A method causes relaxation of a muscle of a body of a person or an animal. In a period in which a patient moves his or her body in a reciprocating manner to expand and contract the muscle, the patient or another person presses an arbitrary spot on the skin of the patient toward the muscle using a fingertip, for example. The pressing by the fingertip is controlled so that the area of the pressed spot on the skin falls within a range of 2 cm2 to 0.1 cm2 and the pressing force applied to the pressed spot falls within a range of 1 kgf to 100 gf.