This website is still under construction and helpful information is regularly updated
natural relief from chronic pain
Ruffistone & Flowsense®
gently harnesses sensory receptors
eases stiff joints and scar tissue
Turning Point
I’m Pauline Walton, founder of Ruffistone™. I am a pensioner with an active mind and plenty of determination. This is my personal story. Although I believe the science is plausible and my recovery has been remarkable, Ruffistone & Flowsense is merely a single case history with no medical authority.
My musculoskeletal journey of discovery began in early lockdown, just after handing in my thesis. I was in too much pain to think or write any more and I knew I needed to heal.
For the next 6 years I explored every approach for relief: hands-on therapies, endless websites, and mountains of academic research. Then I found something different and that changed everything.
Ruffistones are typically Gua Sha tools which have highly specific scientific properties and include Terahertz stone, jade and Bian (Sibin) stone. Flowsense® is a strategy for whole body relief from fascial tension.
Ruffistone & Flowsense is comforting, easy and affordable.
Click below to see the science.
Scroll down to read about Ruffistone & Flowsense, how I nursed my painful tissues back to life and what you can learn from my experience.
I invite you to try it for yourself. Speak to a medical professional before you start. Your journey to back to fitness is best supported by a professional soft tissue or Scarwork® therapist unless you are confident to manage it yourself.
Prosthetic Guarding
Here is a simplistic prosthetic model of a lower limb. Muscle, bone and tendons are replaced by tensors, pulleys and rods. Even if this contraption exactly fits its owner’s gait, the fluidity of flesh and bone is lost.
When you get injured, traumatised, stressed, or strained your body starts to set up structures like this to guard against pain and further injury - prosthetic guarding. The body makes its own tensors from short helical lengths of collagen and hyaluronic acid - glued together by water stolen from the fascial fluids. Your very own inner prosthetic.
In our Western culture the lower limbs typically exhibit trapped Achilles tendons, tight hamstrings and glutes. Whatever the cause, this prosthetic guarding is also associated with bunions and crooked toes, pelvic and abdominal problems, shoulder pain, migraine, and more. Even worse, it’s often hard to differentiate common musculoskeletal problems from symptoms of disease.
Ruffistone Flowsense® is a tool-assisted self-help strategy which disrupts these prosthetic tensors naturally. This is how I started my journey out of chronic pain.
Ruffistone™ Fundamentals
What are Ruffistones?
Ruffistones are often Gua Sha tools made of synthetic Terahertz, natural jade or ancient Bian stone. Readily available online.
Ruffistones feel neutral or comforting when held and grip slightly when placed on the skin.
How do Ruffistones work?
A static Ruffistone grips the skin which is communicated as a gentle twist without heat or force through the tissue to Ruffini corpuscles.
Ruffini nerve endings immediately alert the nervous system of imminent tissue change and also stimulate a slow mechanical response.
How do Ruffini nerve endings affect tissues?
Ruffini nerve endings respond to tiny twisting motions and are located around nails, tendons, ligaments, and trigger points.
After a few minutes the metabolism kicks in to disrupt prosthetic guarding and stimulate fluid flow. Tissues relax and tension eases.
Last updated 05/08/2026
Ruffistone & Flowsense® Basics
Ruffistone First Steps
Take the perfusion test to see for yourself that Ruffistone effects are tangible.
Take your Ruffistone and handle it. Place it on or near a painful area (not an open wound or recent scar). Hold the stone gently on your skin for a few minutes and focus on what you can see and what you can feel. Then remove the stone and see if the general area has reddened a little.
Next move the joint a little to see if it feels looser. Finally stand up or lie down let the ripple effect travel through your body where it can.
Perfusion is one example of DeQi channel opening sensations described by acupuncturists. DeQi sensations are usually mild in the early stages of release and occur when tissues open to free fluid flow.
Any pain sensation is likely to be release of inflammation (heat and soreness) or a complicated tensile tangle ahead (pulling and heaviness). If you feel the sensations are too challenging just stop and try a different location later. Do get medical advice if you are worried.
The static perfusion test
A Ruffistone placed on a joint in the little finger nearly always produces an effect of slight reddening or whitening.
Whitening is lack of blood flow, so move your stone underneath this area and watch.
Perfusion is the reddening where blood flow is restored.
You may get odd sensations in the same area or far away. Any sensation you get is related to the disruption of the tethers and softening of the tissues.
You may feel a little dizzy while the brain adapts to increased fluid levels.
DeQi
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a relieving ache or pain; a spreading feeling or warmth; a temporary numbness or tingling; distension and pulling; dullness or heaviness; dull spreading pain or soreness
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sudden jolt like electricity; intense pain towards an older tensor (maybe release of trapped inflammation)
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flushing, sweating or itching; changes in depth and rate of breathing and pulse; tummy rumbles, coughing, sneezing, watering eyes; emotional release such as sadness, laughing, crying
Ruffistone efficiency
Ruffistones need to be kept clean. Bar soap and water is enough to remove skin and oily debris. Ruffistones work best directly on the skin but also work through textiles. You can use tape to secure your stone for sleep mode but then it gets sticky. Ideally a tubular bandage can be used for limbs. For large areas I’m still working on a solution. More anon.
Ruffistone & Flowsense Strategy
The following 3 sections cover the 3-step approach which can repeated as often as you like. And then there is a bit more help so you can find out what really suits you best.
Tissue conditioning
Challenge Prosthetic Guarding
Prosthetic release
Ruffistone & Flowsense Strategy
Tissue Conditioning
Wellsprings
The body’s prosthetic tensors tether and turn at the pads of the fingers and toes. The fingertips and toes are viewed as fluid wellsprings in Chinese theory. By maintaining Ruffistone static contact with the mushroom on the fingerpads, the tensile tethers become disrupted and start to uncoil, releasing water in the process. This hand position is Fire Qi Gong and the Indian Mukula Mudra, signifying peace and calm. It is also used in wrist rehabilitation exercises.
Use heart or wand Ruffistone Terahertz shapes for static foot contact. Toe joints, nails and pads are all rich in Ruffini corpuscles. I always condition my feet at night. See Sleep Mode below.
Sleep Mode
Where the Ruffistone is secured in static contact by a bandage or other suitable method. Ruffini corpuscles continue to fire all night to disrupt the prosthetic tethers, but lack of movement means that the debris is not cleared so effectively. Every day I could sense a positive change although every morning the debris made me especially stiff until I moved the tissues under the Ruffistone. I also keep Ruffistone contact somewhere all the time. I have various different shapes and arrangements including Terahertz stone strings, bracelets and gua sha wands. I find it helpful to use finger bandage to enclose Ruffistone strings so that the length can be tied around different parts of the body: ankle, wrist, thigh, waist etc.
Scars
If you have old, sensitive or painful scars these are probably generating prosthetic scaffolds to protect you from further harm. I have found scars interesting. Old scars which look white and tight, or bulging and angry are the master prosthetic tensor generators. My scars were sensitive and very tight and white, some felt bruised even when they were old. I have found that by stimulating the fluids in the region, the scar tissue opens up and the tissue beneath resumes a gradual healing process. But there’s often inflammation too so it can feel quite unpleasant until the lymph system has had time to expel the discarded inflammatory enzymes.
Ruffistone & Flowsense Strategy
Challenge Prosthetic Guarding
Ruffistone & Flowsense Strategy
Prosthetic Release
This is like a wall push-up but static and relaxed. Bare feet flat on the floor, palms flat against the wall or on a lower surface. Neck, elbows and knees soft. Toes straight and fingers up or forward. The distance (toes to wall) forces you to lean in very slightly. Head slightly forward. The purpose is to feel the weight of your body through your hands and feet without pushing. Relax. After a minute or two your body will start to move involuntarily and the sensations may be strong. This is Flowsense and fluids are flowing and prosthetic tethers are being disrupted. Stop when you’ve had enough. Bertoli’s Trauma Release Exercises are based on the same principle.
Advancing the Research
I am actively seeking research partners and professional collaborators to explore, validate and advance the Ruffistone & Flowsense® project.
If you're a practitioner, scientist, or clinician interested in musculoskeletal relief, scar tissue release/prevention, or joint mobility improvement contact me.
The hardest thing for me was where on earth to start and what will work. It’s taken many years to find simple answers to these questions because everyone is unique in their musculoskeletal history. And at the beginning I didn’t know what was important. I have now found a relatively easy start point which can be explained and understood in action and effect. The prosthetic tensor analogy is helpful for the visualisation which is necessary for satisfactory change.
I have tried many different types of manual therapy and studied the meridian theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine including acupressure points and effects. I have reviewed trigger points and myofascial massage, the Bowen system, Rolfing, reflexology. These have all provided insight and deeper understanding. All of these methods are useful but none of them could provide me with complete recovery from decades old poorly healed scar tissue. There is a simple reason: without fascial, interstitial fluidity my scar, tendons and joints would be stuck and there is no therapeutic system which can release seriously stuck tissues. We are taught to keep moving but by the time we understand, our prosthetic tensors have glued us solid. Until now there has been no way to recover fluidity. It took me 5 years of mechanical techniques and searching for a better way before I stumbled on my Ruffistone - a Terahertz gua sha tool. As soon as I touched it I knew this was something very different and I could feel a very deep and pleasant softening of the tissues. It’s taken another year to work out what the material of this tool was doing, whether it was safe and how to get the best out of it. And then to find an approach which would have a global effect, both an improvement and revealing new layers of stuckness to target.