You’ve had a stressful week. You lost that contract. Your son or daughter spilled pasta sauce on your favorite shirt. We all experiences these day-to-day challenges. And, sometimes, you simply need some mental-emotional rejuvenation. Enter reflexology. You would be surprised by the emotional health benefits of reflexology, so in this article we’re going to uncover some of the lesser-discussed benefits so you can de-stress and get back to a happy life!
I know it doesn’t come to the top of the list of health services when you feel stressed out, but reflexology is powerful. Reflexology, if you’re not aware (and as I explain in the video above), is the ancient healing methodology and practice of applied pressure to the foot (and to some extent hands and ears) in order to relieve pressure in many areas of the body. We walk on our feet all day and, logically, the natural impacts of our movement affect the rest of our body collaterally.
While Western medicine still hasn’t reconciled fully with how this ancient healing practice works, over 160 studies worldwide indicate the positive outcomes of reflexology. But, rest assured, my clients results stand as testament to the benefits. Specifically to emotional health benefits, reflexology is shown to reduce pain (and even neuritis), decrease tension, and alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Pain and Your Emotional Health – Emotional Health Benefits of Reflexology
Endorphins are the feel good hormones of the body. And, pain is the physical and emotional response to negative nerve stimulation. Well, guess what happens when you give positive, strategic nerve stimulation to the body? Endorphins!
Endorphins help not only buffer your emotional health from dis-ease and disease, it helps to reverse those effects. As a recent study published in the Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine noted, “stress contributes up to 80% for the development of any illness” and “allows the body to get off from any stress in everyday life.” Further, they note that “endorphin is a body’s natural pain-relieving chemical will be released as a response to reflexology. Endorphin teaches the body how to adapt any injuries.”
Bottom line: reflexology generates the release of endorphins and as a byproduct your body becomes resilient to negative emotional effects.
Decreasing Tension – Emotional Health Benefits of Reflexology
Your feet take a beating every day of the week. They don’t get a rest. Reflexology provides that respite that while it’s relieving tension in your feet, it’s also connected to relieving tension in your emotional world. When you sit down for a reflexology session, you are able to relax your body and let your emotions equally relax and resolve the unresolved. You might get new ideas, and even solutions to problems will surface when you relax the muscles in your most used appendages.
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (within the National Institutes of Health) has a great resource for a balanced look at the benefits of massage (and reflexology being a form of massage). Chronic tension, primarily studied in sports medicine, is easily translatable to how reflexology, with its focus on manipulating these specific body areas, can help rest the body and rejuvenate the emotions for the rest of us!
Alleviating Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety – Emotional Health Benefits of Reflexology
Depression and anxiety are practically an epidemic in the United States today. “Major depression is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States,” according to the National Institute of Mental Health, with about 7% of the US adult population affected each year. Anxiety is even more prevalent with over 40% of US adults experiencing “anxiety disorders of some kind.”
Anxiety and depression is related to chemical imbalances in the brain, decreased blood flow to vital organs of the body, disability and pain, poor nutrition, sleep deprivation (even mild sleep loss), negative thinking, genetics, among many other factors. There is no quick fix. Reflexology is one tool in your toolbox, among many, that should be utilized in combination under a medical professional’s direction to reap the best outcomes. But, we know that good blood flow is a champion of our emotional health and vitality by way of oxygenating our brain properly.
Many ancient healing practices such as reflexology, acupuncture, and acupressure (also known as shiatsu), disrupt the stagnation of blood and helps to enrich the system with nutrients, while compelling free radicals through the appropriate organs for elimination (whether that’s your liver or kidneys, as your major waste processing organs in the body).
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Think about reflexology and how emotional health benefits of reflexology can help you maintain your overall health (body, mind and spirit), as well as help to right your path when it starts to challenge your health. There are many other health benefits that reflexology provides for combatting other body ailments, but I wanted to focus on the emotional ones in this article, and I hope that you consider this when seeking out health treatments for your emotional well-being.