It's coming into the busiest time of the year.
Are you ready?
Many of us are running on adrenal energy at the moment; preparing, running, working, organising this often hectic time leading up to the end of the year.
How are you coping?
Do you feel flustered, stressed, overwhelmed?
Do your feet ache at the end of your busy days - and even worse, after you get up?
I'd like to share 2 Reflexology Points with you today that may well change all this around for you.
The Solar Plexus Point & the Adrenal Point
First of all, for those who don't know, Reflexology is an ancient natural therapy based on the principle that certain parts of the body, such as the feet, hands and ears, reflect the whole body like a map in miniature. These parts of the body are comprised of so-called “reflex points”, which relate to all organs, glands and body parts (hence the name Reflexology). The reflex points respond to pressure and touch, having a relaxing and balancing effect on the whole organism, and promoting health by stimulating the body's own natural healing process.
Generally, Reflexology is best applied within a whole body sequence (all applied on the feet, or hands or ears respectively), to ensure its holistic benefits on the body. Sometimes, however, Reflexology gets blended with other modalities such as crystal healing, deep tissue massage or Shiatsu. When there is not enough time for a whole session, people often also like to pick one or two reflexes only to achieve a single outcome - to release menstrual cramps or back pain for example. In our case, we will be looking at reducing stress and increasing wellbeing by applying pressure to two points.
Let's get started with one of my old time favourites: The Solar Plexus Point
The Solar Plexus is a tight network of nerves, located right in the apex of the bottom of your rib cage, in line with your stomach. It feels tight, when we stress about or churn on a topic that we don’t quite know how to process. When the Solar Plexus is tight, most often the diaphragm is tight too. Our diaphragm is the membrane that builds a barrier between our lung and rib cake and our upper digestive tract. When it is tense, our lungs can’t easily expand, resulting in us shallow breathing or even holding our breath.
When we relax and release the tension in our Solar plexus and diaphragm, however, we can breathe freely and easily again, as our lungs can expand to their full capacity.
When looking at our chakras, the Solar Plexus represents our power centre. It stands for the way we see ourselves and feel about ourselves.
Solar Plexus reflex by folding your foot. A line will appear (see pic).
You'll find the Solar Plexus reflex exactly on the crossing of this folding line and the line where the colour changes between the ball and the arch of your foot. Simply apply thumb pressure on either just one foot (if you’re doing a self-treatment) or on both feet simultaneously (if you’re working the reflexes on someone else or getting yours done), whilst breathing out deeply 2-3 times.
In the end, depending on whether you are applying pressure to this reflex yourself or someone else is doing it for you, it will look something like this:
The other reflex is the Adrenal Reflex.
The adrenal glands are tiny organs that rest on top of each kidney. Despite their small size, they carry out very important roles in the body, as they secrete numerous hormones. These impact on our development and growth, help regulate kidney function and also affect our ability to deal with stress, by regulating our “fight or flight” response in the body with the hormones norepinephrine and epinephrine.
When the adrenal glands get heavily relied upon during prolonged stressful times, they can get exhausted, potentially resulting in conditions known as “adrenal burnout” or “adrenal fatigue” which both bring an extreme tiredness with them.
To avoid those sort of conditions, we need to look for balance within stressful times and ways to give our adrenals rest and a recharge.
Reflexology is an easy, yet super profound way to relax and recharge them.
You can locate the adrenal reflex by following a line straight underneath the ball of your big toe which is the so called Tendon Line (the tendon that pops out when you point your big toe towards your chin). The reflex is located slightly off the tendon line towards the medial side (towards your big toe side of your foot), half way between the ball of your big toe and the highest point of your arch (see pic).
Apply gentle but deep thumb pressure to this point for 1-2min.
For a great article on the adrenaline rush and what Reflexology does for the body to help cope with it, read here: Why everyone should try Reflexology (it will open in a new window).
Apply pressure to both these points – Solar Plexus & Adrenalin Reflexes – by yourself, if you can, or even better, get your partner or friend to do this for you!
After a few minutes, you'll notice that your breathing deepens, your overall tension loosens and you feel much more relaxed.
During this busy time of the year, please use the single reflexes as often as you like, as long as you're making sure that your body receives a full body sequence treatment by now and then as well.
If you ‘re feeling called to learn more about empowering your health (or that of your clients) through reflexology check out my popular The Footprint Connection Reflexology™ Online Course and TFC™ Certification Program.