Time

"We have what we seek. It is there all the time, and if we give it time it will make itself known to us."
Thomas Merton

Journal Activities
how do you really wish to conduct your life?
what would you no longer tolerate?
what activities would you no longer participate in?
is there anybody you would remove?

Walking Meditation
leave all watches and time pieces here and then journey out into the world for what you believe to be 20 minutes. Just notice if you can let go and be present or if you are constantly aware or stressed about time. See how long you were actually gone, and if you were able to relax and enjoy your time.

Journal
plan your ideal day... time you wake up until the time you go to sleep, what would it include. This is a real life day so be sure to include work, if you work.

After discussing this with the group I shared that I find it useful to make an ideal schedule for each season as I like to include tea out in my garden first thing in the summer but would not be likely to do this in the winter.

"When God made Time, he made enough of it."
Celtic Saying

you walk wrong

at last!!!!!
a concise detailed description of the evils of shoes.

please read and then come see me for reflexology so we can wean you off those evil shoes!

from the article:
"...She explains that, when we don’t use our feet properly, our muscles have to strain to compensate—not just in our feet but in our whole body. She asks me to lift the front of my foot, which I also do. She then replants my foot and asks me to “trust my bones to hold me up.”

And I have to tell you, in that brief moment, it felt like I had never stood up properly on my own two feet before in my entire life..."

You Walk Wrong

from article:

"Try this test: Take off your shoe, and put it on a tabletop. Chances are the toe tip on your shoes will bend slightly upward, so that it doesn’t touch the table’s surface. This is known as “toe spring,” and it’s a design feature built into nearly every shoe. Of course, your bare toes don’t curl upward; in fact, they’re built to grip the earth and help you balance. The purpose of toe spring, then, is to create a subtle rocker effect that allows your foot to roll into the next step. This is necessary because the shoe, by its nature, won’t allow your foot to work in the way it wants to. Normally your foot would roll very flexibly through each step, from the heel through the outside of your foot, then through the arch, before your toes give you a powerful propulsive push forward into the next step. But shoes aren’t designed to be very flexible. Sure, you can take a typical shoe in your hands and bend it in the middle, but that bend doesn’t fall where your foot wants to bend; in fact, if you bent your foot in that same place, your foot would snap in half. So to compensate for this lack of flexibility, shoes are built with toe springs to help rock you forward. You only need this help, of course, because you’re wearing shoes.

Here’s another example: If you wear high heels for a long time, your tendons shorten—and then it’s only comfortable for you to wear high heels. One saleswoman I spoke to at a running-shoe store described how, each summer, the store is flooded with young women complaining of a painful tingling in the soles of their feet—what she calls “flip-flop-itis,” which is the result of women’s suddenly switching from heeled winter boots to summer flip-flops. This is the shoe paradox: We’ve come to believe that shoes, not bare feet, are natural and comfortable, when in fact wearing shoes simply creates the need for wearing shoes."

Consider a paper titled “Athletic Footwear: Unsafe Due to Perceptual Illusions,” published in a 1991 issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. “Wearers of expensive running shoes that are promoted as having additional features that protect (e.g., more cushioning, ‘pronation correction’) are injured significantly more frequently than runners wearing inexpensive shoes (costing less than $40).” According to another study, people in expensive cushioned running shoes were twice as likely to suffer an injury—31.9 injuries per 1,000 kilometers, as compared with 14.3—than were people who went running in hard-soled shoes. "(emphasis added)

the curse of flip flops

I feel the need to make a public service announcement stating the reflexive and body ills that wearing flip flops cause. I want to add that these things don't occur in all people who were itty bitty shoe-like things, but I feel the need to discuss. So since it is my blog you have to listen to me, or skip this entry and move on :D

Remember the stages of walking? Heel strike, weight flow and toe off. Can you guess which ones don't happen with flip flops, itty bitty sandals and other strappy things that barely exist?

If you guessed all of them you'd be correct. Most people don't do a heel strike because there's no padding, the shoe might come off and the toe piece might become dislodged leading to tripping. The flow of weight doesn't happen because you never started a proper step, and you are most likely shuffling keeping weight solely on the ball of the foot, scraping your way through the day. (It makes a good noise though) And of coarse you wouldn't toe off at the end of the step because Hello? shoe would go flying and then... and well then you'd just look dumb.

Now you can get around some of this by gripping your toes. That way you could do the stages of walking, but then you'd eventually end up with lovely foot pathologies like claw or hammer toes, a tight tibialis anterior, and cramps in the arches of your feet.

Reflexively the ills of this types of shoe include: lung issues, lungs also include grief issues in Chinese medicine, sinus congestion, headaches, reduced endocrine function, (pituitary, thyroid, hypothalamus, pineal) digestion woes like constipation or irritable bowl, breast health, spine issues (especially thoracic and cervical spine). And that's just the major reflexive effects.

Emotionally it could lead to dragging, feelings of depression, tiredness, heaviness, inability to cope, inability to be happy, and many many more. Why? One because of the reflexes you are effecting and two because of the posture you are forced to take when utilizing these types of shoes.

So wear your cute slip on strappy sandals to get from point A to point B and do not use them as a everyday practical shoe, because ladies (and gents) they aren't any better for your health than a 6 inch heel.

As a bodyworker there are two times a year I have an influx of foot pain clients and they are when the seasons change to sun and back to rain. Why because people have just changed their shoes. So if you have complains about foot pain, leg pain or increased back pain with no injury or change in activity of your clients. Ask if they've change the shoes they wear most often. If the answer is yes, start an education process and get them hooked up with info in this blog or other places so they can wear sexy cute shoes (in moderation) but maintain healthy strong feet (permanently)

Breast Cancer & Reflexology

If you or someone you know lives in the Seattle area and has breast cancer Bastyr Medical Center is doing some amazing work and research on the effects of reflexology to help with chemo. Here is the info:

BASTYR UNIVERSITY- Fall 2006
8-Week Breast Cancer Walking Study

Bastyr University is looking for breast cancer patients to study the effect of walking on chemotherapy-induced
nausea and vomiting

Study participants will receive an instructional walking DVD, and a complimentary foot massage at the completion of the study.

Criteria for being a participant:
ÿ Age 40-65.
ÿ Diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing chemotherapy.
ÿ Willing to walk 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week for 8 weeks.
ÿ Willing to attend one 50 minute study visit per week at Bastyr University in Kenmore, Washington.
ÿ Willing and able to provide informed consent.

If you are interested in volunteering for this study and fit the above criteria, please contact Elizabeth Marazita, L.Ac. at (425) 829-7881 or Elizabeth.marazita@bastyr.edu.


I've has the pleasure of speaking with Elizabeth on several occasions and she is truly and amazing individual. She is doing wonders for brining awarness of reflexology to the communities around Seattle by establishing her reflexology paths throughout King County.

Several of my client have been breast cancer survivors and they all firmly state that there is no way they could have survived and maintained the lifestyle they enjoyed without the aid of reflexology. All of them were able to function in work and with family to a level of satisfaction, which is amazing considering the harshness of the treatments.

Points to work reflexively to assist (in my experience): lymph, flush the system and help the white blood cells move around and destroy the cancer. Liver and kidneys, eliminate poison. Spleen, it recycles cells, it will need help processing all the ones killed by the chmo. Hold the solar plexus to stabilize the energy systems of the body and to calm the digestive system. Large intestines, things tend to go wrong here due to the stress of life and the treatment, keep the body eliminating.