With summer comes yard work, raking and digging in the garden.
For many individuals gardening causes much back, neck and shoulder pain. Reflexology is extremely effective for any type of back pain, whatever its origin.
When the right areas of the feet or the hands are treated with the right amount of pressure, the results are truly amazing. Nerve flow to the area of the back, neck, or shoulders causing the pain is improved and, over several sessions can even be optimized.
The same goes for the blood and the lymph, which flows to the problem areas of the body.
Many gardeners are also afflicted with plantar fasciitis, one of the most common foot ailments, where individuals feel pain along the bottom of the heel. Reflexology is beneficial because it stretches and relieves heel pain caused by plantar fasciitis.
Those who routinely go for a reflexology session experience less pain in the foot, heel and lower leg and are able to maintain full flexibility when doing daily activities.
It is important to remember that medical reflexology is not a foot massage. The reflexologist will “probe” the feet to look for congested areas. When he or she finds those congestion areas, deep pressure techniques will be applied to de-congest those reflexes. As the Reflexologist’s fingers are working on the congested area, if they see that de-congesting a reflex is painful to you, he or she should ask you to breathe deep through the nose. This will release endorphins, the body’s natural pain-killer.
The golden rule of reflexology is that the closer together the sessions are in the beginning, the faster the recovery. Often, after a few weeks of intensive treatments, a patient will experience great improvement in the health of their overall body.
This column is submitted by Judy Longstreet CR., CH., who specializes in reflexology.
