The chinese founded and developed acupressure about 5,000 years ago. The key concept is the belief in chi. Chi or qi is considered the essential force of life; includes air, breath, or wind; present in all living organisms. Purnell 141. When chi is stagnant, unbalanced, or overstimulated, illness occurs. Practitioners use fingers or needles to apply pressure at points on the skin to access and guide the flow of chi. Once balance is restored by pressing the appropriate point, self-healing capacities are believed to take over. To further understand where acupuncture and acupressure comes from we must look into its history.
Acupuncture is an accidental finding of medicine. The origin of acupuncture is a mystery of ancient times. Legend has it, that thousands of years ago a Chinese soldier developed a stiff and painful shoulder, what we would now call a frozen shoulder. When the soldier was later injured in the leg by an arrow his frozen shoulder pain dissipated. He told his doctor and his doctor began to test the theory through other soldiers. He did this by poking an arrow in the same spot in the leg as the first soldier. It seemed to work and the doctor became famous healer of frozen shoulder.