The First Chakra and Reflexology
All 7 of the major Chakras are reflected in our feet. They line up on the spine and they relate to energy centers found on the body. The first Chakra is found at the base of the spine.
The reflex point for the first Chakra is located on the heel of both feet. First Chakra issues are concerned with
security
survival
connection to our earth – our environment
issues with grounding
one’s connection to the community
protection
FOR ME, IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO LEARN ABOUT FIRST CHAKRA ISSUES WITHOUT QUESTIONING:
Have you put down roots? Or are unable to establish a home?
Do you find it hard to move ahead in life? Or, are you unable to let go of your family?
Do you feel vulnerable? Are you refusing to budge?
Do you eat properly?
Do you hang onto unhealthy relationships?
Can you receive?
Can you give?
Are you in a rut?
Are you afraid of change, even if it is positive?
Are you in your body?
Are you controlling?
There are many first Chakra phrases using the word “heel”:
Cool your heels
Down at your heels
Well heeled
Take to your heels
Drag your heels
Achilles heel
I’m sure you can come up with even more.
Fear is a first Chakra issue. Fear is a culprit in almost every disease, health issue, and problem we encounter in life. Fear keeps us all from being the totally healthy beings we were born to be.
We carry fear over from past lives. And, if you don’t believe in past life issues, just skip them and think for a few minutes about the fear issues we carry from childhood. We can be perfectly rational adults and still carry fear baggage around. Sometimes I see clients whose fear issues weigh more than their physical bodies weigh. Many obese people are holding fear in the form of extreme fat around their bodies.
If you and/or your client partners want to be healthy, it’s important to have a balanced first Chakra. There are several ways to balance one’s first Chakra:
Reflexology for the Spirit sessions offer homeostasis which is the balance of all body systems.
Reiki therapy sessions balance the Chakras.
Meditation. Set aside a few minutes daily to meditate on a balanced Chakra system. The first Chakra needs to be grounded. Take time each day to listen to what your body tells you. If you listen, it will never lie to you. If you listen, you will know when you are not grounded and when your Chakras are not balanced.
It is also easy to tell how balanced your first Chakra is by observing your hips. What is the range of movement for your hips, knees, and ankles? How do they feel? Your ankles, knees, and hips move you forward in this world. They keep you balanced. Stability is important for the first Chakra. Pain, tightness, restricted movement, and inflexibility are strong indicators of a need to balance the first Chakra.
Physically, the first Chakra governs 3 systems:
Immune System
Skeletal System
Lower Digestive Tract.
When you work with your client partner’s first chakra, you offer an opportunity for increased self awareness. What a gift you give!
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Photos provided by Renee Ruwee
Thurman Greco
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.
http://www.newyorksprings.com
Hot Springs National Park
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In a Perfect World…
We would all be disease free
Our brains would stay sharp
We would all experience good energy levels
Physical fitness would be very common
Everyone would feel young.
But, we don’t live in a perfect world. The question is this: How can we be disease-free physically fit, have sharp brains, experience less stress, feel young?
One way is to honor our immune system. It is our immune system which keeps us healthy, disease free, physically fit, mentally sharp.
People visit reflexologists regularly as they strive to prevent as much disease as possible. And, they are correct to do this. As reflexologists, we work to facilitate homeostasis – bring balance.
Focusing on the immune system is important, not only for the diseases we think about: colds, flu, etc., but for many other diseases we consider to be lifestyle or aging diseases:
MS
thyroid disease
colitis
rheumatoid arthritis
diabetes.
When the immune system is out of balance, it can become overactive. An overactive immune system participates in the aging process as it encourages autoimmune diseases.
As a Reflexology for the Spirit practitioner, you are important to the health maintenance of your client partners. Your client partners will be healthier when their immune systems function at peak levels. An immune system functions at its peak when it successfully fights off viruses, bacteria, parasites.
Encourage your clients to contribute to a healthy immune system. As a reflexologist, you offer sessions and you also work to ground your client partners so they can do everything they need to do to keep themselves healthy:
breathe properly and therapeutically
eat a diet which is healthy for the individual
sleep sufficiently
exercise
smell the flowers
This is really what Marge d’Urso meant when she emphasized that reflexologists work with the whole client partner as we offer homeostasis.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
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photograph by Jennette Nearhood
Buyer Beware – 6 Things to Know About Eating Better
In another time I lived in the interior of Venezuela – 50 miles from headhunters in 1 direction and 50 miles from a grocery store in another direction.
Milk for my family was delivered weekly by a Spaniard who owned an area dairy. I got to know him and his cows very well. It wasn’t that I considered him to be so interesting or entertaining. I was afraid of getting milk infected with tuberculosis. I had 2 toddlers and I was doing everything I could to keep them healthy.
Most of us, when asked, will admit to eating a nearly perfect diet. Delve deeper, and you’ll find that everyone’s diet is different. You’ll also find many of the diets are not healthy…some are not even safe.
It’s hard to know which is the correct diet. There are thousands out there. Many are touted as being the best. We can go into a large book store or library and find an extremely generous selection of cookbooks, each promoting a different way of eating. Top off that with the TV Food channels and the internet and everything becomes confusing.
So, what do you do as a reflexologist when your client partner begins to discuss diet or ask questions about digestion issues?
I offer a few sane suggestions for your own diet as well as that of your client partners, friends, neighbors, and anyone else trying to eat better:
Eat whole foods that are fresh and locally grown. I realize that you may have heard/read this before but I offer new twists on the same old sentence.
Eating locally grown food is important. It’s important to not only know that the food is locally grown, but it’s important to know which farm the food came from.
Can you afford a CSA? If your household is too small, split a membership.
Eating locally grown or raised foods includes
fresh vegetables
fresh fruits
whole grains
beans
fish
lean red meat
dairy products.
When you eat whole, fresh, locally grown foods, you’ll be eating food which experiences less processing, packaging, and shipping.
Foods grown in your area can be picked later, and eaten sooner. Overall, this means a better product.
When I think of fresh foods, I think of health promotion. It’s much better to eat an apple from nearby than to eat pears, apples, strawberries or whatever from South America or China.
And, if you know the farm this food comes from, you’re even better off because you’ll know about the pesticides used. You’ll never be able to learn what pesticides were used on food that came from Chile or China, or any other foreign location, no matter what the label tells you. Our government sends few to no inspectors to faraway places to verify what they say they do.
When you eat whole, fresh, locally grown foods, you’ll be eating better quality food offering the opportunity to protect your heart, stabilize your blood sugar, boost your brainpower, and generally improve your health.
Farmers shipping their products long distances focus on growing foods that travel well as opposed to products that taste better.
Begin your quest for locally grown food at a farmers market.
Don’t be shy. Ask your grocery store produce manager where the food comes from. It goes without saying that we need pure foods if we can get them. Organic, non-GMO, etc., are important.
At the very least, buy organic when you can. Here again, it helps to know which farm the food comes from. The term “organic” doesn’t mean what it did in times past. Many farmers claim to sell organic foods today that could not make that claim in the past. This is because the government has relaxed the organic designation guidelines.
If you’re on a budget, it’s important for some foods to be organic. Foods needing to be organic include:
apples
bell peppers
celery
chard
cherries
domestic blueberries
imported grapes
kale
lettuce
nectarines
peaches
potatoes
spinach
strawberries
Foods that do not necessarily need to be eaten in the organic state include:
asparagus
avocados
cabbage
cantaloupe
eggplant
grapefruit
kiwi
mango
onions
pineapple
sweet corn
sweet onions
sweet peas
sweet potatoes
watermelon
We eat many foods over time. I’ve only listed a very few items. However, the 2 lists offer insight into what constitutes a food needing to be organic and a food that may not.
Staying away from boxed and canned foods is important. They are often filled with additives which are not good for the human body. Many boxed and canned items aren’t even foods. They’re products which have been manufactured to eat. In the 21st century, just because something is sold in a food store to eat doesn’t mean it’s a food.
Food shopping in today’s world not only involves selecting items which are foods – whole, fresh, and local – but also being careful where you buy these items. Just because a store claims to be health oriented doesn’t mean that everything it sells is nutritious or even safe.
Approach each item with a questioning attitude. Read the label. If there are a lot of words which are hard to pronounce, return the item to the shelf.
Your grocer is in business to make $$$. Food is put on the shelves to sell. Just because it’s on the shelves doesn’t guarantee that it’s healthy or even safe.
This doesn’t mean that eating can’t be fun. It can be. It’ll be even more fun once you know exactly what you’re eating.
If you can, buy your breads from a local bakery which uses organic whole grains.
Become knowledgeable about your dairy, meat, and fish products. If at all possible, stay away from fish that are farmed.
If you eat meat, eggs, cheese, try to get products coming from animals that are free range, organic fed.
Purchase eggs coming from cage free hens.
Ham, bacon, and smoked fish should have no synthetic nitrates or nitrites.
Meats should be hormone free, free range grazed, and antibiotic free.
I realize that not everyone has access to these foods. We can’t eat what we don’t have access to. I also realize that these foods may be expensive. We also can’t eat what we can’t buy. Everyone faces choices when it comes to food shopping. Staying away from processed foods can free up some funds for fresh, whole, local.
It’s okay to be a food snob only wanting the most nutritious, healthiest food available.
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Peace and food for all
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.
Anxiety Affects Many People Both Physically and Spiritually
ANXIETY AFFECTS CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS, AND ADULTS. Anxiety is the word used to describe feelings ranging from mild unease to intense fear.
ANXIETY CREATES A VARIETY OF SYMPTOMS BOTH PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL. Common physical symptoms include heart palpitations, stabbing pains, shortness of breath, headaches, back pains, and muscle spasms. Excessive sweating, dizziness, digestive problems also are included in this lineup.
SPIRITUAL SYMPTOMS INCLUDE FEELINGS OF INSECURITY, FEAR, HELPLESSNESS. Spiritual issues also include preoccupation with the future and past. A person’s life has a flow which anxiety can get in the way of.
A person suffering with anxiety needs, first, to learn to try to overcome the fear which plagues anxiety sufferers. Getting proper medical care as well as nutritional advice along with reflexology can help.
Because anxiety has a strong physical aspect to it, it’s important for the sufferer to be aware of the proper nutritional needs in addition to the needed medical care. This involves eating the proper foods, recognizing what food allergies exist, and identifying the needed vitamins and minerals necessary for a recovery.
MANY PEOPLE CAN LESSEN THEIR SYMPTOMS BY ELIMINATING CAFFEINE, SUGAR, AND ALCOHOL FROM THE DIET.
I always recommend calling Liz at Village Vitality (Woodstock Apothecary) for an analysis of vitamins and minerals needed. Her number is 845-679-0790.
When offering reflexology sessions to a person suffering with anxiety attacks, the first step is to work the entire endocrine system to balance the spiritual aspects of the issues.
Work the nervous system.
Work the digestive system and focus on the pancreas reflexes.
Work the endocrine system and focus on the pituitary gland reflexes, the thyroid and parathyroid reflexes.
Finish the session by working the liver and solar plexus.
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Peace and food for all.
Thuran Greco
A Very Common but Rarely Discussed Health Issue – Hemorrhoids
AS WE AGE, MORE AND MORE OF US SUFFER WITH HEMORRHOIDS. This makes sense when we realize that aging is part of the situation. Spiritually, as we age, some of us develop an inability to let go of life events. We develop a feeling that life has been unfair as we become critical of ourselves as well as others. Fear is always a factor in hemorrhoids. Fear, anger, lack of self-confidence Many of us cling to beliefs, opinions that are outdated.
ON A PHYSICAL LEVEL, HEMORRHOIDS ARE VARICOSE VEINS IN THE RECTUM AND ANUS AREAS. They are considered to be harmless unless they become infected or rupture. So, hemorrhoids become a part of our daily lives as the bowel movement becomes slower than we want and more difficult.
CHRONIC CONSTIPATION, PERSISTENT DIARRHEA, PROLONGED SITTING, PREGNANCY, AND ANAL INTERCOURSE CONTRIBUTE TO HEMORRHOIDS. Softening the stool, eating a high fiber diet, and being hydrated, help prevent hemorrhoids.
WHEN YOU OFFER REFLEXOLOGY TO A PERSON SUFFERING WITH HEMORRHOIDS, begin by working the digestive system as you focus on the liver, pancreas, and gallbladder reflexes.
Work the endocrine system as you focus on the adrenal gland reflexes.
Work the intestinal reflexes.
Finish the session by working the liver and solar plexus.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Reflexology Blog – Headaches Always Have a Muscular Component
Headaches have many causes:
Alcohol
Drugs
Emotional Stress
Excessive Noise
Food Allergies
Glaring Light
Poor Diet
Tension in the Neck
Tension in the Shoulder Muscles
Vision Problems
On a spiritual level, the causes are just as numerous:
Feeling out of control
Frustration
Overwhelmed,
Overcrowded
Over thinking
Self Critical
Undermined
A good first step in dealing with headaches is to figure out what is happening in your life just before a headache begins. This investigation may require a headache diary.
Begin by keeping track of everything you are eating. You want to find out if a food can be the cause of your headaches. Marge D’Urso always said that two biggest causes of headaches are wheat and dairy. She recommended that a good first step in dealing with headaches is to give these items up for six weeks.
Keep track of your environment and how it’s affecting you. Describe your feelings. You’re looking for evidence of repetitive behavior and/or attitudes which may affect your headaches.
Record your headaches: location, duration, severity.
There’s a muscular component to all headaches. Addressing this component involves regular visits to a reflexology for the spirit practitioner. Regular sessions relieve stress, encourage homeostasis, improve day-to-day functioning.
Record your sleep patterns. Is insomnia a factor?
Thyroid and adrenal hormone imbalances can cause headaches. Visit an endocrinologist.
NOTE: If you discover that the headaches recur regularly, you need to visit a medical professional.
When offering a reflexology session to a headache sufferer, begin by working the solar plexus and diaphragm reflexes.
Work the nervous system as you focus on the brain reflexes.
Work the respiratory system as you focus on the sinuses.
Work the digestive system as you focus on the pancreas.
Work the sense organs as you focus on the ears and the eyes.
Work the muscular system as you focus on the arm, shoulder, and neck muscle reflexes.
Work the spinal reflexes.
End the session as you spend a few moments on the liver and solar plexus.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco.
Work the digestive system as you focus on the pancreas.
W
Muscular System Bottom Line, 12 Essential Oils, 24 Foods That Nourish The Muscular System and 3 Improvements to be Expected from Sessions to the Muscular System
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Maintaining the muscular system with Reflexology for the Spirit sessions helps improve both the circulatory and skeletal systems. The ability of muscles to function directly impacts the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual life of a person.
One’s emotional and spiritual health directly impacts how the muscles function, the ability to maintain a proper body weight, and to maintain muscle tone, especially as one ages. Exercise is recommended to release endorphins that interact with the receptors in the brain to promote positive feelings, and when a client decides to start working out this will be a boon to you.
ESSENTIAL OILS TO USE WHEN WORKING THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM INCLUDE basil, fennel, geranium, German chamomile, helichrysum, lavender, marjoram, nutmeg, peppermint, rosemary, thyme, wintergreen
FOODS WHICH NOURISH THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM INCLUDE beans, caffeine, Brazil nuts, cherries, chicken, dairy, dried plums, eggs, figs, legumes, liver, meat, nuts, oily fish, oysters, peanuts, raisins, rose hip tea, soy, turkey, water, wheat germ, whole grains, yeast.
Of the foods on the above list, the following foods are also on Johnny Bowden, Ph.D.’s list of the 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth:
beans, caffeine, Brazil nuts, eggs, figs, liver(calf’s liver), milk(raw), nuts, oysters, peanuts/peanut butter, raisins, yogurt.
So, you’ve actually got two lists here. The top list is the list of foods nourishing the muscular system. The second list is those foods on Johnny Bowden’s list. This gets a little complicated but is worth knowing. Please let me know if you have problems with the information and how it’s listed.
IMPROVEMENTS TO BE EXPECTED FROM SESSIONS TO THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM:
Working the muscular system in a session can relax the whole body as well as specific places in the body.
Muscular aches and pains are relieved and muscular stress and tension can be reduced.
As the body relaxes with repeated, regular sessions, homeostasis offers balance to the body and the spirit.
Peace and food for all.
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Thurman Greco
