A preventive, curative and relaxing health-wellness technique, reflex therapy is a holistic therapeutic approach that aims to maintain the balance of the body, energy and psyche by touching specific areas of the body. Decryption.
Almost everything has been written and said about reflexology or reflexotherapy. Of course, we will recall the main points. But our point, by evoking this practice as well as others of the same order, is the pretext to highlight a point common to these different practices: touch; better: well-being through touch! First a few basics:
Touch: instinctive relief
For thousands of years, if not always, humans have provided relief through touch: it is a natural, instinctive gesture of our race, like others.
We burn ourselves, what do we do? We immediately put our hand on the burnt part.
Do we bump? Same.
Do you want to show affection to someone or to an animal, the first reflex? A caress, a touch ...
Touch: a few more obstacles (religious?)
Presumably, religion (the better to impose itself?), Then the notions of possession, property, taboos, etc., came to say to humans: "touch is bad, it's animal ... ".
This is of course a way of schematizing and taking awkward, even arbitrary shortcuts. But let's say that this is what still hovers in the background above us (Latin countries and Muslims in particular): often, the notion of touch retains a more or less avowed sexual connotation. True or false ?
Even if its benefits are finally again more and more recognized and trivialized, touch remains more or less ambiguous, let's face it. And what a pity! ...
Touching and massaging the feet: much older than Herod!
The document below is well known; it is simply the proof of the antiquity of foot massage: 2500 years for Egypt, 5000 years for China ...
Very old is therefore "the experience of therapeutic techniques based on the manipulation of the foot". In Europe, the first text devoted to this therapy of pressure exerted on certain points of the foot to relieve was published in 1582 ...
Reflex therapy: principles
Whether by the hands (palmar reflexology), the feet (plantar reflexology), the face and the skull (Dine Chan: facial and cranial reflexology), the pavilions of the ear (auricular therapy), reflex therapy starts from the principle - the everything being included in every part of the whole - that "every gland, organ, function or other part of the body projects itself on a specific point (reflex zone) stimulated by massage, pressure, heat, a needle or electricity" .
This reflex stimulation is said to improve the circulation of energy, stimulate the nervous system, promote the release of endorphins ("natural morphine's", painkillers and euphoria), and induce the body's self-healing powers.
What are the differences between reflexology and reflex therapy?
These are therapeutic approaches that take into account the individual as a whole (physical, mental, emotional, family, social, cultural, spiritual). This holistic view of the human being, aided by a mapping of reflex zones allowing action on well-targeted areas of the body, aims to improve health and quality of life.
By using reflexology techniques and starting with a health check-up, anamnesis, a reflex therapist is responsible for stimulating the body to keep it in good condition longer!
The reflex therapist establishes a personalized protocol then decides on the techniques to be performed on the microsystems to be stimulated (feet, hands, face, ears, etc.). There are several types of stimulation techniques:
manual: variable intensity pressures, smoothing, etc. with the fingers
instrumental: stimulation of varying intensity with a soft instrument
thermal: stimulation by a heat beam
frequency: stimulation by impedance frequencies (low intensity alternating current)
In no case does the reflex therapist break the skin as is the case with acupuncture, for example.
Each consultation ends with the learning of self-stimulation techniques in order to prolong the effect of the treatment, allowing everyone to become an actor of their own health.
It should also be noted that reflex therapy addresses all the consequences of stress and all functional disorders, that is to say where the very function of the organ is involved. It is particularly indicated for people suffering from disorders such as insomnia, nervousness, fatigue, migraines, asthma, sinusitis, or even liver, intestinal, joint, gynecological, libido problems ...
By a good circulation of energies, reflex therapy allows a physical and mental energy rebalancing.
What does science say?
Obviously, no scientific validation can be carried out, as our science understands, even if the latter nevertheless recognizes that reflex therapy has a certain effectiveness against pain.
Note that "our" science is much older than the observations of the benefits that humans have been able to achieve for thousands of years ...
Contraindications
Plantar reflexology cannot be performed in the event of a foot fracture, recent phlebitis or arthritis.
With regard to palmar reflexology, it cannot be used in the event of a fracture of the hand.
Reflex therapy techniques should be avoided in the presence of a wart, burn, wound or infection in the reflex zones.
Also avoid if you suffer from mechanical vertebral blockages or if you are undergoing neuroleptic or corticosteroid treatment.
Side effects
Some points can be painful, especially in auriculotherapy.
No noticeable side effects.
Touch, homeostasis and well-being
Let us say that in general, the subtle touch of the indicated zones, accompanied by a know-how, a know-how and even - even above all - a know-how to love his contemporary, "plunges the person into a state of deep relaxation which promotes self-regulation, regeneration and immunity of the organism allowing to find an internal environment favorable to the harmonious functioning of all the systems (what is called homeostasis) and to the free circulation of 'energy'.
The reason, the explanations of all this, are still very mysterious from a scientific point of view ...
Indeed, touching is not enough: the "Who touches?" ", The" How does it touch? ", The" What state of mind am I when someone touches me? ", Etc., are also, admittedly, very important in the effectiveness of a touch.
Once again, we come to the subtle (and still somewhat opaque) connection between mind and body ...
What link (s) between wellness, healing and quantum physics?
At the beginning of this article, when talking about reflex zones, we said that the whole is included in every part of the whole (this is the principle of the hologram).
With this in mind, let's go further: beyond touch, the energy transmitted or reactivated by touch, aren't there energy fields linking the body, mind and environment?
Quantum medicine goes in this direction and offers a new therapeutic response: antique therapy considers that each human being is the seat of vibrations, generated by photons or particles of light. It is on them that it would be possible to act to get rid of his pain or psychological blockages.
Meditate on all this and be well!
Thanks for the update. I really appreciate the efforts you have made for this blog.
ReplyDeleteAll the best !!!
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