How to Use Magnesium and Acupressure for Anxiety Relief

Anxiety has become the most common mental health challenge affecting Australians, with 1 in 4 of us experiencing it at some point in our lives. That's over 3 million people dealing with racing thoughts, physical tension, difficulty settling, and sleep disturbances.

There's often an expectation that we should be able to simply "think our way through" anxiety, that it's purely a mental issue we should have control over. But this overlooks a fundamental truth: anxiety doesn't just live in your mind. It lives in your tight shoulders, your shallow breathing, your racing heart, and your tense jaw. It's a whole-body experience.

What if instead of trying to think your way out of anxiety, you learned to work with your body to create an internal environment that allowed the mind to settle? In this article, you’ll learn a simple and practical approach to start supporting yourself this way: an acupressure massage routine using topical magnesium.

Understanding Anxiety From A Chinese Medicine Perspective

In Chinese medicine, we don't separate the mind from the body. They're two sides of the same coin, inseparable aspects of a whole. The quality of your thoughts and mind are profoundly influenced by your physiology and how well your body is functioning. This is why you can't just "think positive" your way out of anxiety. Your body is stuck in a state of imbalance that creates the internal environment for anxiety to thrive.

When I see someone struggling with anxiety in my clinic, there’s several common patterns that come up (individually or in combinations of the following):

●     There's often an unsettled, restless quality - like the mind can't settle in the body or find stillness. Thoughts race from one worry to the next without resolution. There may be dream disturbed sleep or frequent wakings at night. This reflects a deeper disturbance in the body's ability to rest and settle.

●     Many people are running too hot and revved up - stuck in overdrive with no off switch. The body is constantly in a stress response, even when there's no real threat. It's like having your foot on the accelerator all the time. These people may have trouble falling asleep or waking early, unable to return to sleep. They may not even be aware of this because it’s just become “normal”. 

●     Others experience the exhaustion of being simultaneously wired AND tired. Chronic stress has depleted their reserves, but the nervous system won't let them truly rest. This can look like burn out or certain forms of chronic fatigue where sleep does not recharge you like it should. You're running on empty but can't stop running. 

●     Physical tension is almost universal with anxiety. Tight neck and shoulders, clenched jaw, restricted breathing. This tension doesn't just result from anxiety—it actually perpetuates it by restricting healthy circulation through the body.

The solution from a Chinese medicine perspective is to cultivate more stillness, coolness, and grounding in the body. We need to nourish the body's capacity for rest, restoring its natural rhythms. Making sure that we have sufficient magnesium is one way that supports this, and when we combine this with targeted acupressure, we have some powerful ways to help our mental health.

Magnesium's Role In Calming Anxiety

Magnesium levels can play a major role in managing anxiety. Think of magnesium as like a brake pedal for your nervous systems. When you have adequate magnesium reserves, it helps manage the release of stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. 

When you're magnesium deficient, you lose that brake pedal. Your body can get stuck in "fight or flight" mode, constantly primed for threats that aren't really there. Without adequate magnesium, calcium floods into your cells unchecked, causing excessive firing of neurons, muscle tension, and the release of more stress hormones. It becomes a vicious cycle: stress depletes your magnesium, and low magnesium makes you more reactive to stress.

To make matters worse, excessive stress hormones also cause dehydration at the cellular level. When calcium floods into cells, it causes water loss, and your body essentially panics when hydration drops too low. This physiological panic can manifest as feelings of anxiety. Magnesium helps to bring the water back into the cells, pushing calcium back out to restore balance and calm.

Unfortunately, magnesium deficiency is incredibly widespread. Our modern diets tend to be magnesium depleted for a variety of reasons, and many people suffer from poor magnesium absorption or increased loss through urine.

Here's where the gut connection becomes crucial: chronic stress damages your gut lining and disrupts your microbiome, impairing your ability to absorb magnesium from food or oral supplements. Many people taking magnesium tablets experience digestive upset or simply don't absorb much at all. It's yet another frustrating cycle - the anxiety that depletes your magnesium also makes it harder to replenish through conventional means.

This is precisely why topical magnesium offers such an elegant solution.

Why Transdermal Magnesium?

A main key benefit of applying magnesium directly to your skin is that it bypasses the digestive system entirely. It is absorbed through the skin straight into your muscles, fascia, and bloodstream, delivering the mineral exactly where your body needs it.

You also won’t have to worry about overdosing or experiencing digestive issues that can come with oral magnesium supplements. Your body is remarkably intelligent and will only absorb what it needs through the skin, leaving the rest.

But there's another profound benefit that goes beyond simple absorption: the ritual of massage and intentional touch itself is deeply calming to the nervous system. When you slow down, breathe, and gently work with your body in this way, you're signaling safety. You're moving out of sympathetic fight-or-flight and into parasympathetic rest-and-digest mode.

Even better, when you apply magnesium with the understanding of the acupuncture channels in the body, moving through specific acupuncture points, you're working WITH your body's natural patterns, rather than just generically supplementing. You can target pathways that help with calming, restoration, and emotional balance to amplify your benefits.

The Yin Channel Acupressure Routine

The routine I'll share with you involves massaging Magnesium Cream (for those with dry skin conditions), or the stronger Charge Lotion (my favourite) along the inner surfaces of your arms and legs, into the hands and feet. These are where the acupuncture "yin" channels pass through and are most accessible.

Think of channels as the rivers and water ways of the ecosystem of your body. We want good flow through the channels to nourish the health of our body. The yin channels run deeper and are more associated with rest and relaxation, while the yang channels are more external, protective and stimulating. 

In anxiety, there is often too much yang activity in the mind, and so we want to help move things deeper into the body, promoting more calm, relaxation and rest.

We'll be working with six specific channels:

On the arms: Heart, Pericardium, and Lung channels

On the legs: Pancreas (Spleen), Liver, and Kidney channels

By massaging along them with magnesium, you're achieving multiple benefits simultaneously: mineral absorption over a large surface area, stimulation of the channels' regulatory effects, activation of specific calming points, and the grounding ritual of self-care.

The routine is very simple and can be made as long or short as you like. It’s perfect in the evening as part of your wind-down routine before bed.

Step-By-Step Routine

Arm Yin Channel
Start by applying your magnesium cream to your hands and the inside of your forearms. Then looking at your forearm with your palm facing you, you’ll work along three paths between your elbow and wrist (see arm yin channels image). Pass through these channels as many times as you like, spending more time on any areas that feel particularly tight or sore. Only use as much pressure as is comfortable for you, this is not a “no pain no gain” situation. We’re trying to cultivate a feeling of relaxation.

Once you’ve worked through the forearm on one side, move into the palm of your hand. Pay close attention to the thumb pad, the centre of the palm and the area of the palm below the space between the 4th and 5th fingers (see arm yin channels image). Repeat this on both sides.

Leg Yin Channels
Again begin by applying the magnesium cream to the inside of your legs below your knees and into the feet. Massage along three paths between the knee and ankle. The first just next to the inner shin bone, the next two roughly a finger width apart each (see the leg yin channels image). If you come across any particularly sore or tight areas, spend more time there to help open up the channel more.

Move onto the foot, paying particular attention to the sole, the inside of the big toe and the area below the space between the big toe and second toe (see the leg yin channels image). Be sure to repeat on both sides.

Making It Part of Your Daily Routine

For best results, practice this routine daily. I recommend doing this in the hour before bed to support more restful sleep. Your nervous system thrives on consistency and ritual—over time, just beginning the routine will signal to your body that it's time to wind down.

Consider pairing this routine with magnesium foot soaks 2-3 times per week for an even deeper effect. Simply dissolve 1-2 tablespoons of Elektra’s magnesium flakes in warm water and soak your feet (submerged to just above ankles for best effect) for 15-20 minutes. The soak will act to stimulate and open up the channels around the feet and ankles.

Anxiety can also be a symptom of dehydration, so make sure to drink enough spring water containing magnesium (or filtered water with added magnesium) for enhanced hydration to support the electrical conductivity along the Yin (river and waterway) channels.

Give this daily practice 2-4 weeks of consistent use before evaluating its effectiveness. Pay attention to if you notice things like better, deeper sleep, less anxiety, reduced muscle tension throughout the day, improved resilience to stress (things that would normally trigger you don't hit as hard), and a calmer baseline emotional state.

Wrapping Up 

Anxiety isn’t something to be managed purely in your mind. By working with your body, your nervous system, your circulation, your muscles, you’re creating a more ideal environment for your mind to settle for improved mental health.

The beauty of this approach is that it puts powerful tools directly in your hands. You don't need special equipment or expertise. You just need a few minutes, some magnesium cream, and a willingness to slow down and care for yourself.

I encourage you to incorporate Elektra Magnesium's range of products into your daily self-care practice. Their products are specifically designed for topical use and absorb beautifully. Their magnesium flakes are also perfect for those deeper, more restorative foot soaks.

It's important to note that while self-care practices like this can be genuinely powerful, persistent or severe anxiety deserves professional assessment and treatment. Everyone's anxiety has unique root causes—it might stem from inflammation, gut imbalances, unprocessed trauma, hormonal issues, or a combination of factors.

If you'd like a personalised holistic approach tailored to YOUR specific anxiety pattern, I invite you to consider acupuncture for anxiety. In my practice at Acupuncture Grove in Bondi Junction, I take the time to understand the underlying imbalances contributing to your anxiety and create a treatment plan that addresses your whole system, not just symptoms.

I hope you found some value from what I’ve shared in this article. Remember, it’s the small daily rituals that create the most profound change over time. Start taking care of yourself today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gavin Martin-Rentz is a registered acupuncturist and Chinese medicine practitioner at Acupuncture Grove in Bondi Junction, Sydney, where he focuses on helping those with complex health conditions and chronic pain to regain their lives and start feeling like themselves again.