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Archives for January 2018

Jan 24 2018

Can Money Buy Happiness?

For my entire life, I’ve always been told that money can’t buy happiness; and I’ve always just accepted that statement as true.

But the other day, I listened to a TED radio podcast that pointed to the fact that the idea that money can or can’t buy happiness is more complex than it might appear on the surface.

Turns out it’s what we do with money that determines our level of happiness. Not the amount of money we have.

As an example, if I gave you $3000, and you spent that on a blowout week in Las Vegas, you’d likely have a good time during your time there, but it would not contribute to your overall sense of happiness and fulfillment.

On the other hand, if you used that money to help build a safe playground for underprivileged children in your community, or invested the money in an educational or enrichment program that prepared you to help others – now, that’s a different story.

According to Michael Norton, Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, it turns out that the key is to use your money for ‘social spending’; putting your money where it benefits others most. That can be from direct giving (like the playground example above) or from learning a skill that can benefit others in the long run.

So, it’s not that money can’t buy happiness. It’s that we’re not spending money in the right way. Studies show that people who spend money in a way that will benefit others are happier people.

I can count myself as one of those folks. The day I decided to leave the lucrative advertising and entertainment field and become a reflexologist was the day I began to build a foundation of true happiness, not just happy experiences. My happiness grows being able to help improve the lives of others.

If reflexology looks like a good way for you to invest your money and time in order to help others, then I invite you to take a look at the Therapeutic Hand & Foot Reflexology Professional Certification. 2018 classes start the beginning of April, and class size is limited.

Written by Karen Ball · Categorized: Certification · Tagged: Certification

Jan 17 2018

The Effects of Hand Reflexology on Chronic Hand Pain

Having gone through a couple of months myself with a chronic pain in my hands, I can sympathize with the subject of this study. As an artist having to use her hands in so many ways all day just to keep her business alive, well… it couldn’t have been easy.

Read how recent Academy grad, Annalisa Derryberry tackled this troublesome issue.

Written by Karen Ball · Categorized: Hand Reflexology, Research · Tagged: Research, Hand reflexology

Jan 10 2018

Pins And Needles

We’ve all experienced it. The numb sensation of an arm or leg ‘going to sleep’. Not fun when it happens while receiving a reflexology session. Afterall, reflexology is supposed to increase circulation, right? Not cut it off!

This event occurs when pressure is exerted on nerves and squeezes the insulating sheath around the nerves. This ‘shorts out’ the nerves and blocks neural transmission. When the pressure is released, the nerves suddenly all begin firing at one. This jumble of uncoordinated signals is a mixture of pain and touch, hot and cold all mixed together, which is why it feels weird and sometimes hurts.

Interestingly, people sometimes report their arms ‘going to sleep’ while receiving reflexology and are perplexed by that since reflexology increases circulation of blood, lymph and neural communication. This can occur if the person has bent their arms to lay across their body, and in doing so, has cut off the communication of the median nerve.

Simple fix: straighten out the arms and lay them alongside the body.

Written by Karen Ball · Categorized: Foot Reflexology, Hand Reflexology · Tagged: Foot reflexology, Hand reflexology

Jan 03 2018

Turn That Tissue Into Butter!

Reflexology Massage Therapy's Secret Weapon

Reflexology Massage Therapy's Secret WeaponI often teach reflexology to massage therapists, who invariably ask about the benefits of combining reflexology with massage and how best to do that. With 35 years of experience offering reflexology and 29 with therapeutic massage, it’s not hard for me to come up with personal examples from my own years of practice!

What might be more convincing though is to hear directly from someone in my reflexology certification who added to her massage sessions the same musculoskeletal reflexology protocols I will be teaching in the ‘Reflexology: Massage Therapy’s Secret Weapon’ classes in 2018. Her exuberant communication is a testimony to the powerful contribution reflexology offers people with musculoskeletal pain and discomfort.

“I LOVE what we are learning. I absolutely LOVE it. I have used the relaxation techniques and the musculoskeletal protocol on about 20 people since last week, and the results are just completely inarguable! The majority of my clients are regulars, so I am very familiar with their tissue in various stages and during various parts of a massage, and when I applied reflexology first, WOW, the rest of the tissue became butter, cotton candy, just as inviting and easy to work with as ever.” 

The idea to create the one-day ‘Secret Weapon’ class came to me early one morning as I was slowly coming to consciousness after watching a bombardment of news reports and social media posts the day before regarding the widespread opioid problem we have in the United States. We are now reaping the horrible toll these prescription-writing policies have had on people’s lives, our communities and the country’s economy. (Apparently, it only takes 10 days of opioid use to result in possible long-term abuse!) [i]

The medical profession has been forced to substitute non-opioid solutions for addictive, symptom-masking drugs as the first-response attack on chronic pain. [ii]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is US!

Now is the time to step up and position yourself as a muscular pain management specialist. You can make 2018 the year you STAND OUT IN THE CROWD of thousands of massage therapists in this country! [iii]

Reflexology has been shown over and over to significantly “up the game” for massage therapists who know how to accurately combine its targeted therapeutic effects with massage. It’s the advantage that delivers better results than massage alone can, while reducing the wear and tear on your own body.

Like my former student said, reflexology turns tissue into butter. The relaxation response is in full swing, fresh blood has pushed out noxious chemicals and pain receptors have quieted down. Therapeutic massage then becomes much more effective.

Details can be found here: Reflexology: Massage Therapy’s Secret Weapon

[i] Institute of Medicine “Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research.
[ii] Institute of Medicine “Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research.
[iii] IBIS World Industry Report OD6028 Massage Services, November 2015

Written by Karen Ball · Categorized: Foot Reflexology · Tagged: Foot reflexology, Marketing

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