How to check your breasts
- First, do a visual check
Stand naked in front of your bathroom mirror and look carefully at both your breasts. Notice their shape and their size, and don’t worry if they are not identical. Most people have one breast that’s bigger than the other. What you are looking for are things that don’t seem quite normal. Any puckers or dimples that weren’t there before? Any discharge from your nipples or patches of scaly skin? Has either breast changed shape recently, or grown bigger than the other?
When you have finished this first inspection, raise your arms up and over your head and double check it all again.
- Next, do a touch test
Lift up your right arm and then, using the pads of the three fingers of your left hand, carefully and thoroughly press gently all round your right breast. Start on the outside and move inwards, pressing in small circles. Then change the movement and press in straight lines right across the breast from one side to another. Lastly, circle the nipple, moving from around its edge into ever widening circles until you reach the outside edge. Gently squeeze your nipple to check for any discharge and then do exactly the same on your other breast. To be thorough, do the same exercises lying down flat, with your arms behind your head.
Regular breast massage
As little as five minutes massaging can make a noticeable difference, and if you have those menopausal wide awake periods in the night, a bit of massage can happily pass the time. Likewise, if you regularly sit for hours in a traffic jam on your way back from work, do something useful on your journey home (hopefully without the car in front glued in amazement to their mirror).
The thing is that breasts get congested. You may not have particularly noticed, but they do. Stuck in bras day and night (you would be amazed how many people wear their bras 24/7, and how many wear entirely the wrong size) they are constrained and constricted. Under-wiring blocks blood circulation further and restricts the lymph’s ability to clear toxins and waste. It’s that toxic build up over time that allows lumps and bumps to get a hold and grow. They are usually benign, but who wants lumps and bumps? And I bet it never crossed your mind you could get rid of most of them! Thermal Images change dramatically for the better when these bras are replaced.
It’s really all up to you. You know your breasts better than anyone. You know how dense they feel, and how that density changes according to your shifting hormones. If you massage them regularly, you will pick up any unusual changes as soon as they show up, and the earlier you find something out of the ordinary the easier it is to deal with it.
Breast massage needs to be incredibly gentle. In fact, the more gentle it is, the faster your congestion will clear. You are working with your lymph, and lymph responds better to a feather light touch than a stronger pressure. And the more you massage, the smoother your breast texture will be. Eventually, after just a few minutes on each side, your breasts will feel like a bag of jelly; soft, liquid and smooth. Many of those lumps and bumps that you may take for granted as ‘normal’ will disappear entirely.
How to massage your breasts
The first thing to do is find your sternum, the breast bone that runs down the centre of your body, under your collarbone, and which all your ribs are attached to. Find the gaps between your ribs and gently massage those gaps, all the way along till you reach your under arm area. Work from the top, all the way down, and on both sides.
Then start on the breast of your choice. Make small rubbing circles, lifting and slightly pressing. Cover the whole surface, making sure your pressure is light but firm. You will find the surface gets softer, and as you continue, you will be able to penetrate deeper. If you find a bumpy area, just gently keep massaging. The tissue will get smoother and keep changing. Illogically, the softer you touch, the more the tissue lets you in.
To finish your massage, sweep both hands in a light brushing movement from the middle of your breast towards your armpit. That’s where your main lymph node ‘disposal centres’ sit and they will efficiently dispose of any congestion or unwanted ‘stuff’.
After a few days of regular massage, your breasts will be noticeably changed. Try it. And please let me know if you can tell the difference!
Here is one of many you tube videos to help.