Flowers - Field - Woods - Dawn - Hills - Sun - Nature - Chamomile Therapies - Clinical Aromatherapy, Berkhamsted

Stress And Reflexology

Stress is a word which is commonly used in today’s modern world, but stress is not something which is new to the human condition. It has always been present, but now it is more prevalent due to the pressures and demands of the 21st century. The human body is hard-wired to experience stress, which is natures way of letting us know that we are in situations which are potentially dangerous and life threatening. The intention of this type of stress was to encourage our prehistoric ancestors to flee from predators and other types of environmental danger, which is of course a far cry from the stress inflicted by modern society. However, we all still face stress in our lives, and over exposure to Cortisol and other hormones released during stress can lead to a variety of long term health problems, ranging from digestive disorders to mental health problems.

When we face continual or repeated stress, the response system enters what is known as a “chronic phase” during which our resistance declines below normal and eventually this resistance becomes exhausted. It is believed that up to 80% of modern diseases have stress-related causes. These include high blood pressure, heart attack, migraine, hay fever and allergies, asthma, stomach ulcers, constipation, digestive problems, colitis, skin disorders, menstrual difficulties, depression and so on.

We may not be able to alter the stress causing factors in our lives, but we can alter how we cope. Natural healing techniques such as Reflexology can help to reduce the stress response and thereby reduce our susceptibility to stress related diseases. Reflexology has grown out of the tradition of Chinese medicine and it works on pressure points to stimulate the body’s own healing potential. When specific reflex points are stimulated on the feet it is believed that this releases the energy blocks which is thought to be responsible for the pain or disease symptoms affected by the corresponding organ of the body system. The aim of Reflexology is to put our body’s organs and systems back into a state of balance or equilibrium thus allowing healing to take place.