Utopia through your feet is possible, just visit a therapeutic reflexologist. In this post we’ll explore how you can experience footopia.
Why therapeutic reflexology causes relaxation
Therapeutic reflexology is a healthcare modality that works on the reflexes (or nerve endings) on your feet (and sometimes other body parts like the hands). Just think about this for a minute. The nerve endings are those areas of your body that cause you to experience sensation; the feeling of touch. When the therapeutic reflexologist touches your feet, you feel it due to an impulse being sent via the nerves to your spine and brain telling you that somebody is touching your feet.
This feeling of touch is a good feeling not only relaxing your physical body, but you also experience an emotional feeling of calmness and even a spiritual feeling of comfort as the touch is therapeutic in nature and making you realise you are not alone in the midst of the life circumstances you are dealing with.
Let us look into these three dimensions of a therapeutic reflexology session.
Physical relaxation
When the therapeutic reflexologist stimulates the reflexes on your feet, you are experiencing a feeling of physical relaxation due to many reasons, but let’s consider two.
Firstly, by stimulating the nerve endings on the feet, you are experiencing a good feeling of relaxation due to the body secreting a chemical called endorphins which assists the body to decrease stress resulting in the various parts of the body physically relaxing. Endorphins are also secreted when you laugh, that is why people say that laughter is the best medicine; there is more behind it than a mere saying.
Secondly, when the therapeutic reflexologist stimulates the feet, it improves circulation in the body which assists the body to get blood, oxygen and nutrients to all the body parts while assisting the body to excrete toxins from the body. The result is an overall feeling of relaxation and wellness.
These are only two aspects of how therapeutic reflexology can reduce stress, increase a feeling of wellness and induce relaxation leaving you with a feeling of utopia; all as a result of stimulation on your feet.
Emotional relaxation
Therapeutic reflexology goes a step further by causing you to experience a feeling of tranquillity. This emotional feeling of relaxation or calmness is a direct result of you taking care of yourself and having some “me-time” by spending an hour in a therapeutic environment with your therapeutic reflexologist. You will be surprised how uplifting it can be when you finally decide that you deserve an hour a week or even an hour a month to just spend relaxing while experiencing the ultimate form of relaxation, namely therapeutic reflexology.
When you are in the midst of turmoil or having to make a difficult decision and your mind is all over the place and constantly busy without getting to a conclusion or if you are constantly living with high stress levels, you will benefit emotionally from taking some time out to just spend on yourself. Time out may mean going to walk on the beach for an hour which is calming, but sometimes you need that added benefit of therapeutic reflexology stimulation to accompany the relaxation in order for you to really get your mind to relax and unwind.
Have you ever noticed that when you are very stressed, you usually have some stiff neck and shoulder muscles? Have you ever wondered why that is? Well, the answer is simple. Every person stress differently and if you are stressed or dealing with certain emotions, it is usually stored somewhere in your body. Stress is often stored in the neck and shoulder muscles, but each person is unique and stresses differently and therefore your emotions may be stored in different parts of the body and a therapeutic reflexology session may assist your body to work out these emotions.
I began doing reflexology in 2003 and worked with many trauma patients and it has always been amazing for me to see that even without speaking a word, by just stimulating the various reflexes on the feet, may result in the patient letting go of emotions. Sometimes it was just a sigh of relief, sometimes it was tears flowing and sometimes it is just a feeling that a heavy burden has been lifted. Therapeutic reflexology has an amazing ability to assist you in experiencing emotional relaxation through healthy therapeutic touch on your feet.
Spiritual relaxation
Spirituality is something that is not always spoken about when speaking about therapeutic reflexology, but every person is a spiritual being regardless of whether you are religious or not, regardless of whether you believe in a specific Supreme Being or not (Scheepers, 2007:97). Every person has a built-in desire to worship; some worship God, others worship themselves, others worship science and others worship the belief that they worship nothing.
Therapeutic reflexology has an amazing ability to even help with spiritual relaxation. Please do not understand me incorrectly, therapeutic reflexology is not a religion and is definitely not some mystical spiritual modality! No, therapeutic reflexology is a healthcare modality based on scientific principles, but by applying these techniques it causes a person to experience deep relaxation and while the therapeutic reflexologist stimulates your feet, you may experience a feeling of comfort as the healthy therapeutic touch on your feet may make you realise that you are not alone in the midst of your turmoil.
Not feeling alone is a big step in experiencing comfort and that is a large part of what spirituality is all about; the need to feel comfort and support. The therapeutic reflexologist’s closeness and physical touch on your feet, may help you to realise that you are not alone and you may experience tremendous comfort and contentment as a result. This is a form of spiritual relaxation regardless of your spiritual or religious beliefs. A professional therapeutic reflexologist will never impose his spiritual or religious beliefs on the patient, but instead supports you with therapeutic reflexology so you may experience spiritual relaxation within your own frame of reference.
Holistic Relaxation
Therapeutic reflexology is a wonderful healthcare modality to help you experience holistic relaxation and wellbeing in all human dimensions and that is why it may lead to a feeling of utopia or in other words, ultimate wellbeing.
Therapeutic reflexology may help you experience footopia; utopia through stimulation of your feet.
References
Scheepers, C.A. (2007) Holistic Wellness: A Christian Omnibus for Whole-Person Wellbeing. iUniverse, Lincoln, NE.
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Christo A. Scheepers: Therapeutic Reflexologist
Dip.T.R.(Cum Laude) [IARAMT]
AHPCSA: A11945
Pr. No.: 1080000737453
Tel. 072-800 7243