Holiday Feet

Here's a quick list of ways to save your feet from the holiday blues.

1. Be aware of your feet. Do not get so caught up in the rush of the season that you forget your poor feet. Stay in tune with how they are feeling and don't over ride them.

2. Take frequent breaks. Feet were not meant to stand or walk on hard surfaces for hours at a time.

3. Wear sensible shoes. Save those stylish shoes for times when you are not doing combat at the malls.

4. Interrupt stress and do it frequently. Try a reflexology session or a massage. A nice session allows your body to relax helps your feet relax as well.

5. Stretch prior to events like shopping or cooking or standing at parties. You don't have to be doing a marathon in order to get the benefit of stretching.

6. Use a trick that waitresses use. Lie on the floor and prop your feet up on a chair or coach. It helps reverse the flow of all that blood that has accumulated in your feet after a long time of standing and/or walking.

7. Break up the pattern of stress by rocking side to side. Stand with your feet about shoulder width wide. Bend your knees and rock side to side across your feet.

8. Just rub them. Really rub them to keep the circulation going. You don't have to be a professional reflexologist to get results. (But hiring one isn't a bad investment.)

9. Buy your feet a treat. A simple foot roller can do wonders and isn't costly.

10. Recruit your family. Even amateur foot-workers can make you feel better.

But above all enjoy your holidays.

Kevin Kunz

Is the Carpal Tunnel near here?

A friend of ours was using Complete Reflexology for Life to work on his girl friend for her carpal tunnel problem. He was getting good results just using the directions in the book. Then suddenly she got a rush of "hot blood" flowing down into her hand,

What he had been working on was the sides of the two and third toes. He found it curious because it was an area that was somewhat outside of the directions for carpal tunnel and ask us how that could be.

Before we could give him an explanation he thoughtfully said, "Well that area relates to the neck for one thing. and you have been telling me how much from what she said you thought her neck was contributing."

But what really floored him was how immediate the effect was. She got instant relief the moment the blood started to rush.

I said, " Now you have your key area for controlling the problem. It will take time to condition a response so that it becomes more or less permanent but you are well along the way."

Remember to explore all the possible elements. Sometimes the most important clues are right there at your fingertips.

Kevin Kunz

A Really Dumb Move

Our bodies do a fairly good job of moving about from place to place and most of the time we really don't make a "dumb move".

I was doing a radio interview last night. I brought up something I hadn't thought about for quite awhile- "movement intelligence".

Our bodies make fairly good choices on where to move and how to move. This depends on our movement intelligence. That is all the information we pool together to make decisions and some times very quick decisions.

But movement intelligence depends on having enough information to go on. That is what I really like about reflexology. By simply stimulating your hands and feet you can improve your "movement intelligence'.

It gives you more options and better ways to react when you have to make a move.

Kevin Kunz

Turkey Trouble

Here's a quick self help tip from Complete Reflexology for Life for overdoing the eating portion of Thanksgiving dinner.

Take a golf ball. Place it between your hands on the palms. Intertwine your fingers. Then simply roll the ball around the palms of your hands. Keep rolling until you start to feel some relief. You are rolling right on the digestive reflex area.

Now if there was only a technique for dealing with the relatives...

Happy Thanksgiving.

Kevin Kunz

More on Stress cues

--- In reflexologycommunity@yahoogroups.com, learnecm wrote:
>
>
> Kevin,
>
> Thank you. Do you have any publications that talk more about the
> different stress cues like this one. I have been noticing others I
> would like to confer about.
>
> Thanks,
> Deb

Deb

We did two books on reading stress cues. The Complete Guide to Foot Reflexology- When we revised it we added a section on stress cues. And our original publication on treading stress cues is MyReflexologist Says Feet Don't Lie.

This is a smaller book which really was blasted, sadly on Amazon.com. (Somebody trashed it for being too small.) Both are illustrated with sample feet.

What I like about reading stress cues is that it helps you to understand the individual. It tells you where the stress lies and allows you to much more quickly select areas for emphasis. Stress cues also gives you a stress history I think is better than a medical history for understanding the individual and their response to stress.(I actually prefer to look at medical history after I work on the individual.)

Being able to read stress cues gives your clients confidence in your skills. It also gives you a better sense of how long it will take to achieve results. And it helps you plan for getting results.

Reading stress cues is a skill worth developing. The future for me is studying large populations like Alzheimer's patients.

We think we have a stress cue connected to Alzheimer's. Statistically it is possible to see if you are in fact correct in the stress cue you have selected.

But simple memory loss I believe is also detectable.

Our photo shoot for Reflexology: Health at Your Fingertips in 2003 was in London. As you can see from this book and the DK books that follow we use an absolutely brilliant photographer.

I had worked my way through the entire crew working on feet except our photographer who was constantly busy.

I asked her if I could work on her feet. She declined as she was as usual setting something up.

But then she asked what I thought of her feet. (The photographer shoots barefooted as she wraps herself around the camera. Her feet help steady the tripod. She and the camera are one.)

"Well how is your memory?' I asked.

She was taken back and said,"You know I forget where I left the kids. How did you know?"

Do you know how I was able to tell that there was something going on with her memory without actually touching her feet? Remember this is a highly intelligent woman.


Kevin Kunz

Tip: I love doing classes on reading cues as you see a wide collection of feet. I also keep a digital camera handy. Then you can project it on screen for the crowd. And you have a record of the unusual feet you will see. And I will tell you there are usually unusual stress cues in any crowd.

Nose on the Toe

--- In reflexologycommunity@yahoogroups.com, "ryanandbaby" wrote:
>
> Kevin, can you provide some insight on this? I had put this question
> out there earlier but not heard anything. I'm a reflexology student
> and three of my "clients" had extremely heavy callusing on the upper,
> medial portion of their big toes. Not down in the neck reflex area,
> but higher. Although none of them had mentioned it in my health
> questionnaire, upon further questioning, all three of them had
> suffered and been treated for a deviated septum. Coincidence, or is
> there something to this? I'd appreciate your insight.

This callus is what I call a stress cue. It is located at the appropriate place on the toe for an influence from a deviated septum. It could also reflect tension in the back of the head. Or it can be the whole plane passing through the head from the front to the back and all the accumulated stresses that gather there.

A deviated septum can reflect more than an injury to the nose. The nose is in a critical area just in front of the brain. Injury to the nose may involve a jolt to the brain as well. It depends on the force of the blow.

This stress cue also can reflect the brain stem. I am experimenting with this area for a variety of conditions. the brain stem is involved in a lot of issues including metabolism.

Hope this helps. Thank you for your query.

Kevin Kunz

Cobblestone Paths Have Been Tested

What if simply by walking you could improve your blood pressure, reduce pain and gain stability. Researchers at Oregon Research Institute have shown just that with testing of senior citizens. The catch is that you need to walk on cobblestone mats.

"These are very exciting results," notes John Fisher, Ph.D., one of the lead scientists on the study. "Compared to conventional walking, the experience of walking on the river rock-like surface of these manufactured cobblestone mats improved participants' balance, measures of mobility, as well as reducing their blood pressure. These issues are highly important for preventing and delaying the onset of frailty among older adults, as well as helping them maintain their current health status. ORI Press Release

When we first encounter these mats in Tokyo in 1990 they were made out of wooden beads.The Japanese did a test using these mats. The test showed that walking on the mats not only improve blood flow to the feet but to the hands as well. Since in reflexology theory we relate the hands to the feet and vice versa it confirmed this theory.

There are many different types of mats from all over the world but these are the mats that were tested. Someday walking on mats may be a way to keep our senior citizens healthy and on their feet.

Kevin Kunz