Want To Stretch Your Mind? Start With Your Toes!

Hello there, welcome back! How's the hugging going?

Shall we step outside the mainstream box a little today?   ^______^

As I have mentioned in previous posts, reflexology is all about a map of our body being present on our feet, hands and ears. Beyond that though, we can stretch the paradigm further...!

Earlier this year, I had the absolute pleasure of attending a workshop by Chris Stormer-Fryer, author of “Language of the Feet”.  In this workshop, Chris explored the world of foot reading. Different from palm reading - rather than predicting your future, your feet tell the story of your life up til now.

Staying on topic though, there are two key factors in explaining this week’s title topic.

First! The Reflexes! Our toes contain all of our head and neck reflexes.  Thanks to this connection, if you have a sore head or neck, more often than not you will speed your recovery by massaging your toes (or fingers, for that matter)!

Second! The Symbolism! Each toe symbolises a different portion of our mind/thoughts. To super simplify and summarise for you, this is what each toe can represent:

• ·         Big toe – our perception of knowledge / what we think is true
• ·         2^nd toe – our emotional thoughts / feelings
• ·         3^rd toe – our thoughts on actions /getting on with the task
• ·         4^th toe – our communications
• ·         5^th toe – our thoughts on family / society (dealing with social construct)

Now, I want you to stop reading this blog for a moment and have a good look at your toes. Yes, take off your shoes and socks if you’re wearing them. Try to wriggle your toes. Scrunch them together. Spread them right out. How much mobility do your toes have? The more mobility each toe has, the more freedom that portion of your mind has.

Have you ever watched the toes of a baby? Did you notice how beautifully each toe moves, and how much space each toe had? That’s our natural state, before life and society tries to tell us otherwise.

Revisiting my post from 2 weeks ago, remember that perceived stress is one of the biggest challenges we face in modern society. Having the ability to think naturally and freely is a wonderful tool in managing life’s roller-coaster.  And hey, as the old saying goes “an agile body is an agile mind”, well ‘flexible toes are a flexible mind!’

Squeeze!

And... Stretch!

Now, if you've found that your toes aren't very movable or flexible, never fear – that’s great. What a wonderful place to start from! Have you ever tried wearing ‘toe socks’? I've found they are a very gentle first step in prising tightly cuddled toes apart, giving them the space they deserve to be themselves.

If your toes are already quite flexible – awesome. Keep at it, whatever you’ve been doing so far! J

If you are someone who will now be staring regularly at your toes, trying to wriggle them around – remember, always transition your body gently. If your foot feels like its going to cramp, ease up on the wriggling, don’t over-do it – and drink lots of water!

My 'Peek-a-Boo' Toe socks

So this week’s GEM and your homework is, start deliberately trying to move your toes around, your mind and sole (soul!) will love you all the more for it!

Until next week!

In love and light, be peaceful

Annalise

Hugging - the Science, and the Art!

Hello! How are you going today? And how did you go with your homework GEM from last week? Have you been giving and receiving lots of hugs?

“We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth” Virginia Satir (Psychotherapist).

The Science!

Simply speaking, touch (hugs, handshakes, hand-holding, kissing, etc.) triggers the release of hormones in the body – the two key players being

• ·         DOPAMINE (pleasure hormone)
• ·         OXYTOCIN (love hormone) – particularly exciting in our context.

I first learnt about the benefits of oxytocin and hugging at a reflexology workshop early last year. Afterwards I went and excitedly told my mother (a nurse) all about it – her response was simply “that’s the childbirth hormone…” I found that rather anticlimactic against my excitement…!

Yes, oxytocin is indeed the hormone released during childbirth. It helps mother and child bond in those first moments, so it’s pretty special (men have this hormone too, just by the way). It also helps in the initial creation of said children (or just the play, if you prefer) ^_^

BUT! There are other awesome things is does too!

• ·         It reduces our cortisol levels, reducing feelings of stress and aiding in sleep quality
• ·         Reduces blood pressure
• ·         Boosts feelings of trust and connection
• ·         It’s also been noted to reduce pain and inflammation

Fun fact – people are so hungry for hugs now that “Cuddle Therapy Centres” exist, where you can pay for a hug!

So earlier, I mentioned that touch generically has all these benefits. This is true. But in the same way that poking your toe in the spa-bath might be nice, sitting in there and enjoying the whole body experience is way better! In the case of touch, hugs have more contact area, and that’s gotta be a good thing! Hugging someone you trust is also much more potent than hugging a stranger.

The Art!

A hug is a hug is a hug? Nope!

Earlier this year I got a big shock. I went to a reflexology course in Sydney and was doing the typical round of hugging that occurs at these meets (we’re a huggy bunch because we know how good it is!) ^_^ When I went to hug the teacher, I leant in my usual way and she boldly met me head on. I simply couldn’t get across to the side I wanted to hug her from. All she said to me was “Heart to heart, dear. Always heart to heart.”

It took a while for me to register, but then the realisation landed. I’d spent all my years hugging people’s right side. By doing this, we met right shoulder to right shoulder – which is actually the ‘impersonal’ hug.

Fascinated, I started observing any hugs I witnessed in society. Almost every hug I’ve witnessed since that moment has been right shoulder to right shoulder. Very few people naturally meet in a left shoulder to left shoulder hug (heart to heart). Hugging ‘heart to heart’ connects you in a profound way.

Length of each hug is also important – again, more is more! Try to hug for 10-20 seconds. If you can hold each hug for 20 seconds or more, you will gain more oxytocin, further reduce cortisol and stress feelings, and sleep even better!

This week’s GEM – hug as often as you can, endeavour to hug heart to heart, and hold each hug as long as is reasonable ^_^

Now, I would love to hear your feedback on this – can you feel the difference? Try hugging your partner on both sides (hold each hug for 10-20 seconds) and let me know which one felt better. I have tested this on a number of dear friends and I now try to make a point of hugging people ‘heart to heart’.

Special tip – if you’re finding you can’t find enough people to hug, there are alternatives that are still really beneficial!

• ·         Hug or pat an (trustworthy) animal – animals love touch as much as we do
• ·         Watch a romantic comedy!
• ·         Treat yourself to some TLC. Go have a relaxing, head rubbing, hair-wash at your favourite hair dressers, get a massage, or hey! Come and get some reflexology! J

Next week I’m going to step slightly outside the box and stretch your minds (and toes)! Look forward to it!

Stress - Literal VS Perceived

Welcome back!

Stress! The word alone can set your teeth on edge!

I want to share a bit more of my story this week and my key lesson about dealing with stress. In return, I welcome your stories, key lessons and remedies in the comments below – don’t be shy!

2 years ago I burnt out at work. Working as an “Information Specialist”, I was sitting in a demanding position and ‘burning the candle at both ends’. For years leading up to my burn-out, I would work hard all week, and then be a vegetable the entire weekend to regather my energies for the next week. Quite the lifestyle, huh?! Despite all that, I kept telling myself that I was coping just fine – “this is what everyone deals with!”

After I’d burnt out and was slowly recovering, several friends then told me they’d seen me ‘on the road towards burning out' and weren’t at all surprised by my news…! My initial thought response to hearing that was “then why the heck didn’t you tell me before I actually crashed?” Later I realised, all telling me would have achieved would be to stress me even more. Knowing the outcome could be rather scary if you don’t have the tools available to change paths. And at that time I simply didn’t have the coping strategies to be able to make use of that information.

I now understand stress much more clearly. There are two key types of stress:

1. Literal stress (“OMG a hungry tiger is chasing me!”)
2. Perceived stress (“OMG how am I going to meet this deadline?!” or “OMG I forgot to buy carrots!”) From the eyes of another, perceived stresses may range from seemingly minor to major issues, but can still have significant impacts on an individual’s physiological stress levels.

Literal stresses are something all life has evolved with – it has always been the survival of the fittest. And those literal threats are only ever for short periods of time. You either escape the tiger, or get eaten. Simple! ^_^

Perceived stress can actually be much harder to deal with, and it is what most of society now struggles with. Simple “fight/flight/freeze” responses don’t work on this, because there is no actual danger. These perceived stresses all happen in our brains, yet they trigger the same hormonal response that a chasing predator might cause.

The "fight/flight/freeze" hormonal response is an amazing mechanism our bodies have evolved to protect us. It pulls most energetic resources from our body and focuses it into just a couple of areas. This is fine for a short burst of super-human strength to escape that tiger, but it’s not a state of being we’re designed to cope with for long. It suppresses our immune system, digestive system, creativity, and heavily fatigues our bodies, to say the least.

The lesson I needed to learn, that took a long time for me to understand, was to step back and look at my ‘stress’ from a different perspective. To ‘disconnect’, as such. We become stressed when we exist ‘within’ that small, specific situation – it’s all we see, and all we think about.

If you can take a step back, and view the situation from another angle, almost like it is someone else’s problem, often an easy solution presents itself.

Sounds simple? In theory, it is super simple. In practice, it is super simple, but it may feel rather tricky, as ‘disconnecting’ from something can initially feel ‘wrong’ (for lack of a better word), and/or quite scary. It's new territory.

After ‘disconnecting’, what I personally found was that my loyalties changed. I am still loyal to my company and take pride in my work, but my primary loyalty now lies to myself. I’ve stepped back and am now looking at the big picture of my present life. I now understand that, while I have ‘disconnected’ from the small day-to-day stresses at work, I’ve ‘connected’ with my larger life purpose. Now I’m changing careers, following my heart, and have never felt happier or healthier. Or stronger, within myself. And what’s even better, my stress levels have come WAY DOWN.

Now, it's a bit hard to make this MASSIVE lesson into an simple action GEM for the week as it is a mindset adjustment. So I’ll leave the thoughts from this post to soak into your minds for a while; below is your GEM for the week – in preparation for next week! Yay! :D

There is something else that affects almost all of us now – other than perceived stress. It’s actually touch-hunger. Australian culture (and most other developed countries) have become rather standoff-ish; we don’t often hug anymore. This is actually not very good for us – we need physical contact to thrive. And I don’t mean just the sexual style of touch. Platonic touch is as important, if not even more so! Ideally we should each be getting 9 hugs each day, at least! Your GEM and homework for this week – find some people to hug (choose carefully though, I don’t want to hear stories of you frightening perfect strangers on the street!) ^_^ 

Friends and family are the easiest choices, and hey, if you're not sure - just ask!

Next week I’ll talk a bit about the art and science of hugging! Until then!

In love and light, be peaceful.

Annalise

Special Post - Minimalist Shoes

Yay! First Special Blog Post! *super excited*

In response to my last post, an awesome question was asked of me – “…what are your thoughts on those 'shoes' that are made to cover your feet like gloves? …“

I myself have been curious about “minimalist shoes” for a while now, but I’ve not yet worn a pair personally. I became properly aware of them late last year, when I saw a conference presenter wearing a pair of Vibrams, and raving about them.

So this question gave me a great excuse to do a bit more focussed research on them. And it is interesting! The shoes themselves are quite variable. All makes and models are about lowering the heel profile of the shoe so that you are mimicking running barefoot, while still having some sole protection from sharp objects. Vibrams seem to be the closest to a genuine ‘barefoot feeling’, but there is a whole spectrum of other minimalist shoes by different major shoe companies that can help people make a gradual transition from traditional shoes.

So! I terms of reflexology and earthing, here is what my literature review has taught me that I can share:

• ·      Reflexology - Yes, you will be in better contact with the ground, so some foot reflexes will be stimulated
• ·      Earthing - No, all the shoes still have rubber soles, so you are no more ‘grounded’ in these than standard sneakers or shoes

There is another benefit to Vibrams though, which is actually the primary reason I’d been so interested in them. They can also be called “toe-shoes”. Rather than a standard shoe with a big space for all your toes together, like toe socks there are individual shoe sleeves for each toe. I’m intending to write a blog post about why I like this idea so much, so stay tuned about this one - I'll have you thinking outside the box very soon!

I also asked around my friends if any were minimalist runners, and one is! Here’s a few of his key observations (he’s been a 'min.' runner for ~18 months)

• Much improved running action (each step lands under his hips now)
• Improved core strength
• Better balancing of muscle strength in legs (using hamstrings more)
• More agile
• Generally better balance
• However, he didn’t make the transition slowly enough and persisted despite discomfort – and has injured himself twice (exacerbated back injury and strained Achilles tendon). Take heed!

Remember, people in developed countries have been essentially living in shoes now for many decades.  Consequently, transitioning to using ‘minimalist’ shoes on any intensive basis must be done very gradually.  If you are getting sore arches or sore spots on your feet or legs, you're transitioning too fast - give your body the time it needs to develop the required strength and flexibility. This is like learning how to walk again, from scratch!

In summary, these shoes have not been designed for their reflexology benefits specifically, but I’m confident enough to say that benefit will be felt by wearing them. But transition slowly and gently!

As you’re still not getting any ‘grounding’ through them though, I’d still recommend actually going around barefoot when you can!  :D


Join me this coming Monday night when I talk about Stress!

Annalise's Reflexology 101 ^_^

This week I want to talk about a topic particularly close to my heart. How much do you know about reflexology?

I myself have had a love of foot massage since I was a child. However, when I began to study reflexology, the paradigm of simple foot massage vanished, opening me to a style of internal healing I’d never considered before. Today I’d like to share with you my basic description of reflexology, how it can benefit your health, and the easiest way to give yourself a treatment.

Firstly - I believe that all life is perfect. Living organisms are pre-programmed to be able to self-heal (otherwise species would have died out long ago). The same way that our bodies can create antibodies to protect our system from biological invaders, natural mechanisms have been built into our physical structure to help keep us healthy and strong.

On our feet, hands and ears lie maps of our entire bodies, connected through ‘reflexes’. Stimulating these reflexes clears blockages from energy channels around different parts of our bodies. Most ailments occur where there is a blockage in one of these channels. So essentially, clearing the pathways around your body allows it to get on with healing whatever needs attention – these energy blockages stop or slow down that process.

Last week I also promised to talk a bit more about going barefoot this week – here it is!

Our bodies are perfect because simply walking stimulates these reflexes, keeping our energy channels clear, keeping us healthy! However! Modern life has us locking our feet away in cushioned shoes. What we may be forgetting is that wearing shoes changes our gait, atrophies the muscles in in our feet, and removes most if not all natural reflex stimulation. Walking on different textured surfaces stimulates different reflexes, so it’s important to stimulate the whole base of each foot. Walking on cobblestones and other similar, smooth-ish pathways are ideal. Even smooth, flat (natural) surfaces may be a little painful at first, but I would still recommend you try to persist, in small amounts. Try just 5 minutes, once or twice a week. If it does hurt though, don’t overdo it, you’ll achieve nothing if you deliberately injure your feet. With gentle persistence though, you’ll soon find that you become more comfortable over time, and will feel the health benefits of clearing those sore spots away!

For your interest's sake, reflexology paths have been established all around the world, and knowing the benefits, many people visit these daily to walk along barefoot or in socks. Last year we even had a reflexology path opened in Launceston! If you know of one in your area, go give it a try!

Take note! Stimulating reflexes and clearing energy pathways, like any complimentary therapy can release stored toxins – so make sure you’re drinking lots of water! Aim for 1-2 litres of plain water each day! Your body will love you for it!

With love and light, be peaceful (and have a delightful week!)

Annalise