Academy of Ancient Reflexology

Reflexology Certification Programs and Workshops

A Scary Experience

My hands are essential to all aspects of my life, and I put at the top of that list, my ability to make a living. So, developing hand pain that made it difficult to exert any effort without extreme discomfort and weakness was not good news!

About three weeks ago, I started to feel fairly constant pain on the dorsal side of my left wrist and hand and a little on the lateral side as well. Now, before you go ahead and say it’s because of 37 years of performing reflexology (and 14 actively practicing massage also), let me say this:

I am uber careful about body mechanics and ergonomics when working (and am always ‘on’ my students about this, too). Although I use both hands – thumbs and fingers equally, I am right-hand dominant.

I started on a serious self-care routine of almost constant massage and reflexology of the hand in question, paraffin treatments, massaging and stretching the muscles of the forearm, applying a CBD lotion a few times/day, and of course, resting it as much as I could. (In all honesty, I didn’t have much choice on that last one.)

Nothing was really making much of a difference though.

At my bi-weekly scheduled reflexology session about 10 days ago, I requested a paraffin treatment and hand reflexology. I also mentioned to my reflexologist, Julie Wesling, that I had noticed that my hand did not feel any better in the morning after a long night’s rest. In fact, I thought it felt worse. We both wondered if I was somehow placing my hand in an awkward position while asleep.

Julie suggested I try a wrist brace and I am sooo glad I followed her suggestion!

First off, it was not uncomfortable to sleep with. I don’t know that I was even aware of it once I fell asleep.

The first morning, I thought it felt a little better, but questioned whether I was just wishing that to be so. The second morning, there was no doubt. And the third; even better. It probably only took four or five nights of sleeping with an inexpensive drugstore wrist brace to bring my hand back to full pain-free function.

That experience reminded me of how fortunate I am to have chosen a path of bodywork for my life. I am so grateful for the fact that I have a good grasp of anatomy and kinesiology, and know so many self-care techniques to try before turning over the welfare of my body to an allopathic approach.

I think acting quickly also contributed to my speedy recovery. Waiting to see what happens might have developed into something far more serious requiring an invasive procedure to right.

Changing the Shape of Your Heart

I was intrigued when I read the title of a recent TED Talk that claimed that emotions actually change the shape of our hearts.

Cardiologist and author, Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, called on the medical profession to acknowledge the critical role emotions play in coronary health.

He went on to state that although the heart is commonly associated with love, it is not the source of love. He explained that the heart does not generate our feelings, but is responsive to them. And that is why the state of our emotional health is so important to our overall wellbeing.

As examples, he showed how fear and grief set off a cascade of changes such as pinching the shape of the heart muscle, speeding up the heart rate, contraction of blood vessels, and increasing blood pressure – all of which can result in damage to the organ.

The above are all triggers that occur in what is commonly referred to as ‘broken heart syndrome’, a biological event that can cause ‘death by grief’. On the other end of the scale, emotions such as joy and happiness create opposite changes in the heart that support healthy functioning of the organ.

All of these observations have led to studies with some surprising results. The one that caught my interest the most was ‘The Lifestyle Heart Trial’, published in 1990 in The Lancet, a UK science publication.

In it, the subjects, all living with coronary disease, were divided into two groups: the control group, who received regular allopathic practices, and the lifestyle group, who were put on a program of vegetarian diet, moderate exercise, stress management techniques and a social support network.

The results were undisputable. Although diet and exercise played a role in slowing the progression of coronary disease, the prevalent decider was stress management techniques and social connection. Those who receiving loving touch experienced less aortic disease than those who didn’t.

Dr. Jauhar concluded his talk with sharing that over the last 10 years the decline of coronary disease has slowed, at the same time the external stressors of modern life have increased.

It’s time we take stress management seriously. Our lives depend on it.

You can watch Dr. Jauhar’s full 15-minute talk here.

 

The Biology of Stress

One hundred years ago, the pioneering endocrinologist Hans Selye first defined the way the human body responds to stress. He articulated three occurrences that develop when humans are under prolonged stress:

  1. Multiple stomach ulcers develop.
  2. The adrenal glands enlarge four or five times from their protracted effort to produce copious bursts of adrenaline.
  3. The immune system (specifically the thymus, lymph nodes and the lymph tissue in the gut) atrophies.

None of which, is good.

When Selye refers to ‘prolonged stress’, he is referring to what is classified as Type 2 stress. There are two kinds of stress:

Type 1 is a prehistoric, hard-wired response to a simple stressor.

– The source of stress is definable.  An example: a tiger running towards you.

– There is a specific action that can be taken, from which there is an accompanying reaction. (Run away or kill the tiger; eliminate the stress)

Type 2 is our modern-day, complex form of stress

– The source is not always identifiable.

– A vague sense of worry

– Ongoing, multi-faceted

The sad thing is the body doesn’t know the difference!

If you want to learn a lot about the biology of stress, take a few minutes to watch this very informative video from biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton.

Why Your Feet Are Talking To You?

If you’re wondering why your feet ‘talk to you more’ as you are aging, AARP has a lot to report from studies it harvested for a recent article.

The article began with the facts that about 24% of people over 45 suffer from foot pain; by age 70, that number is closer to 50%. That’s half the adult population living with foot pain! Yikes!

According to the authors, here are some of the reasons:

* As we age blood flow to the feet diminishes, which can worsen any foot issue. As an example, they cited less blood flow to a tendon as contributing to tendonitis.

* Slower nail growth along with a weaker immune system can lead to stubborn nail fungus, athlete’s foot and/or cracked skin. By the time we hit our late 60s and 70s, the skin thins out and the fat pads on the bottom of the feet also thin.

* If you are dealing with mobility issues, such as being able to reach your feet, it makes more difficult to keep up proper foot hygiene, which can exacerbate other problems.

* By the time we reach 70 years of age, our feet need twice as much stimulation for the brain to sense it. REFLEXOLOGY ANYONE?

Some advice from the AARP authors:

* Check your shoe size. Up to 72% of people wear shoes that don’t fit, linked with the development of corns, bunions, contracted toes and pain.

The reason for this is that people often erroneously think that their shoe size is determined and fixed once they have reached adulthood. Wrong! As we age, gravity causes our arches to drop, lengthening the foot. Check every time you head out to make your next shoe purchase.

* Before getting out of bed in the morning, raise one (or both) of your legs in the air and make 20 ankle circles in one direction and then the other. Repeat with the other leg. Make your circles as big as you can, and do slowly. I do this every morning before getting up.

* Go barefoot as often as you can – especially on the earth’s surfaces. Stuffing your feet in shoes all day deprives them of the sensory stimulation they need to help your body move. Barefoot exercises such as Pilates and yoga count.

* Roll the bottom of your feet over a tennis or golf ball every evening. Sit around wearing toe separators while watching television.

Simple things that can make a BIG difference!

Stress, Depression, Sleep And Your Skin

Stress wears on you – you’d have to be living under a rock not to know that. But, are you aware of how chronic stress, depression and lack of sleep affect your skin?

ŸIntense or chronic stress increases the production of cortisol, which decreases the skin’s ability to repair itself.

ŸStress causes you to tense your facial muscles, often without realizing it. Those repeated frowns and grimaces ultimately will leave their mark in the form of permanent lines.

Here are a couple of easy counteractive measures:

– Reduce stress and anxiety by exercising.

– Include gentle instructions to consciously breath when giving reflexology sessions.  That will drive more oxygen to the skin cells for healing. If you notice clients with taut facial muscles, give some attention to the reflexes of the jaw and temple.

Depression is associated with a decrease in growth-hormone synthesis, which inhibits the ability of the skin to repair itself at night.

Here are a couple of counteractive measures:

– Seek out professional help to resolve the causes of your depression; keep a referral list in your office to share with clients wishing to work through their mental health issues.

– Regular exercise – proven to help defeat depression.

– Reflexology is a wonderful antidote to depression. It allows people to feel themselves in a whole, relaxed state; the way one should feel; the way we were born to be.

Lack of sleep. Without enough deep sleep, the skin can’t properly undo daily damage. Sleep deprivation puts the body into stress mode, causing more cortisol to be produced. And that takes us right back to the top of this article!

Here are a few preventive measures:

– Get more sleep – turn off all electronic devices at least ½ hour before going to bed. Do not read with a Kindle.

– Improve your sleep hygiene. Remove all electronics from your bedroom; sleep in a very dark room; drop the room temperature to 68 or 69 degrees.

– Sleep on your back – a “smooshed” face looks creased.

– Try a short hot tub soak – 10 minutes – before heading to bed. Add some relaxing essential oils to the bath water, or spritz them on your pillowcase.

– Work on your own reflexes before going to sleep. Focus on the central nervous system, diaphragm and solar plexus reflexes to promote sleep, reduce stress and combat depression. Add in the lymphatic and liver reflexes to help with skin health.

The above is useful information to share with clients. Please feel free to print out and distribute or re-write in your own words. Clients really appreciate educational tips.

Continuing Education – 2019 Lineup

Dive into continuing education. I just did. I spent last weekend with a gifted teacher who inspired me to no end.

Get excited about what you are learning. Tap into and express your gratitude for the privilege of learning. Many in this world are not afforded that opportunity.

Share that excitement and your new skills with clients. Grow your business.

Here is the Academy’s line-up for trainings this year:

Tired of Living With Painful Feet?
January 19th 1 to 3pm
Saint Augustine, Florida
* a free community class for people who wish to learn what they can do to relieve their chronic foot pain
Register: https://bit.ly/2FbqZX7

All the following workshops provide continuing education credits for the American Reflexology Certification Board (ARCB), the Reflexology Association of Canada (RAC), the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB), the Florida Board of Massage Therapy, and the Georgia Board of Massage Therapy.

Visit this link for details and to register for any of the following.

Say Goodbye to Headaches
February 23rd  9am to 6pm
Atlanta, Georgia

Reflexology: Massage Therapy’s Secret Weapon
March 10th  9am to 6pm
Gainesville, Florida

Therapeutic Hand & Foot Reflexology Professional Certification
begins April 4
Gainesville, Florida

Traditional Thai Reflexology
April 26th to 28th  9am to 5pm
Killington, Vermont

(foot) Reflexology
May 4th & 5th  9am to 6pm
Winter Park (Orlando), Florida

(foot) Reflexology
May 18th & 19th  9am to 6pm
Lake City, Florida

Traditional Thai Reflexology
June 16th to 18th  9am to 5pm
Vaudreuil-Dorion (Montreal), Quebec

How to Relieve Chronic Foot Pain
June 22nd & 23rd 9am to 6pm
Indianapolis, Indiana

Traditional Thai Reflexology
June 28th to 30th 9am to 5pm
Gainesville, Florida

Reflexology: Massage Therapy’s Secret Weapon
August 18th 9am to 6pm
Gainesville, Florida

(foot) Reflexology
August 24th & 25th 9am to 6pm
Winter Park (Orlando), Florida

Here’s the link for all the above workshops.

Jenny and I hope to see your shining face at one of these events!

Why Shoes Matter

If you are a subscriber to Massage Magazine, you will have read the article I wrote for the October issue on Foot Care for the Massage Therapist. As an additional bit of information, I also wrote an online article on Tips for Buying Shoes That Fit.

I was inspired to write that piece after I read that the two advancements in civilization that have contributed the most to our chronic physical pain are the chair and shoes.

Apparently, though, it is those evolutionary developments that have led to the chronic back and foot pain that society lives with now.

Since we are rapidly advancing toward covering as much of Earth in concrete and cement as we can, I don’t see the demise of shoes in the modern world any day soon—and that means we must take counteractive, preventative measures to keep our feet healthy and strong.

Read The Steps to Choosing the Right Shoe

Living Long And Living Well

Mallorca, Spain — Spain, Mallorca, Senior couple running along beach, smiling — Image by © Carlos Hernandez/Westend61/Corbis

Longevity does not occur because one has dodged every disease out there. A long life, lived well, is the result of a life lived with intention and consistent healthy habits. That is what arms the body with the defenses it needs to fight off unwanted disease; to recover faster and better.

Reasonable steps culled from studying long-living populations around the world and cutting-edge scientific research point to these seven habits as making the difference between a long life of suffering or a long life lived with vitality:

  1. Keep breathing! As the Chinese fortune cookie advises: ‘The secret to long life is to keep breathing’. Identify times in your day when you can consciously take three to five deep breaths. It’s that simple. Here are some ideas:

* first thing in the morning before getting out of bed

* in your car, whenever you are stopped at a red light

* standing in line at the grocery store

* before you start and end every reflexology session

* last thing in the evening before turning out the light

  1. Move. The ability to exercise remains the single most powerful predictor of longevity. Movement encompasses cardio activities, strength training and flexibility activities. Together they strengthen your bones, your muscles and your heart, teach balance and combat depression.
  1. Sun.15 minutes/day or 1000 IU of vitamin D. With the weakening of the ozone barrier that protects us from harmful rays, it’s best to avoid being out in the sun during the peak hours of 10 am to 2 pm. Try an early morning walk just after the sun has risen.
  1. FoodEat food that looks the same when you eat it as when it came out of the ground. Whole, unprocessed food. Avoid the ‘dirty dozen plus’, if you don’t buy organic; they’re heavily laden with pesticides. They are strawberries, spinach, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, tomatoes, celery, potatoes, sweet bell peppers, hot peppers, Make half your plate fruits and/or vegetables.
  1. Maintain a healthy weight. Obesity leads to systemic inflammation that leads to raised blood sugar, unhealthy LDL-cholesterol levels and high blood pressure, which all damage the lining of the arteries. Excess fat increases cancer risk, leads to joint pain, diabetes, peripheral neuropathy and an early death.
  1. Sleep more than seven hours/night. Adequate sleep increases the growth hormone, a critical vitality booster. Regular patterns of four to five hours/night create a blood sugar level equal to that of someone above the legal level of alcohol, leading to impaired thinking and judgment, as well as other potential problems caused by a sugar imbalance.
  1. Purpose. Find a reason to get up every day. A reason to be here. You have one life; it makes sense to love living it.

Resources:
TimeYour Body– Dr. Mehmet Oz
The Blue Zones, The Science of Living Longer– National Geographic

Ditch The Deodorant

Did you know that your body has two different kinds of sweat glands? And that one of them excretes a very pungent odor and the other doesn’t?

It’s true.

When your body needs to cool down, the eccrine sweat glands turn on to produce a watery sweat that evaporates through your skin, cooling your internal temperature. This watery perspiration does not generally produce any odor.

However, if the apocrine sweat glands are turned on, your body releases an oily and rather pungent type of liquid. It’s this oily substance that has a strong, ripe, smelly odor.

So, what triggers the apocrine sweat glands to turn on?

In a word, STRESS.

When under stress (either real or perceived), the body’s autonomic nervous system will shift into the ‘flight or fight’ state. And that turns on the apocrine sweat glands.

To elicit the relaxation response and curtail the action of the apocrine glands, we can turn to two simple proven techniques:

* deep, conscious, controlled breathing

* reflexology. Reflexology is a master when it comes to relaxing. Add in a focus on the diaphragm reflex to aid the stress-busting benefits even more.

Who knows? With practice at relaxing, you may be able to ditch your underarm deodorant!

Restless Leg Syndrome

Restless leg syndrome (RLS), a disorder of the nervous system that causes itchy, “pins and needles,” or a “creepy crawly” feeling in the legs, affects up to 10% of the adult population. It causes an almost irresistible urge to move the legs. The sensations are usually worse when lying or sitting, and since it usually interferes with sleep, it is also considered a sleep disorder. As research has shown over and over, sleep disruption can significantly impair quality of life, so RLS is more than just an uncomfortable inconvenience to live with. Symptoms can be mild to barely tolerable, can come and go, and vary in severity.

Causes

Truth is, medicine doesn’t really know what causes RLS, although it is recognized that more females experience it than males. It is thought that perhaps genes play a role, or problems with dopamine or poor circulation (low level of oxygen in the blood).

Certain chronic conditions (Parkinson’s disease, kidney failure, diabetes, peripheral neuropathy and iron or vitamin D deficiency) and pharmaceutical drugs containing sedating antihistamines, such as antinausea drugs, antipsychotic drugs, some antidepressants and cold/allergy medications, include as a side effect the symptoms of RLS. This is known as secondary RLS. Treating the underlying cause can often bring relief.

Some women experience RLS when pregnant. Fortunately, the symptoms tend to disappear within a month or so after delivery.

One other contributing factor to RLS that is often overlooked by the medical community is walking with a habitual short stride. This may be from habit, or from a limitation in movement originating in the hip, knee or even an ankle injury. A lengthening stretch of antagonistic muscles doesn’t occur with RLS as it does naturally in a long, easy walking stride. Another possible cause of short stride length can be tightened quadriceps from sitting for long periods of time.

What To Do

In my experience, people with RLS generally benefit from reflexology.

Interestingly, a study done in 2013 with 30 people using a foot wrap called a restiffic for eight weeks found significant improvements in RLS symptoms and sleep quality.

This is the interesting part as far as I’m concerned: the wrap puts pressure on points of the plantar surface of the feet. The pressure sends messages to the brain instructing the affected leg muscles to relax.

Sounds a lot like reflexology!

In my reflexology sessions, I do a lot of range-of-motion with the ankles, and stretch and massage the calf muscles. I focus on the reflexes to the:

* central nervous system

* low back muscles

* hip/thigh/knee

 Lifestyle Changes

The following changes in habits have been known to help bring relief for people suffering with restless leg syndrome:

* Tai chi

* Regular exercise that involves cardiovascular movement and lower body resistance training of the lower extremities

* Yoga and/or stretching

* A regular sleep pattern

* Elimination or reduction of caffeine, alcohol and tobacco

* Hot baths

* Ice packs applied to legs when experiencing a flare-up of RLS

Do you or any of your clients live with restless leg syndrome? If yes, what have you found to help? Please share so that we can all learn something.