26 Greatest loves of my life - Reflexology. #atozchallenge

Happy feet. Happy people.

There are points on the feet that relate to the whole body. They are called reflexes. Reflexology is the study of those reflexes

The first time I tried Reflexology I didn't get excited but I was impressed that the Reflexologist could tell I had back trouble and hormonal issues, just from touching my feet.

I never saw her again, but I decided I wanted to know what she knew.

A step in the right direction.

I eventually enrolled at the Australian School of Reflexology and Relaxation. In 2003 I won Student of the year and the Trevor Steele memorial award. Since then I have worked with both longterm and short-term clients, sometimes as little as a few minutes.

I can tell a lot from your feet and hands.

The problem(s) with Reflexology.

MRI scans have shown the optical nerve light up when the eye reflex is worked, but there is no exacting science that proves there is a link between the point on your foot to the organ we say it is.

The other huge problem is there is no definitive map of the feet. They vary as much as the humans that produce them. Though, they are similar in sections. The toes generally represent the head, the balls are the upper torso, the arch - mid torso and the heels map the pelvis.  The left foot is the left side of the body. Right foot, right side. But our brain controls the opposite side of the body so I question this, at least for the brain reflex.

We disagree about firm pressure, gentle pressure or intuiting client needs. Sequences differ, as do the descriptions of how they work and what they are capable of.

There isn't enough research.

There's also the placebo effect to consider.

It doesn't alway fix what you want it to, sometimes it doesn't seem to work at all.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that a lot of people don't love their feet.

What I love about Reflexology is:

It gives me a reason to lay my hands on people, soul to sole.

In the beginning I keep an eye on the time. I treat both feet wholly and equally from top to bottom. I determine the primary reason for the visit and adapt a plan to suit it. We discover areas of tension and points that are sensitive or painful together. I let the feet tell their story. Every pair of feet have a story.

If your curious I explain as much as I can. Most of the time clients fall asleep, so I wait. I want it to be therapeutic and feel good. I compare the before and after of the feet and the way you walk and talk. I ask that you to do the same.

It's a complimentary medicine.  I've seen it reduce swelling, pain, asthma attacks and the heart rates of mothers-to-be and their unborn children. I've seen it improve sleep patterns, blood pressure and bowel movements. I know therapists who have built successful clinics treating allergies, childhood bedwetting and hormonal imbalance/fertility problems. Time and time again I've seen it reduce stress.

Positive research has shown the benefits of it's use in cancer treatment and palliative care.

It is an ancient therapy and both a science and an art.

Even if you don't like your feet, it feels good.  Just like pedicures or foot baths feel good. Only better.

I found it at a time in my life when my head and heart were to messed up to make any sense of the world around me. It grounded me.

My pudgy, curled up, ugly toes lengthened and became beautiful. Seriously I went up a shoe size.

Have you ever tried Reflexology? Are you a foot lover or hater?

***

Nurture your soles. Nurture your soul (or at least have a foot bath.)

***

I use #atozchallenge when sharing my favourite posts.

Like Reflex Reactions on Facebook

Follow @ReflexReactions on Twitter

Add me to your circles on Google+ 

***

Read more about:

 The A to Z challenge.  My theme and links to all 26 Greatest loves of my life.

A public apology...

Day 13 prompt -  Blogging every day in May challenge: Issue a public apology. This can be as funny or as serious or as creative as you want it to be. 

I apologise for the name of my blog.

Originally this blog was partly inspired by my reaction to the words of a fellow reflexologist Kevin Kunz, and I wanted it to reflect that the art of reflexology deals with the reactions between the body and reflexes found on the feet, hands, ears and head.

I apologise that it doesn't really mean anything if you don't know the back story.

I apologise that it's a bit of a tongue twister.

I apologise that the title is ambiguous and I want it to mean more than I can be bothered explaining.

I apologise that I am asking you to help me decide whether I should change the name of my blog to 'Ida knows', or 'Ida know' which is a play on the words 'I don't know,' and hopefully reflects that I don't pretend to know everything but what I do know I am certain of, at least until I know different.  I'm sorry that I haven't made people give me a dollar every time they said 'I dunno,' when referring to the pronunciation of my name, because I really would be rich, or at least have shouted a few extra rounds in bars all over the world.   

I'm sorry if my frank admissions about my own failings and abilities makes you feel insecure or jealous, because that is never my intention, I am sorry that I can't find a way to communicate my intention better, but I really don't understand the language of closed minds.

I am sorry for every time I have lost my temper with people who lose their temper with me or become defensive and rude -  especially if they should have just said "I'm sorry."  I am sorry that I go on and on or ignore them until I hear those two simple words. My ego wants them to realise how easy it is to say 'I'm sorry,' but some peoples ego's are just so big that they consider an apology to be either beneath them or an admittance of a character flaw, when in fact it's a simple recognition of greater understanding and growth.  Many people have become wiser by saying I am sorry and thank you in the same sentence.

I'm sorry that I'm not sorry for hurting or betraying other people, when their beliefs weren't true to me.  I simply don't know how to pretend they are right when they are wrong - e.g. bigots.

I apologise for getting frustrated with people that refuse to admit they are wrong. If I was a better person I would be like a lion that doesn't care about the opinions of sheep, but truthfully I love sheep just as much as I love lions and I do care. Deep down I know that sheep are scared of lions even though they are just as valuable and they need love, understanding, education and acceptance too.

I'm sorry I haven't thought of the worlds best song lyrics that changed the world, because I would have changed the world...  but maybe I can start with a good blog title.  

Cast your votes...  

1. Stick to original title - Reflex Reactions
2. Ida knows
3. Ida know
4. Something incredible that you think of...

I am sorry that I don't know for sure if there should there be an apostrophe in knows... Ida know's - Ida knows ??? - don't worry about answering that one - spell check just gave me the answer - but then again - Do you think I can claim poetic licence for using the apostrophe? - Or is it just to ambiguous?

Lots of love and laughs.  

B is for Balance - A-Z word challenge - words of change

balance |ˈbaləns|
noun
1. an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady

Thanks Open Clipart

- You need skill to centre yourself and achieve perfect balance, but nothing much happens there. Too still, too perfect and you're in the dead zone. Imbalance, only one slight movement away. It's more fun to reach high, but you will need support, a counter balance. The beauty of balance is in the movement, the balancing act. Relaxed and efficient. Still and moving. Just like a see-saw but without the hippo on it.

If I was to pick my Balance card today, I would use it to remind me to do balance based activities like a yoga, pilates, or stretching videos - or waterskiing -  If I had a boat and the fjord wasn't frozen.

If my reflexology clients chose Balance, I would tell them, that I just wrote a blog about balance and they should read it! Then I'd take care to balance all of their systems, find the pulsing points and wait for their rhythms to change. I'd do lots of rocking movements and make sure I did both feet exactly the same.

Some other thoughts on Balance:

- Even after a rough start, only a swinging pendulum is truly balanced - or it ceases to function.

- Comedy is a balance act between tragedy and timing, but the goal is always therapeutic.

- Balance your health with the seven natural doctors - Sunshine, fresh air, water, nutritious food, laughter and movement. Whether you are trying to balance a bank account, or the demands of everyday living remember to balance your life with things that are important to you, nurture yourself with natural doctors  -or  at least  give your feet a soak in a foot bath - add some salts, herbs/spices or lemons, aromatherapy oils, or just a nice smelling soap - now :)

For basic lessons in balance observe nature.

Are you prepared to be your own counterbalance?


B Cn u at C

A timely reminder. Coincidence, luck and miracles.

Writing my thoughts comes naturally to me, so does sitting on the sofa and doing nothing at all, it's all to easy for me to get distracted by my thoughts. I almost forgot about this blog.  This time I received a reminder from Kevin Kunz, find his blog here, a leading authority in reflexology, for more info here's a wikipedia link.  Kevin also has a very interactive facebook page, and his latest status about how 'all reflexolgists should become writers or risk their experiences being lost forever', provided me with some much needed inspiration. Call it coincidence, synchronicity, miracle messages or luck, but just as I was filing enthusiasm for my newly created blog to a blind corner of my brain, he posted that status update.

I thanked him, then upon reflection, realised once again, that most of my experiences are in fact a collection of co-incidences. Including recently one of my new friends in Denmark knowing a woman, who is about to open a new massage clinic, 5 minutes from my home, and just happens to be looking for a reflexologist.

Reflexology is quite popular in Denmark, my Søren even recalls his mother taking him to one when he was a child, over 30 years ago.  My decision to move here was made even easier knowing that my speciality is somewhat understood here.  In Melbourne I had struggled with the idea of where to set up business, again my sense of never really knowing where I belonged took over, so I preferred to do home visits, saw a few clients in my own home and also the few different clinics where I worked, as either a nurse or colon hydrotherapist.  I would often meditate or ponder the question of where to set up, and would only ever get the vague response that I should head North. Well Denmark is about as for North on the planet as you can get from Melbourne, and it still amuses me that I never guessed this far North was the answer.

I started reflexology in my late 20's, at a time when my stress levels were affecting my mental health, grounding myself and learning how to relax was a neccesity and became my number one priority.  I, like so many other people, once hated my feet with a passion, but working the feet seemed as logical a place as any to start the process of grounding and a much needed change because my head, heart (and hormones) were too messed up. As I was searching for the right course I co-incidently found a course for a hospital based nursing traineeship, that also paid me to study. So I studied nursing and reflexology at the same time and discovered that neither would have made much sense to me, if I had not balanced what I refer to as, health and healing, the science and art of medicine and wellbeing.  

Even though there is plenty of valid research, there is also a lot of skepticism about reflexology. I guess it makes no sense to some people that everything is connected.  A lot of what we do is felt, and it is not so easy to describe a feeling, but with a bit of practice it is a skill that anyone can learn to do. There is relatively little scientific evidence that supports the reflexes on the feet, however fMRI scans have proved that working an area of the foot activates the part of the brain that corresponds with the specific part of the body related to that reflex, fMRI test results. Simarlarily, Father Josef, another leading reflexologists, discusses in his courses the chinese autopsies that have also revealed a hardening of specific reflexes related to illnesses people have died from. Perhaps for some, everytime a reflexologist pin points a significant ailment or emotion, through the feet, can be described as miracle or coincidence, but the accuracy of these so called coincidences is a science in itself.  Like the time I could only feel one kidney reflex on a client and discovered later that she had her kidney removed some 50 years earlier, to name just one example.

Coincidences, luck and miracles really are the same thing.  Meeting someone at the right time is  both a co-incidence and a miracle. We can brush these situations aside and realise nothing or embrace them as opportunites to learn from ourselves, the people around us, and perhaps even make a difference to the lives of many.  

Inspired by a friend and her painting

Here are the messages that inspired continuing the blog.  I have edited them a little but just a spelling mistake or two.

The artist is Lea Waters a psychologist, who heads an innovative academic project that I believe will ultimately challenge the way we view education systems.  Her knowledge about human behaviour, both scientific and sensitive is vast, and she is mum with two kids that finds time to paint. 

Lea was a reflexology client of mine in Australia, one that factored highly in the difficult decision process of leaving everything I had established behind.  I met Lea during her 'sabattical year'. A year off, from her work commitments, to focus on her health and set a new direction for her life, and she decided reflexology would be a part of that healing and discovery process.  One of the most miraculous qualities about Reflexology is the exchange that can happen between the receiver and the giver.  Lea was one of my rare clients that essentially make me work a little bit harder, but only so I would feel like I had given her more, or at least as much, as she had provided me during the sessions. 

Lea Waters 08 September at 10:45

hey sweety, for some reason the painting I just posted up on fb makes me think of you????? I'll put some thought into why that is......

Artist: Lea Waters - I call it Lea's Desert but maybe I should call it My Desert!

Ida Chiavaro 09 September at 12:39

I would love to know your thoughts...

It has been very thought provoking for me, which I love :)

On one hand I feel like I'm in that house, both trapped and hiding in a land that has very little to offer - a psychic warned me before I left, that the 3 and 6 months mark would be challenging and last week (3 month mark) some fears about never finding my niche here reared their ugly heads.

I am still very happy here with Søren. I don't want to be anywhere else, well maybe at times I do, but I want to be with him wherever that is :) but as I settle more into my relationship I am thinking more about my own needs, my own goals (or the fact that I have never really had any!!!)

On the other hand, I see the warmth and grounding energy of the  deserts earth and the ingenuity and simplicity of shelter and power (windmill) and the opportunity to focus, that a world with few distractions can provide more easily, and the big clear sky that connects all the worlds together.

As simple as it is, I feel as though I am living a luxurious lifestyle at the moment. I have met other foreigners including a refugee from Sri Lanka and a couple of Thai brides in my language classes, this picture makes me think about pioneering women. It makes me think of home too, which even though Ive never lived in the Australian outback, it feels like home to me :)

I often think of your 'sabatical' year and how that culminated in your new years revelations and I wonder if a 'light bulb' moment will set me off in the right direction. I worry about not finding myself here and needing to leave 'my desert shack', that being a foreigner is just too hard an obstacle to overcome, and the devastating effect that would have on my blissful relationship, but I also doubt I would feel any different if I was living on familiar turf. It's a sense of 'not belonging' that has always been a part of who I am.

Writing to you now is stirring up some inspiration, even if it is just to start writing a blog about my experiences...the idea of writing has been gnawing away at me for a while now. Even just about simple things like needing to hem a skirt and wanting to ring my mum for some sewing lessons, before realising that she lived for 15 years as an immigrant with no support network and no way of communicating with her family except by mail... that it took 3 weeks for her to find out her father died and she had so little money that sewing clothes for her 3 children was her only option... :)

Yes your picture has definitely been thought provoking and perhaps just that you mentioned to me that you think of me when you look at it is all that I need to know :)

I hope you are well.

Thanks so much it has been a pleasure sharing my thoughts with you.

Big hugs

Ida

Lea Waters 12 September at 11:42

Wow, you write beautifully Ida. You should certainly start a blog - it will benefit both yourself and others. I wasn't sure why the painting made me think of you but I realise now, after reading your thoughts, that the painting was meant to help act as a trigger for you to put voice to all your feelings right now (at the 3 month mark). You've clearly been doing a lot of reflecting on your life and the lives of those you love, like your mum. I relate to that sense of not belonging and I think that this is a common experience for people who are further along the spiritual journey than most.....we've chosen to be here on earth and yet we know deep down that there is a higher place where we belong. The ultimate truth is that you are eternal and it doesn't matter where you are, you are always HOME.

Lots of love,

Lea

Ida Chiavaro 12 September at 14:10

Dearest Lea,
Your message made me smile from deep inside ... and it seems the catalyst that removed the 'veil of the 3 month mark'! :)

Now some research on Blogs and perhaps how to make money from them is my mission for today... and more frustratingly and I'm sure the reason for me stalling this long is what to call it?

Pieces of Home perhaps?

....Reflections from home or Reflex Reaction - oddly enough my first reflexology pamphlet had that name :)

I love your work Lea you are the Master Inspirer, I hope you are achieving maximum fulfillment and success with your missions and goals right.

As usual a pleasure talking and thinking about you

Lots of Love to you too

Ida

Lea Waters 13 September at 13:04

So nice to know you are smiling on the inside again. Can't wait to read your blog. All the options you've suggested for a title are good.

I'm flattered to be known as a master inspirer.

My life is good - lots of interesting 'external opportunities' have arisen this year and I am sure it is b/c I took the year off last year and did some necessary inner work. All the opportunities involve me pursuing my career in a way that has a high degree of social value and has a wide social reach. My challenge is to not take on too much!!!!


I am getting better at checking in with myself.

Lots of love,

Lea

Ida Chiavaro 18 September at 14:42

Lea can I use the dessert picture in my blog and would you mind if I used some of the dialogue in these messages above for one of my posts. I am happy to keep you completely anonymous or if you prefer set up links to your course or other artwork (if i can work out how to!!! I have started experimenting with a blog at

http://idachiavaro.blogspot.com/


After spending several hours ( I have a lot of time to spare!) I figured I should just start somewhere, so went back to an attempt I made months ago at googles blogspot, but I think there are better sites available.

Reflex Reactions

idachiavaro.blogspot.com

Realising upon reflection, that I had a sign or message of things to come but only understand what it all means once I get there...

Share

Lea Waters 19 September at 02:16

Go for it girlfriend :-)

I don't need anonymity.

________________________________________________________________

Well there it is. 

Truth is, the blog idea was inspired because while I was writing my response I deleted twice as much as what I finally wrote. I didn't want the message to be too long, and knowing how busy Lea is I considered she might not have the time to read it all.  

A blog is perfect this way I can write it all down and if someone has the time and is interested they can read away... and maybe smile too.

Best wishes 

Ida

Blog description too long - so now it's my second blog

My first blog post pretty much describes why I was first inspired to start this blog. Now I choose to continue it after a reflexology client, and now dear friend of mine created a water painting of a dessert landscape with a single house and windmill on it. She messaged me to say it reminded her of me. This caused a reflex reaction, a term I was once going to use as my reflexology business name. The message provided me with a chance to reflect on what her thoughts might mean, what could I learn from from that dessert scene?
My next post will contain some of the thoughts and dialogue from that original message. While I'm not about to promise to write every day I will make an effort to write more often, about my reactions to the world around me. I imagine it will cover topics about my relationships with other people and myself, immigration and being an expat, life in Australia and now Denmark, health and healing, Alzheimer's (especially if my mother is diagnosed with it next week), food glorious food, and probably music and love, that just about covers everything! I have been told so many times I write well and that it would be healing for myself and others, which has always been a central theme in my life.
I know the popular belief is to dream your dream and make it happen but this has never worked for me, I talk myself out of everything and lose interest quickly, yet I have travelled the world and been privy to so many experiences, completely unplanned.  

I tend to live my life more in retrospect. Realising upon reflection, that I had a sign or message of things to come but only understand what it all means once I get there...now the message is to write, so hopefully my future blogs will be the first steps to where I am meant to be next. 

Until recently a sense of belonging has always eluded me, but things have changed and for now, as long as I can eat a variety of delicious food, spend time with my loved ones and dance occasionaly, I will always feel at home.

I was going to make the previous paragraphs my blog description but apparently that is restricted to 500 characters.


Best wishes
Ida