability to think clearly, with an uncluttered mind and undistracted focus, naturally makes it far easier to create.

If you are having trouble focusing, remembering tasks, organizing your thoughts or concentrating, Oriental medicine can help. Elevate your ability to create by using these acupressure points, which can offer you and your creative work for more lucidity. You do not have to use every acupressure point in sequence, even just one or two of them when in need of a little enhancement can be instantly effective.

One Hundred Meeting Point or Bai Hui: Governing Vessel 20 (GV 20)

Location: On the crown of the head in between the cranial bones. To find the point, follow the line from the back of both ears to the top of the head. Feel for a slight hollow toward the back of the top of the head.

Creative Benefits:  Good for mental clarity and awareness, it’s especially useful for increasing your ability to concentrate before you begin writing or working on a creative project. GV20 enhances memory, it is also useful for relieving headaches.

Pressing Bai Hui brings about a shift of perspective, which can be especially useful if you are stuck while plotting a story or creatively blocked. It refreshes your thinking while offering new insight along with many other benefits that naturally enhance your creativity.  Read more about this point in this post.

Yang Bai: Gall Bladder 14 (GB 14)

Location: Above the middle of your eyes, on your forehead, one finger’s width above your eyebrows. Press and remember to breathe gently as you do so.

Creative Benefits: This is a great point for improving your memory. If you just can’t think of the right word or are simply having trouble remembering things, gently press both these points.

Third Eye Point or Yin Tang: Governing Vessel 24.5 (GV 24.5)

Location: Directly between the eyebrows, in the indentation where the bridge of the nose meets the forehead.

Creative Benefits: Yin Tang is good for improving your concentration and memory and also clears the mind and uplifts the spirit, so it useful for when you feel a little detached from your creative projects, or even overwhelmed, as it is both calming and uplifting.

Shui Gou or Middle of a Person: Governing Vessel 26 (GV 26)

Location: Two-thirds of the way up from the upper lip to the nose. Press slowly but firmly into your gum and breathe deeply. Do this for a couple of minutes. The effectiveness of this point often increases by pressing it firmly each day over a period of several weeks.

Creative Benefits:  Although this point is also good for improving memory and concentration, its magic lies in its ability to bring you back into both moment and focus. Whenever you have an idea but are unsure about it or have doubts, this point will gently bring you back into yourself both increasing your creativity, centring and grounding you, especially useful if feeling a little spaced out. It helps you let go of worries and any creative doubt. GV 26 can also be used to relieve fainting and dizziness.

Gates of Consciousness: Gall Bladder 20 (GB 20)

Location: Below the base of the skull, in the hollows on both sides about two to three inches apart depending on the size of the head.

Creative Benefits: This is a wonderful point for relief from headaches, poor memory, and also can help reduce arthritic pain (regardless of where it is in the body), which may be inhibiting concentration.

Heavenly Pillar: Bladder 10 (B 10)

Location: One-half inch below the base of the skull on the ropy muscles one-half inch outward from the spine.

Creative Benefits: A brilliant stress-relieving point, so if your concentration and focus is thwarted though stress and being overwhelmed, use this point.  It helps relieve burnout, overexertion, also unclear or muddled thinking and heaviness in the head. It helps you relax your neck allowing greater circulation into your brain, which in turn increases your ability to memorise and focus on your work, creative or otherwise.

Three Mile Point: Stomach 36 Points (ST 36)

Location: Four finger widths below the kneecap, one finger width outside and lateral to the shin bone, just below the edge of your knee. If you are on the correct spot, a muscle should flex as you move your foot up and down.

Creative Benefits: Strengthens the mind and body, increasing energy levels and even reducing pain, as well as aiding mental clarity. When pressed with kidney 3 helps increase your motivation too (by warming the water of the kidneys).

Dan Zhong or Sea of Tranquility: Conception Vessel 17 (CV 17)

Location: This point is found at the centre of the breastbone three thumb widths up from the base of the bone. You’ll feel a slight indentation or dip, press here.

Creative Benefits: Aids concentration and increases courage, relieves nervousness, insomnia, anxiety, sadness and even helps reduce depression. It’s a great point to know and use for many emotional imbalances that inhibit concentration and clarity of thought.

Bigger Rushing: Liver 3 (Liv 3)

Location: This point is found on top of the foot, where the tendons that run from between your big toes meet. Press here for two minutes on each foot.

Creative Benefits: Amazing for a swift pick-me-up, newfound focus, and enhanced concentration. It can also help relieve headaches and memory problems. It’s a very useful point to know. If your motivation for your creative projects is flagging, press Liver 3 on each foot for a couple of minutes for a boost in energy and motivation.

For more Taoist Techniques see:

The Tao of Creativity: Taoist Techniques to Help Your Writing and Creative Work

How Tai Chi Can Help your Writing

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