A New Technique and It's Impact

Thinking about yesterday and what went on in my three and a half hour session. Never had that much change occur in the twenty years I have worked on these feet. I figured it out at 3 AM this morning. (IMHO I think this approach could profoundly impact the practice of reflexology and make reflexologists on high demand.) I won't keep you on suspense. It involves double thumbwalking from the ankle down. What I figured out this morning is that you can trigger ground sensors that are involved in the adjustment to the surface underfoot. It loosens both the foot and leg. But it does something else that seems to integrate the whole foot. Amazing stuff!!!

Tone: The Communicator

© Eraxion. Image from BigStockPhoto.com.


Body's self repair operates at a certain tension level. Create a relaxation response with Reflexology and body starts to auto self repair.  (This morning's Twitter)


This early morning tweet by me lead to a discussion on "tone". One person wanted to know more on tone so we are putting up snippets of any article dating back to 1982. We were really into tone back then and even built it into our book, Hand and Foot Reflexology: A Self Help Guide.

The way we maintain tone is a complex yet beautiful system. So here are some quotes from Tone: The Communicator.

"The body is in constant communication with all parts of itself providing the ability to move and survive. The ability to move calls for knowledge of the position of every muscle, joint and tendon. The ability to survive requires a perception of the chemical levels, in case of emergency changes in them.'

"Tone describes such a communication system. Tone is usually recognized as a state of readiness. It is most often associated with muscles but it also exists in the internal organs.'

"Tone is the background against which events of the day are played. It is however an active background as if each blade of grass in the background of a movie set were also playing a role in the picture.'

We were very deep into tone back then as we saw it as the connection between various body parts. The body sets a certain tension level or tone in the background in order to respond quickly to changing demands.

It would be impossible to survive without well regulated tension levels. Sleeping is different than being awake. Sleeping is a different level of tone than being awake and it could be a catastrophe if the two tonal levels were mixed up.

The feet help set the tone or tension level of the body. This is so we can stand upright successfully and move properly. It takes an enormous amount of information about the proper tension levels to make this happen. If this communication is miskeyed or inadequate we fall down.

I always use the story of falling asleep with my legs tucked under me to explain this concept. When the phone rang I jumped up to get it and immediately fell down. Since my legs were asleep I didn't have the proper tone or tension to stand upright must less run for the phone.

Why is tone important in reflexology? The feet help set the tension level for the rest of the body. Reflexology with it's applications of pressure alter the tone of the body. The patterns of stress formed in the feet are "broken up" by applications of new signals.

Shoes and flat surfaces send the same tonal messages into the system. Boring. The stress of not having a variety of signals to respond to makes the body work within tight ranges of tension or tone.

Feet have incredible capacity to respond to a wide variety of input as we pick our way over uneven terrain. Yet with shoes and flat surfaces the same signals are inputted over and over again. A lack of variety is stressful.

There is a new concept that states the system finds stability through change. Change is a must or as one researcher put it, "Variety is not just the spice of life. It is the very stuff of life itself.

We experience high degrees of tension when the tone of our internal conversation doesn't change. A little change or shift in your tone is good for you. If fact it may be the very stuff of your life's rich experience.


Kevin Kunz

http://www.reflexology-research.com 

http://www.dk.com/reflexology 

Tweet me @twitter.com/footreflexology

Facebook www.facebook.com/kevin.kunz 

An Epiphany About Reflexology

This week we were asked for the first time we were asked to do a peer review of a reflexology research article. Usually a peer is considered a doctor or a PHd who really isn't familiar with reflexology so they don't really understand field. So this is a step forward.

But in thinking about this step forward it also struck me that there is an underlying question here that lies outside this particular study. We are living in a fishbowl in essence trying to speculate what it is like on the outside. So I am jumping out of the fishbowl in an attempt to explain the workings of reflexology as they apply to our internal milieu.

Does reflexology impact the autonomic nervous system?

1. Each and every application of pressure causes a change in the autonomic nervous system if it is beyond a certain threshold. In other words if the pressure applied is a strong enough signal to be picked up by the sensors in the foot it will cause a shift in the ANS.

2. Reflexology is the systematic applying of pressure to the feet and hands. The strength of the signal is significant enough to be picked up by the sensors of the skin and the deeper pressure sensors in the feet and hands.

3. Therefore it causes a shift or change in the ANS. The tone or tension level in the body is changed.

4. Now whether that shift is significant enough to have a positive impact on the tone of the body is related to a number of factors. In fact, there could be a situation where the application of pressure would actually cause a negative impact on the tone of the body. Say the practitioner applied pressure beyond the individuals comfort level.

The factors that determine a positive impact are frequency, duration and strength of signal. We translated this as How often?, how long? and how much?. These are key elements.

So to jump out of the fish tank for a second -anytime pressure is applied whether it be standing up or having a reflexology session there is a shift in our internal organs as the new demands require allocation of fuel (glucose) and O2 (oxygen). A footstep or a reflexology session both require fuel and oxygen to be supplied. They are simply different rates.

They also require a shift in tension level or tone. There are different demands and different settings form each.

The introduction of a new demand such as a footstep or a reflexology technique causes a shift in the tone or tension level of the body. Again these are of course calibrated to the specific demand or signal introduced.

So the real question is whether you can cause a significant enough shift in both the ANS and the tonal system of the body to have a positive impact on the disease and illness. This would depend on the factors of frequency, duration and strength of signal.

I would add one more which is the type of signal introduced. A pat on the back is certainly going to cause a different shift in the ANS and tonal system than a poke in the eye.

Now I will jump back in my fishbowl.

Kevin Kunz

http://www.reflexology-research.com