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
Tara Sanders: Healing, Yoga, and Reflexology
healing, yoga, and reflexology
As reflexologists, we add new clients to our practice often. Healing, yoga, and reflexology are important here. Depending on your personality, or your practice, you may ask a few or many questions from them on the intake forms and in the initial interviews.
Trauma is one area of a person’s life which we rarely approach. It is just too hidden, too destructive.
This is wise. Trauma is a subject which our client partners need to bring up when the time is right for them to share. Because nothing is said doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen. It just means that the person isn’t comfortable discussing it.
Because, in reality, 1 woman in 4 has experienced domestic violence and/or sexual assault. Personally, I question the 1-in-4 statistic. No woman reports domestic violence or sexual assault if she can possibly avoid it. Reporting is simply too painful.
When I first spoke with Tara Sanders, a Woodstock based yoga instructor and program director in the nonprofit Exhale to Inhale I was suddenly very alert. I realized that we, as reflexologists, need to be more sensitive to the secrets and hidden traumas of our client partners.
Exhale to Inhale yoga works to empower survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to heal through yoga. Exhale to Inhale yoga guides women through postures, breathing, meditation. Taught in trauma sensitive style, practitioners are enabled to ground themselves in
their bodies
their strength
their stillness.
As this happens, the women connect to themselves. They work toward empowerment and worthiness. This practice can be transformative for survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence when they shed the cloak of victimhood.
Healers, reflexologists, and body workers have long known that when a person is traumatized, the event is stored in the muscles.
We also know that reflexology sessions are given a boost when combined with other modalities such as yoga, meditation, breathing, Reiki therapy, and massage.
Tara teaches the classes without music. She does not touch the students to correct a posture. Lights remain on throughout the class. These sessions offer survivors an opportunity to reclaim their lives through the healing and grounding of yoga.
Tara uses the yoga classes to help her students feel safe, strong, in the present moment. As she teaches, she is a conduit for healing and healthful programs in our community. Reflexology for the Spirit practitioners are also conduits for healing as we work the reflex points to encourage homeostasis.
Exhale to Inhale is a New York-based nonprofit offering free weekly yoga classes to survivors of domestic and sexual assault. After June 20, Exhale to Inhale yoga classes will be taught free of charge to women in area shelters in Upstate New York.
Not everyone has a Tara Sanders available in the community. However, it’s possible to suggest reflexology sessions offered in tandem with yoga, meditation, breathing classes. Whether or not you are aware of your client partner’s experience with trauma or domestic violence is not important. What is important is that you invite your client partner to experience this boost to your modality. Think of healing, yoga, and reflexology as a package.
Hopefully one day soon, there will be more Tara Sanders yoga teachers in communities everywhere.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
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Jennette Nearhood provided the media.
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.
Nausea!
Nausea, an unpleasant but familiar sensation, has been experienced by all of us at one time or another.
NAUSEA HAS MANY PHYSICAL CAUSES:
Alcohol Binges
Chemotherapy
Food Poisoning
Gallbladder Disorders
High Fever
Intestinal Blockages
Migraine Headache
Motion Sickness
Overeating
Pregnancy
Viral Infection
Spiritually, a person suffers with nausea when s/he is in a situation without sufficient coping skills. Fear looms large here.
There are some things that will help nausea:
Ginger tea, powdered ginger, or candied ginger is known to help with motion sickness. Pregnant women should not take ginger in any form without speaking with the physician first.
Slowly drinking clear or ice-cold liquids such as juices, sweetened beverages often helps. Dehydration must be avoided..
Plain crackers are important to women suffering with morning sickness.
Slowly eat smaller, more frequent meals.
If possible, rest lying propped up sometimes helps.
Reflexology helps. Begin the session by working the solar plexus and diaphragm reflexes.
Work the nervous system and focus on the brain reflexes.
Work the ear reflexes.
Work the digestive system as you focus on the stomach and intestinal reflexes.
Reiki therapy is entirely appropriate here for nausea.
If the person is still nauseated after 24 hours, it’s time to call a professional healthcare specialist.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Reflexology Blog – Prostate Disorders
Prostate problems are common in men over fifty. The most common disorders are prostatitis, benign enlargement, and cancer. Over half of men over 50 suffer from prostate problems. By far, the most popular is enlarged prostate.
Causes of prostate problems are nutritional, hormonal, and spiritual.
Nutritional causes include low levels of nutrients – selenium, zinc. If you have prostate issues, now is a good time to have a nutritional analysis. As always, I recommend you contact Liz at Village Apothecary – 845-679-0790.
Hormonal issues suggest a trip to a medical professional.
Spiritual issues call for regular reflexology visits.
This is also a time to examine how you feel about your self and your life. What words come to mind?
Feeling: ashamed, helpless, inferior, resentful, stuck.
Allow yourself to express your feelings as opposed to suppressing them.
Focus on the positive aspects of your life.
When addressing prostate issues begin the session by working the endocrine system by working the pituitary reflexes, testicle reflexes, and the prostate reflexes..
Work the nervous system as you focus on the spinal cord reflexes.
Work the lymphatic system.
End the session by focusing for a few moments on the liver and solar plexus.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
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Reflexology blog – What to do about Phlebitis
PHLEBITIS OCCURS WHEN A VEIN IN THE LEG IS INFLAMED. This usually happens when a clot forms in the vein due to slow blood circulation. An injury of some kind may be involved.
When the situation is superficial, it’s called phlebitis. When the situation involves a deep vein, the situation is more serious and is called deep venous thrombosis. The symptoms are similar and it’s hard for a person to tell the difference.
THE WISDOM IS THIS: if you have an area on a leg which is red, swollen, or painful, it’s time to see your healthcare professional right away. The deep vein clot has the potential to be much more serious than phlebitis.
Are you in a situation where your lifestyle is sedentary? Are you in a spiritual/emotional situation where things are just not moving?
Don’t ignore Phlebitis. Do what your healthcare professional says. Get the exercise you need. Put your feet up to reduce swelling. Wear flat heeled shoes.
Whenever possible, walk, run, dance, swim. Move forward in your life.
WHEN OFFERING REFLEXOLOGY to a phlebitis sufferer, work the circulatory system as you focus on the heart reflex.
Work the endocrine system by focusing on the adrenal gland reflex.
End the session by working the liver and the solar plexus.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Pl
Reflexology Blog – Are Varicose Veins a Problem for you?
IT’S THE JOB OF THE VEINS TO LET THE BLOOD FLOW upward toward the heart without allowing it to come back again. When this process breaks down, blood accumulates in the vessels, making them swell. Varicose veins appear to be knotted veins lying just below the surface of the skin on the legs. People suffering with varicose veins feel as if their legs are fatigued, sore, swollen, and cramping.
Some causes of varicose veins are standing or sitting in one position for long periods of time.
SPIRITUALLY, A PERSON BEGINS TO SUFFER WITH varicose veins when s/he is carrying such a heavy load that the legs can no longer support the weight. Words that apply for a person suffering with varicose veins include fear, helplessness, insufficient support, disappointment, stress, responsibility, pressure. People suffering with varicose veins see no way out of the situation and see no opportunity to move forward.
Being physically active helps. Walking, bike riding, jogging, swimming promote muscle contractions in the leg to assist the circulation.
Reflexology definitely helps bring about homeostasis and helps the sufferer cope better.
WHEN OFFERING A REFLEXOLOGY SESSION to a person suffering with varicose veins, begin by working the circulatory system as you focus on the heart reflex.
Work the endocrine system and focus on the adrenal gland reflexes.
Work the hip, thigh, and leg reflexes.
Finish the session by working the liver and solar plexus.
Thank you for reading this blog/book.
Please share this article with your preferred social network.
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Thurman Greco
Who Shouldn’t Receive a Session and Why (Contraindications) – Part 2
Advanced Osteoporosis
Use a very light touch and a very short session (begin with 10 minutes) taking care not to fracture bones. Please note: persons suffering from mild osteoporosis or osteopenia greatly benefit from Reflexology for the Spirit. The red flag starts flying when a new client approaches you with advanced osteoporosis. By then, it’s too late for your services without permission from the physician.
Extensive Athlete’s Foot, Etc.
Whenever there’s a rash, an open sore, athlete’s foot, etc., offer hand reflexology instead of working the feet. If you are uncomfortable offering hand reflexology, use gloves.
Advanced Diabetes
Clients with mild diabetes respond well to Reflexology for the Spirit offered to both hands and feet. Offer gentle pressure when working the pancreas. Offer lighter pressure in general for diabetics because their skin may be thinner than usual and bruise easily. also, reduce sessions to 30 minutes or less for new clients.
Heavily Medicated Clients
Persons taking a lot of medicine may have a buildup of toxins. Because Reflexology for the Spirit offers a natural detoxing action you need to take care not to overload the person. Offer a light touch and shorter session.
When you encounter people who shouldn’t receive Reflexology for the Spirit, consider offering Reiki therapy.
There are no known contraindications for Reiki therapy.
It’s easy to learn.
People enjoy it.
It’s easy to combine Reiki therapy and Reflexology for the Spirit.
The list seems almost endless. Remember this: few people with conditions on the above list will ever approach a reflexologist. For whatever reason, they just go elsewhere for their therapy. So don’t get discouraged. You won’t see them.
As always, this post is coming to you from my post in scenic Woodstock, NY.
Our next post will focus on who SHOULD receive reflexology.
Thank you for reading this book/blog. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock
Who Shouldn’t Receive a Session, and Why (Contraindications) Part 1 of 2
Cancer Patients
Reflexology for the Spirit is wonderful for cancer patients. It’s now offered in many hospitals throughout the country. However, patients receiving chemotherapy shouldn’t receive reflexology for 48 hours after the end of a chemotherapy session. This is for your protection. The theory is that the patient is toxic for 48 hours after receiving chemotherapy. If you decide to offer a session to a patient in less than 48 hours, please wear gloves.
Pregnant Women
Women in the first trimester of pregnancy experiencing an unstable pregnancy should not receive reflexology. Nothing is more wonderful than a reflexology session offered to a woman who is in her 7th month of pregnancy and has not seen her feet for a couple of months and still has 2 months to go. The rule is to avoid offering reflexology in the first trimester and stay on the bottom of the feet when you offer sessions thereafter. If you have any concerns, switch to Reiki therapy. Reiki therapy is wonderful for pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy.
With a regular Reiki therapy client, you can offer sessions weekly and can offer to go with your client partner into the labor and delivery stages of the birth process. Then, of course, you have two clients.
Clients with Infectious Diseases
Infectious disease and/or fever sufferers should not receive Reflexology for the Spirit for your protection. To offer a session to someone in a contagious condition, consider some options: gloves, mask, etc.
Severe Congestive Heart Failure
This is a good time to use your Reiki therapy skills.
Gangrene
Gangrene occurs when a person’s cells begin to die in a particular place when there is no circulation in a certain place in the body. Gangrene is fairly rare but can be seen in cases of advanced diabetes. This situation requires a physician’s attention.
Thanks for reading today’s post. We will conclude the Contraindication Section in the next post. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.
This post is coming to you from my healing space in scenic downtown Woodstock.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Reflexology for the Spirit is an Attitude, Part 2
Although there are stories about people receiving one Reflexology for the Spirit session and going away a changed person, this outcome is the exception to the rule. Generally speaking, several (or many) sessions are needed before the client partner undergoes the changes necessary to bring about healing from the soul out. reflexology, spiritual or regular, is a process, not a pill.
It’s not the place of a reflexologist to provide therapy to a person who has not tried to resolve his/her health issues by visiting a qualified healthcare professional. Reflexologists are not trained to provide services to clients who have not yet received a diagnosis from the primary medical care professional.
Diagnosis is important for the healing process. A person cannot heal without having a name for a disease or condition.
People with issues, who don’t get a diagnosis, never really know what their problem is. Also, their peers never give the person or the condition/disease the credibility it deserves. So, the first step to wellness is a diagnosis.
When a person under the care of a physician comes for regular (or sporadic) sessions s/he needs to continue with whatever meds and/or therapy which has been prescribed by the MD.
This is especially true if your client suffers with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc.
Reflexology for the Spirit practitioners work with the diagnosis provided by the health care professional while recognizing, honoring, and offering healing to the soul which is manifesting issues in the sole.
Thanks again for reading this blog. The next post will discuss colon cleanses and liver cleanses.
This post comes to you from my healing space in scenic downtown Woodstock, NY.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
