A Healthy Heart
A healthy heart and circulatory system are necessary to feel and express emotions positively. When you work the circulatory system, you distribute love and healing. This improves your client’s sense of self worth and balances blood flow. When your client’s sense of self worth improves and when the emotions are expressed positively, life improves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
When I begin to address my client partner’s heart health, the first place I go is to the fourth chakra. This means that I work the heart chakra on the reflex points on my client partner’s feet.
I also include an essential oil in the reflexology session when I work the heart and circulatory system. I may choose lavender. If my client partner needs grounding, I’ll reach for geranium. You may have other oils in your tool box which will attract you.
If my client is overweight or underweight or if the skin color is not too good, I’ll offer a list of healing foods that are important for heart/circulatory issues. If I think it’s a good idea, I’ll recommend a visit to a nutritionist.
Heart health issues often take years to show themselves in the body. Lifestyle habits contribute. Heart health issues involve the whole body – the physical, mental, spiritual, emotional layers. Spiritually, heart issues reflect long standing wounds, rejection, and self-criticism.
If I have time, I’ll include a guided meditation in the session. Guided meditations are always good for fourth chakra issues. My favorite fourth chakra guided meditation invites my client partner to go beyond the curtain to a past life because heart health baggage is often past life.
This can be a little challenging if your client partner doesn’t believe in past life issues. When that happens, go to the time right after birth. Some past life issues are still open for you and your client partner in infancy.
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“A Healers Handbook” is now available as an ebook on Amazon and on Nook. The
Paper version is on the way!
In the near future I’ll share a guided heart healthy meditation with you and I’ll discuss lifestyle issues affecting heart health.
Thurman Greco
Is it a Cold or the Flu?
I hear this question every year at the beginning of the flu season. So HOW DO YOU KNOW? How do you know whether it’s a cold or the flu?
Well, there are some real differences.
Fever is rare with a cold. Fever is common with the flu. It’s usually high and lasts 3 to 4 days.
Headaches are rare with cold but common with flu.
Cold sufferers may have slight aches and pains. Flu sufferers have definite aches and pains which may be severe.
Extreme fatigue and/or weakness is just not a factor with a cold. With the flu, exhaustion is common…especially at the onset of the illness.
Sore throat, stuffy nose, and sneezing are common with colds. However, with flu, these symptoms are not important.
Chest discomfort and coughs are mild with colds. A person suffering with a cold may have mild symptoms to include a hacking cough. With the flu, these symptoms can become severe.
With colds, treatment includes antihistamines, decongestants. With the flu, the patient needs to consult with a physician.
Regular Reflexology for the Spirit sessions, Reiki therapy, and chakra healing strengthen the immune system, an important tool in fighting both colds and flu.
Prevention is important. Wash your hands often and stay away from anyone with a cold. These measures also work with flu but include an annual flu shot.
Complications to a cold include sinus congestion, ear infection, and asthma. Complications to the flu can be serious. They include bronchitis and pneumonia.
Thanks for reading this blog/book.
If you are interested in purchasing my new book “A Healer’s Handbook” It is out on Amazon now. After you read it, let me know how it works for you.
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Thurman Greco
9 Things Reflexologists Don’t Do – and 5 Things we Do
Cure – Reflexologists do not cure. Instead, we promote healing, which can be a very
different thing, depending on the issue.
Patient – Reflexologists do not have patients. Physicians have patients. We have client partners. Some reflexologists have clients. But, whatever we have, we don’t have patients.
Recommend – We do not recommend. Instead, we work feet. We concentrate our energies on facilitating healing.
Advise – Reflexologists do not advise. We support our client partners in their healing path. Our work brings about homeostasis and synchronicity.
Examine – We do not examine. We read feet or hands or ears. .We notice where our findings are located. We work the feet, hands, ears, to bring about healing, homeostasis, and synchronicity.
Prescribe – We do not prescribe. That’s for physicians and other medical professionals. We rely on our hands and hearts to tell us what we find, to encourage healing, to facilitate homeostasis, to see synchronicity.
Dispense – We have nothing to dispense beyond the sessions we offer.
Diagnose – We do not diagnose. Physicians assist us in our healing efforts when they offer a diagnosis. This is important because it’s much easier to overcome a health issue if it has a name.
Administer – We do not administer anything. Instead, we read feet, offer sessions. Our noninvasive sessions have been offered to client partners for ages and ages.
Reflexology for the Spirit practitioners use our hands, brains, and hearts.
We do not need to over schedule our days to be successful. Twenty-five appointments a week is a full time practice for a Reflexology for the Spirit practitioner.
We are not wedded to advertising. Some of us don’t even have business cards. Referrals work well for us.
Because Reflexology for the Spirit works well with other modalities, many of us also practice yoga, massage, Reiki therapy, flower remedies. That means we are always growing, learning.
We honor our heritage. Reflexology for the Spirit practitioners take our traditions back many, many years:
Our history takes us far back in time with beginnings shrouded in mystery. What we do know is that early references to reflexology can be found in China, India, Japan, Egypt, Greece, North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Mediterranean, South American and North America.
Historians tell us that Egyptians practiced both hand and food reflexology as early as 2500 BC. If you ever travel to Egypt, please visit the burial ground at Saqqara. The Physician’s Tomb there has a famous wall painting showing two people receiving reflexology.
If you ever find yourself in Japan, be sure to visit the Medicine Teacher Temple in Nara. There you’ll find a stone carving depicting the soles of Buddha’s feet in a carving dating to 790 AD.
In India, there are paintings of Vishnu, the Hindu god’s feet with symbols corresponding to several reflexology points.
Ayurveda is an ancient Indian form of medicine becoming popular in our country. Reflexology is incorporated in Ayurvedic medicine.
Reflexology has been recorded in ancient Chinese writings describing pressure being applied to fingers and thumbs.
From this glorious history and recent twentieth century trailblazers, we now have thousands of people practicing various kinds of reflexology throughout the world.
Reflexologists the world over work in tandem with physicians as our field moves toward integrative medicine in the twenty-first century. Integrative medicine works to heal the total person: the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
Reflexology has endured the test of time and is modern as tomorrow in the 21st !century.
Thank you for reading this blog. It has been a long time since I’ve posted an article. I have been working full time/overtime on the new book! It’s happening!
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, New York
Progress of the Book
The book is, at last, being edited! Real book progress is being made. I hope to get it to the publisher soon. I plan to go over it one last time about mid July.
Thanks to everyone for your patience.
Please share this exciting news (for me, anyway) with your favorite media network.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock, NY
A Battle Front Reflexology Spa Treatment to Boost your Client Partner’s Good Health
Now is a good time to offer a Reflexology Spa Treatment to boost your client partner’s good health. People everywhere are fighting flu, colds, and other maladies as the body offers a battle for good health. This is also a time when people focus on the immune system because every pharmacy around has generously sized signs announcing flu shots.
For your client partner concerned about fighting viruses and infections, the Battle for Health Reflexology Spa Treatment is not a luxury. It’s more in the necessity category.
Begin your battle plan by selecting the essential oils you’ll use. My preferred essential oils for this Spa Treatment are:
clove
lemon
nutmeg
oregano
peppermint
tangerine
thyme
Your oil selection will guide you to which music to use and what decor to adopt.
My favorite oil in this selection is peppermint. But, since not everyone likes peppermint (or you may prefer another oil), select the oil based on your discussion with your client partner as you book the appointment.
Whichever oil you choose may inspire you to select a specific CD. If not, be guided by the reflex points you’ll be working in this session. You’re going to stimulate your client partner’s body to fight disease so being “battle ready” may be important.
When I offer a Battle for Health Spa Treatment, I’m motivated to offer peppermint oil and have a few peppermint plants in pots in the healing space. You may be motivated to do something completely different. There are no “wrongs” here.
Have your music section playing when your client partner enters your space.
You may want to wash your client partner’s feet as the first step in this session. Warm some moist cloths in the microwave and gently clean your client partner’s feet.
When your client partner is comfortably situated face up on your table or in your reflexology chair, anoint your him/her with the selected oil. Put a few drops of the essential oil in the palms. Have him/her rub the palms together and hold them over the face and take a few deep breaths. Then have your client partner rub the hands over his/her face and head.
Now, seat yourself at your client partner’s head. . Bring in the Reiki and offer three Reiki holds to the head.
Now, move down to your client partner’s feet. When you offer reflexology to the feet, you’ll add some carrier oil to the essential oil and use this blend throughout the session. You may be able to find a commercial lotion in the right blend which you like.
Selecting the first foot, offer five minutes of delicious warm ups. Follow this with five minutes of general reflexology to your client’s foot.
You now have your client partner’s first foot prepared and ready to receive the Spa Session on this foot. In this part of the session, you’ll stimulate the glandular parts of the body as you work the reflex areas listed below. You’ll encourage your client partner to fight disease.
Work the following reflexes for twenty minutes on the first foot. Offer this section in the following order.
1. Work the solar plexus to relax the body and establish a good breathing pattern.
2. Work the spleen reflex to stimulate it to perform its immune functions.
3. Work the liver reflex to filter wastes as it cleans the body of toxins.
4. Work the kidney reflex to stimulate blood cleansing.
5. Work the intestinal reflexes to move toxins out of the body.
6. Work the lymphatic system reflexes to build a defense system against illness
6. Repeat the work on the solar plexus to finish the immune system path.
After spending fifteen minutes working the above listed reflexes, spend five minutes offering general reflexology. Finish the work on the first foot with five more minutes of warm downs.
Now, move to the second foot and repeat the process. This means you’ll offer five minutes of warm ups, five minutes of general reflexology, fifteen minutes working the reflexes in the following pattern:
solar plexus
spleen
liver
kidneys
intestines
lymphatic system
solar plexus
Finally, offer five minutes of general reflexology and then five minutes of warm downs.
When this is completed, offer your client ten minutes of Reiki theraapy on the feet. It is now time to seal the Reiki therapy part of the spa session.
Let your client rest for a moment while you get a bottle of water or a cup of herbal tea for him/her.
Spend a couple of minutes with your client while s/he drinks the water and returns to “now”.
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Thurman Greco
Jennette Nearhood donated the art work for this article.
2.
The Fourth Chakra and Reflexology
The fourth Chakra reflex point is found on the ball of the foot. This is where we find the heart, lungs, breasts, thymus gland, shoulders.
Fourth Chakra issues include:
self esteem
personal power
intimacy
forgiveness
IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO LEARN ABOUT FOURTH CHAKRA ISSUES WITHOUT QUESTIONING:
Are you able to express your emotions?
Do you need to protect yourself?
Do you have problems giving and receiving love?
Are you living a divided life?
Have you created a protective barrier around your heart?
Do you have trouble forgiving people?
Do you fear rejection?
Do you feel vulnerable?
Is it physically/emotionally painful to move forward in life?
Are you hiding your true self from others?
Grief is a fourth Chakra issue. We know as Reflexology for the Spirit practitioners that grief is housed in the ball of the foot – the heart – the lungs.
The fourth Chakra builds on the lower three Chakras as our thoughts and dreams take on language, expression. The fourth Chakra is where the moment of inspiration which took place in the first Chakra, now becomes entire paragraphs, both spoken and written.
The fourth Chakra links the spiritual and physical bodies as well as their issues. This is because the fourth Chakra is the our energetic center, working to fuse the physical and spiritual bodies.
When this happens, we are able to touch others as well as allowing them to touch our lives. The goal is unconditional love. A good way to get insight about unconditional love is to pay attention to cats and dogs, 2 creatures which practice unconditional love routinely.
Our heart Chakra pulls us into relationships involving
intimacy
risk
forgiveness
sensitivities
fear
grief.
Grief is an important fourth Chakra issue. Grief blocks fourth Chakra energy. Letting go of grief and wounding opens our hearts.
The state of the fourth Chakra is easily seen in one’s posture. People suffering with heart Chakra issues may be
round-shouldered
sunken-chested
stiff
rigid.
Unbalanced fourth Chakras can also been seen in people with heart and respiratory problems. Heart surgery can have a direct impact on the heart Chakra.
Meditations can be important. Meditations focusing on:
grief
heart opening
breathing
can help balance the fourth Chakra.
When you work with your client partner’s fourth Chakra, you offer the opportunity to help him/her release grief. It’s in the fourth Chakra that we find
an open heart,
the energy to give,
and a straighter body.
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Thurman Greco
Photo donated by Jennette Nearhood.
Time-Out for Sharing then Moving on to the Chakras.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing with you. I’ve offered information in each post for you, in turn, to share with your client partners. I’m following the advice of my teacher and mentor Marge D’Urso who emphasized the many things we can all do in conjunction with reflexology to encourage homeostasis.
Not all of this information applies to all of your client partners.
Some people come to our tables in order to feel better. Others want us to help them take greater charge of their own health. Yet others simply want to hop on the table, receive their reflexology session, and go away blissed out. And, there’s nothing wrong with that.
One special group wants to add other things to their lives which will help them
feel better
look better
avoid chronic disease
live longer
enjoy better health.
By sharing this information slowly, in small increments, you can, along with your reflexology sessions, give your client partners an opportunity to completely change their lives for the better in a non threatening way.
These gradual changes when mixed with reflexology offer dramatic improvements over time. The idea is to be sharing opportunities for good health without complicating lifestyles any more than they already are. You’ll be leading your client partners to a a more healthy lifestyle. They can completely change their lives 1 step at a time.
Slowly
Easily
Comfortably
Not all client partners will adopt every suggestion offered. Some won’t choose any suggestions. Some will try everything suggested for a time. Then, they’ll drop the health step after a few weeks. There’s something here for everyone. We are all different. Our attitudes, ages, and lifestyles are all different.
What’s important is that you are gently, without pushing, sharing suggestions for a healthier lifestyle.
When your client partners are ready, they’ll have this knowledge to use in the way which works best for them.
I’m taking a break with this series of posts to offer you, the reflexologist, some more hands-on posts. Then, I’ll return to these wellness posts for awhile longer…until I feel you have something to offer most client partners over a period of a year or more. You want to be sharing something which a person may accept and live with for awhile before taking on another health giving change. It’s important to let an adopted change settle in so they become lifetime habits.
Beginning next week, I’ll offer posts about Chakras and the feet. We have reflex points for Chakras in our feet. I hope you find these articles interesting. I hope you can use this information in your work!
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Thurman Greco
Water, Water – What are we to do?
It’s really hard to find clean water. Our water is so filled with toxins that our bodies have become toxic waste dumps.
So, what are we to do? We need it to live.
There are 2 issues here, really. The 1st issue is getting clean, pure water. The 2nd issue is using it:
drinking,
bathing,
nourishing our planet.
So, what are we to do? We need it to live.
Getting clean water can challenging.
For starters, filter it. The filter you choose depends on your budget and your water issues. Filters come in several different varieties:
pitchers/carafes
faucet-mount systems
under-the-sink systems.
To learn about your water toxin issues, use your local county water quality report and advice from local water quality experts.
In the past, I used an under-the-sink system and was very pleased with it.
Now I buy my drinking water. Water in the Hudson River Valley is so special. The product I choose is New York Springs USA water, a natural spring water sourced in the Catskill Mountain area of New York State.
If New York Springs USA is not available, I reach for Mountain Valley Spring Water which comes from the Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.
It just so happens that these 2 waters are spring fed.
If I’m working or traveling or shopping out of the area and need to drink a bottled water, I’ll go for an ultra purified brand I know and recognize over a spring fed water which I am unfamiliar with.
When in New York City, I drink water offered to me at the restaurant table. Make no mistake about it. New York City water is the best available anywhere. I know this. I live and work in the area. New York City water comes from the Ashokan Reservoir, an extremely well protected and guarded body of water. Catskill Mountain residents love, honor, and are proud of their water. Nothing but the best is good enough for us.
Although we can’t list things like the vitamins or calories found in water, it’s important for our overall health to keep hydrated.
Water offers a natural detox as it cleans toxins out of the body which collect in the urinary tract. Drink enough water often enough to urinate every 2 hours.
Hydration fights fatigue..something we all battle. There are many tired people wandering around right this minute who are not really fatigued. They are thirsty. At the 1st sign of fatigue, drink water and then give yourself a few minutes for your body to react to the needed hydration.
Water helps the body break food into nutrients as it travels through the digestive system.
Sufficient hydration prevents kidney stones.
Water helps strengthen the adrenal glands.
I offer a glass of New York Springs USA to each of my client partners at the end of the reflexology or Reiki therapy session.
As a reflexologist, please encourage your client partners to keep hydrated. Help them choose the best water for their health and lifestyle needs. They will feel better.
Hot Springs National Park
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Thurman Greco
The Spirituality of Blood
Blood is very exciting stuff.
For one thing, we can’t live without it. If we’re in an accident, and lose too much blood, we will die.
Blood tells the whole story. Often, when we visit the physician, a blood test is ordered. The story is here: our past, our present, our future.
In the womb, we shared our mother’s blood, who shared her mother’s blood, who shared her mother’s blood, and on and on and on to the beginning of time.
That being said, each person’s blood is unique. Like fingerprints, no 2 blood profiles are the same. And, blood changes with life events, nutrition, age. Because of this, there are many issues with blood:
high or low pressure,
circulation,
arteriosclerosis
thrombosis,
stroke
hemorrhage,
varicose vein,
anemia.
If you find yourself dealing with one of the above diseases, you are dealing with a spiritual disease. That doesn’t mean you forget the professional medical practitioner. It does mean that you do what that practitioner tells you to do and you deal with the spirituality issues in other ways.
When I think of the spirituality of blood, questions come to mind:
Have you recently found or lost a loved one?
Are you depressed?
Where are the conflicts in your life?
Are you nourishing yourself sufficiently?
Are you under a lot of pressure?
Are you angry?
Is someone or something threatening you?
Are you rigid with yourself and others?
Do you need to become gentler with yourself and others?
Are you afraid?
Are your life patterns stuck?
Does your lifestyle go against your beliefs?
Is too much going on in your life?
Are there too many people in your life?
What, if anything, is draining your energy?
Now might be a good time to try to deal with these questions one-by-one.
In order to develop the spirituality of your blood, proper diet is extremely important. Don’t just go to the grocery or the pharmacy and buy vitamins and minerals haphazardly. Find a nutritional consultant and get what you need.
No one diet fits all. Find the diet best for you…makes you feel better, helps maintain your weight, results in better blood test results. Your goal is to live a life bringing strength, vitality, purity to your blood.
Guided meditations can be instrumental for spiritual healing.
If you are a Reiki practitioner, give yourself sessions in which you offer an intent to heal and regenerate your blood to its optimum state. If you are not a Reiki practitioner, now is a good time to find one. This might even be a good time to learn Reiki therapy for yourself.
As your blood begins to experience this optimum state, you’ll invite joy, free expression, creativity, balance in your life.
Reflexology for the Spirit sessions are appropriate here. Homeostasis is necessary for the blood and for life in general. Reiki and reflexology work hand-in-hand here to help achieve the spiritual health our bodies need….no, crave.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Renee Ruwe offered the photograph for today’s article.
A Heart Message Meditation From an Angel
Begin this meditation as you make yourself comfortable, either sitting in a comfortable position or lying in a comfortable place.
Turn on some soft, soothing music.
Focus on your breathing now. As you inhale, breathe relaxation in through your nose. Visualize a happy and expanded heart. Inhale through your nose.
Exhale through your mouth as you breathe out stress and anxiety.
Inhale relaxation through your nose as you visualize your heart in unconditional love. Breathe in.
Exhale through your mouth as you release disappointment. Breathe out.
As you relax even more – breathe in relaxation through your nose, focusing on joy and happiness.
Breathe out heaviness and stagnation through your mouth as you exhale.
As you breathe in relaxation through your nose, listen to your heart.
Now, breathe out anger and bitterness as you exhale through your mouth.
You are calm and centered now. You look around you and notice your surroundings have changed. You find yourself sitting on a bench in a quiet meadow. You realize this whole area is enfolded and surrounded by a rose colored light.
You look around and see an angel on the bench beside you. This angel is dressed in rose colored garments. You pause and take notice of exactly how the angel looks as well as how everything around you appears.
You know immediately that this angel is with you to help you listen to your heart’s wisdom and guidance.
You sit by this angel for a moment as you ask the angel to help you heal and regenerate your heart.
You also ask the angel to listen with you to your heart’s healing wisdom and guidance.
The two of you together listen to your heart’s message. You take the time to receive this message which the angel is sharing with you.
You realize that this message is important for you and you also realize that you want to remain open to other messages which may come your way over the next few days.
You then realize it’s time to return to your space.
You thank the angel for visiting you. You thank the angel for sharing wisdom and healing with you.
As you prepare to return to your space, you know that you can return to this area with its beautiful bench and angel at any time you want.
You are now totally relaxed, grounded, and calm. You feel loved. You are ready to return to your activities of the day.
Peace and food for all.
Thank you for reading this guided meditation.
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Thurman Greco
