Perhaps you’ve said that to someone – or wanted to – or have had it thrown in your face. Or, how about, “Chill Out!” Comments like these are usually indicating that one person is requesting an immediate shift in another’s energy. So, how does jumping in the lake, as opposed to just jumping in the air, accomplish this shift?
Blame It on Your Skin
One of its jobs is to help maintain a constant internal body temperature of 98.6 degrees. It does this by opening pores to release heat through perspiration or shutting down pores to hold needed heat inside. The skin obviously must be very sensitive to changes in temperature in order to maintain this perfect internal temperature.
Any water application that changes the skin temperature (like jumping in a cold lake or soaking your feet in warm water) will produce a primary action in the body. This in turn causes a reaction. This secondary action is the body’s response to the primary one, its attempt to self-regulate, to reverse the primary effect in order to return to its normal internal stability.
The interplay between heat and cold causes blood vessels to dilate and contract, dilate and contract. Kind of like a vascular workout for the blood vessels. An increase in the diameter of the blood vessels allows more blood to flow, resulting in the delivery of more oxygen and nutrients to the cells. More food! The body LOVES this! Without even knowing why, you feel better. Water becomes this magical “mood shape shifter”!
Reflexology and Water
Reflexologists can use this information to enhance their clients’ sessions, by offering foot or hand soaks to begin. Not only does soaking cleanse the extremities and begin the internal shift of restoring homeostasis, the feel and temperature of the water brings a client’s attention to her body, acting as a lovely segue from the external experience prior to entering the clinical space to that of the internal world.
I start all foot reflexology sessions with a soak. I find it humbling to sit at the feet of my clients and wash their feet.
If you’ve not incorporated soaks into your sessions yet, you might want to try it and see how your clients respond. Try a hot soak for someone who needs nurturing, pain relief and relaxation; cooler water for someone who finds the weather uncomfortably warm, is agitated or “hot-headed” as she arrives.
I almost always use a foot soak to start a foot session as it does seem to help the client relax. It certainly is humbling but likewise a joy. I even had some foot tubs custom made from a local potter/sculptor to enhance the experience of the client. And of course I employ essential oils in the water for aromatherapy as well, when the client has no allergies to them.
Custom tubs are great. I had one made also. I remember when I was in massage school, always using a Rubbermaid foot tub. Works, but not very attractive!
My daughter and I both perform soaking foot baths prior to reflexology; however, we have some clients who prefer to have it afterwards. Some clients prefer not to have the foot bath and we respect their wishes and spend more time on the feet.
As you indicated, it is a humbling experience to sit at their feet and “chit chat” for a moment about their day, issues they are having and set a game plan for the session as well.
Using milk and essential oils (barring allergies) or Epsom/dead sea salts is quite useful as well. Again, it is the client’s choice on scents, and issue related items as to which we use, but most prefer a peppermint/lavender or lavender/lemon scent.
Thanks for a terrific little blog!
Best wishes…
Thanks for your input Cindy. When you say you use “milk”, are you referring to what I think? Good ole cow milk? That makes me think of Cleopatra and her milk baths.
I would love to see some pictures of the custom made tubs. The pottery one sounds very interesting! I wonder how heavy it is when full?
I will be creating a Pinterest page for the Academy very soon with pictures of the tubs. I have a pottery tub, with handles, that I commissioned. It is heavy, so I don’t travel with it. I like to place the bowl at the client’s feet and then pour water into it from a lovely porcelain jug.