Therapeutic reflexology is a complementary healthcare modality that holistically treat the human body. In today’s post we’ll explore this holistic modality, especially in the career dimension, to understand where it can be used effectively.
Career Holism
Human beings are holistic in nature and consists of seven distinct dimensions, namely the physical, psychological (emotional), spiritual, sexual, social, financial and career dimensions (Scheepers, 2003; Scheepers, 2007). Therapeutic Reflexology is able to address all seven these dimensions and therefore it can be seen as a truly holistic healthcare modality.
Today our focus will be on the career dimension; that human dimension characterised by your career, your profession, your work or your job. In other words, the career dimension is that human dimension relating to where you normally spend most of your time away from home. Some people see it merely as a means to earn an income in order to pay for monthly expenses, while others see it as a fulfilment of a life purpose. Each person perceives work differently and that is OK; a therapeutic reflexologist will work with you within your own frame of reference for how you identify with the world of work.
Your career should be more than a job, it should be a fulfilment of your destiny. Just think about it for a moment. Why are you on earth? Why are you living on planet earth? Why are you alive during the 21stcentury? Is it mere coincidence or are you here for a purpose? Are you perhaps here to live out a specific destiny? Think about that for a while.
I believe that each person is alive at a specific moment in time in order to fulfil a specific destiny. You are here for a purpose, but each person should determine that purpose individually. Nobody can tell you what your purpose in life is, except you. To live out that purpose and to fulfil your destiny on this planet, you should pursue a profession that you enjoy; your career should not be a punishment, it should be something you enjoy doing and, in the process, earn an income in order to make a living. Making a living should be a life that you find fulfilling and enjoy and not be something you dread to do.
Finding your purpose is not that difficult either, it is usually something inbred in you and something you enjoy to do. When you find your purpose, you will understand why you have the specific skills, strengths and even weaknesses that you have. It begins to make sense. Living your purpose often seems effortless while others may be finding it a huge effort to do the same. Therefore, you should see yourself as a unique individual, find and live out your specific purpose without trying to copy somebody else.
My Purpose
Finding my purpose was a lifelong journey of discovery, but once I realised why I’m on this planet, it gave me a sense of belonging, but also clarity and direction in life. When you know who you are and what you are supposed to be doing, it provides you with the security to live your life without trying to imitate others; it gives you the opportunity to have your profession and live it out to the best of your ability without feeling threatened by rivals or competitors in the same industry, because you are doing what you are meant to be doing instead of merely copying others. That makes you authentic and people can sense authenticity in people just as they can sense it when people are fake and mere imitators of other people.
I have a very broad interest base and found it difficult to make a career decision while I was still in school. The one day I wanted to be a pilot, the next day a doctor, the following day a physiotherapist and the day thereafter an accountant. Then I would get involved in a sport like scuba diving and wanted to be a divemaster. So, it continued.
As I matured, I realised that there was a clear trend for me throughout my life. No matter what career option I considered, I always wanted to take it to the highest level with one purpose in mind and once I realised that, I understood what I was designed to do. I always wanted to teach. When realising that, my life started to make sense. I wanted to be a pilot, not so much to fly planes (a much as I would like it), but in order to reach the level of actually training other pilots. I wanted to be a doctor, not only to help people, but to train other doctors. I considered physiotherapy, not to only work with patients, but to reach the point where I could train other physiotherapists. I liked and still like accounting, but thinking about entering the world of accounting was not to work as an accountant all day, but rather to train other accountants. Scuba diving, especially shark diving, has been a real passion for me, but I did not want to only be a divemaster leading other divers, but be an instructor in order to train scuba divers.
That realisation opened my eyes. I was born to be a teacher. All of a sudden, my life made sense and I understood why I had such a passion to study and enjoyed expanding my knowledge. My life made sense, because no matter where I worked, I always ended up being involved in teaching in one form or the other.
I believe I was born to teach and began to pursue a profession in teaching, but not teaching at school level; I had a passion to teach at higher education level and thus pursued postgraduate qualifications in order to set myself up for such a career.
As my life evolved, I understood that I had a specific purpose on this planet that I believe to be the following: I am meant to glorify God by helping people and do so through RT³ (Research, Teaching, Training, Therapy). I had the privilege of making this purpose a reality in my life. Today, I am a researcher and research supervisor of postgraduate students at university. I have the ability to write books and articles that provides teaching to numerous people. I lecture at university level and am thus involved in training students. I am a therapeutic reflexologist in private practice offering therapy to patients. This combination of who I am, has one specific underlying foundation, I am teaching wherever I go; whether it is in the form of training, teaching and coaching students or writing to teach the general public or offering therapy to patients, there is always teaching involved.
The result of living my purpose, is the fact that it never feels to me as if I’m working. I love what I do and as a result my days are varied, but it never feels like a dreading job I have to do, but rather I’m enjoying every moment of what I am destined to do and, in the process, I am living out my destiny of helping people, but that is me.
Have you determined your purpose in life yet? Are you working towards fulfilling your destiny on planet earth or are you merely living from salary to salary in an attempt to survive the monthly expenses?
If you need some help and clarity on this, you are welcome to make use of some online tests that may guide you. Two sets of tests I can highly recommend, are the following:
Discovering your purpose in life and living out your destiny, is a journey, so do not get despondent if it seems like it is taking forever for you to discover it.
That is all interesting, but what does that have to do with therapeutic reflexology?
Career Benefits
Therapeutic reflexology is a healthcare modality so it is not directly speaking to your career, unless you follow a career as therapeutic reflexologist. However, that is not what this post is about, because therapeutic reflexology is not a career for everyone and many people would never want to work with other peoples’ feet.
Therapeutic reflexology can benefit your career in a few ways:
Firstly, in order for you to find a fulfilling career, you need to be able to have clarity of mind in order to make the correct career decisions. Have you ever noticed that when you are stressed, then you are unable to clearly think and it almost seems like you are thinking in circles instead of thinking in a specific direction? This is one of the best places where therapeutic reflexology may benefit your career dimension; it may assist you to reduce your stress levels in order for your body and mind to experience calmness which may then lead to you having clarity of mind in order to make good decisions. Ultimately, choosing the wrong career may be a very expensive mistake if you need to go back to university later on in life in order to study again, so it may just be worth it to take the time out of your busy schedule and get relaxation through therapeutic reflexology in order for you to clear your mind before making important life decisions.
Secondly, your career may suffer if you are overly stressed. Never, you may say, but stress in the short-term may help you to function on adrenaline and actually get things done faster, but when stress is experienced over the long-term, it may lead to your body and mind suffering as a result of the higher stress levels and the result, is that you experience reduced performance and lower productivity in your profession. When your body uses energy to try and control stress, it is taking it from those parts of you needing energy to focus on your work and to perform optimally. Therapeutic reflexology is one of the best healthcare modalities that may assist you in keeping your stress levels under control in order for you to be able to focus better at work and as a result perform better and be optimally productive; thus, benefitting your career.
Thirdly, therapeutic reflexology is known as a preventative healthcare modality in that it helps you to manage your stress levels effectively and when stress is controlled, your body tends to work better in order to fight off disease. When you are healthy, you are able to work more effectively and purposefully pursue your career. Therapeutic reflexology benefits your career by helping you to be at work and not lying in bed feeling all ill.
Fourthly, therapeutic reflexology helps your body with improved circulation and improved energy levels, so when you do get ill, you may use therapeutic reflexology as the ideal complementary therapy in combination with any other healthcare or medical modalities to get your body to fight the disease. The sooner you overcome illness, the sooner you are able to be back at work functioning at your best, making therapeutic reflexology an ideal healthcare modality to assist your career dimension.
This post is the final post in the holistic reflexology range speaking directly to your career dimension, but there are other posts available on holistic reflexology with regards to the other human dimensions, namely spirit, soul, body, sexuality, social and financial.
Therapeutic reflexology is a holistic healthcare modality that truly is able to speak to all seven human dimensions (Scheepers, 2003; Scheepers, 2007).
References
Scheepers, C.A. (2003) The Exploitation of Practical Sociology as Counselling Model for Application in a Christian-Holistic Founded Practice. Unpublished Ph.D.-thesis. Kempton Park: Commonwealth Open University.
Scheepers, C.A. (2007) Holistic Wellness: A Christian Omnibus for Whole-Person Wellbeing. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.
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Christo A. Scheepers: Therapeutic Reflexologist
Dip.T.R.(Cum Laude) [IARAMT]
AHPCSA: A11945
Pr. No.: 1080000737453
Tel. 072-800 7243