If you've spent time on any social media channel—be it Instagram, TikTok, or another—you've probably seen a gua sha stone.

The pretty slabs of crystal are far more than just a trendy skin care ritual beloved by wellness influencers and beauty gurus: Facial gua sha is a specific type of massage adapted from ancient Chinese bodywork that utilizes a scraping tool to encourage circulation and lymph flow.

And to learn more about how to cultivate a daily practice, I tapped New York City's gua sha expert and mindbodygreen collective member Britta Plug. She tells me long-term results from facial gua sha rely heavily on consistency and self-practice.

Not exactly what you'd expect from a skin-soothing treatment. "It's like stirring up the muck from the bottom of a lake," said Plug. If you're starting any kind of facial massage regimen, whether it's gua sha or another type of lymphatic drainage, breakouts can occur. "But don't stop the regimen," Plug said.

I thought I'd come to know my facial tension through a daily practice of oil cleansing and massage, but it turns out that running a flat stone over the contours of your face gives you far more nuanced information.

You can feel the peaks, valleys, divots, and—dare I say?—knots in your face with a gua sha stone. I tend to hold tension under my cheekbones, forehead, and all along the side of my face, from the temple to the jaw line. When I worked on my forehead lines, feeling the specific shape of the tissue underneath the skin told me volumes about how I express and hold my face. Knowing this, I became more aware of my facial muscles in general.

Plug advocates that anyone starting a self gua sha practice should start (and often finish) with neck work. "And not just the gentle lymphatic drainage strokes," she said, "but you can work with more pressure with tight muscles in the back of the neck too. They all act as roadblocks to lymphatic drainage."

As gua sha is often touted as "natural Botox," I was hoping to focus on easing up of my forehead lines. I have deep fine lines in my forehead and always have. I used the "eraser" technique, wherein you hold the skin around the forehead lines taut and, like a pencil eraser, take the stone at 90 degrees and shimmy it over the wrinkle.

After a while, I didn't really care about the aesthetic results—relieving that kind of tension felt so good.

For me, the lines looked smoothed right after my self-practice, but so far they still return. "Because of the shape of your forehead, your lines go a little deeper," Plug said.

The eraser technique will help break through scar tissue that's formed, but it's a longer process. "Someone who has a different shape or surface lines might see results more quickly," she said.

Doing gua sha first thing in the morning was the only way I could ensure it would happen. Otherwise, it felt like a chore at the end of the night, one I was unlikely to do if I was too tired. Slowing down first thing in the morning didn't come naturally. In fact, it took me by surprise how much I had to tell myself to slow down with each stroke, to tune into the sensations underneath my skin, and to breathe through it.