Pain and discomfort come at the end of the chain of events, not the beginning. There was a time when I didn’t know about the mind body connection but working with clients over the years and speaking with them while I have worked on their feet has brought me many insights.  This was an area that I entered with some reserve, but the more I opened to the possibilities, the more I realized that the connection between health and mind was undeniable.  What you believe you think about.  What you think about with emotion you create.

I have used a story many times to explain what I mean to my clients:

If you simply thought about a lion tearing you apart, you most probably wouldn’t have any physical response; but what if the lion actually walked up to you and stood a few meters away, snarling and watching you, and there was no where for you to hide. He hasn’t done anything to you yet but the thought of what is about to happen is now charged with emotion. Fear has combined with thought to create an unconscious physical response. Your bladder or bowel could release, your breathing could change, or your blood might drain from your skin. As long as the lion remained at the scene, the person's response may not change, but take the lion out of the scenario and the bodily symptoms might well dissipate quickly.  When you work on the cause, the symptoms will often disappear.

If fear can create such a strong bodily change in only a few minutes, then is it not possible that other emotions such as resentment, envy, hatred, anger or guilt could have a similar effect when attached to thoughts over a long time, and create a physical change within the body as well?

A person once said to me, “So you’re telling me it’s all in my mind?” 

“No,” I replied.  “The pain and symptoms in your body are very real.  Tumors are real.  Cancer is real.  Kidney stones are real.  All I’m saying is that unexpressed emotions play an intrinsic role in physical sickness.” 

A lot of people will tell me, “It’s genetic.” 

I tend to think more along the lines of a genetic family thought pattern; beliefs being passed down from generation to generation.  Beliefs are what you think about, and what you think about with emotion you create.

I remember a lady having difficulty becoming pregnant.  I asked her, “Is there any reason you wouldn’t want to become pregnant?” 

After thinking or more stalling for several minutes she replied, “It won’t like me.  My mother didn’t like me.  My grandmother didn’t like me, so it most probably won’t like me either.”  

If a person thinks her child won’t like her, let alone love her, then there could be a deep psychological block to any pregnancy.  The thoughts might be in the mind but the result is manifested in the physical body.

I’ve met several middle aged men facing redundancy.  They all have a right hip problem.  One of the things that the right hip is related to is your physical future.  So it wasn’t surprising that these men, who were concerned with future employment, money and stability at their age, had something showing in that area of their body.

An elderly lady had suffered with Restless Leg Syndrome for many years.  It was particularly bad in the evening when she sat down.  She usually kept two televisions on so she could sit down for a little while in the lounge and stand up in another room and keep watching until her legs settled and she could sit down and relax again.  She wasn’t particularly open to the way I thought and it took a long time to get to the cause.  Eventually we got back to childhood.  Every time she sat down as a child, her father would hit her over the head with a rolled up newspaper and tell her not to be lazy.

An elderly gentleman had an ulcer on his leg that had been weeping for twelve years.  The relatives thought that reflexology may help with circulation and then the ulcer may heal.  I asked what had happened twelve years ago.  Nothing came to mind immediately, but in the course of the conversation he told me his wife had died twelve years ago.  His stiff upper lip approach to life didn’t allow him to weep for his wife, so his leg did it for him.

The right side of a lady’s jaw had been painful for the past two years.  She had tried everything and reflexology was her final attempt to see if she could find a cure for it.  Did anything in particular happen about the time her jaw became sore.  Of course; her brother had died.  His death was something that she hadn’t been able to talk about to other family members.  Not so strange then that the pain settled in her right jaw.  She talked about her brother the whole session and there were a few tears, but the pain went before she left and didn’t return.

Some people need to be ill.  A lady came for a reflexology treatment as she was recovering from an illness and wanted to feel less tired and exhausted.  Her husband had been sick for many years, and some time ago when she was ill, he got better, then as soon as she recovered he got sick again.  This was the second time she had been ill and her husband had got better again.  Now she was worried that as soon as she recovered, he would revert to his old illness.  It seemed in her best interest not to improve her heath.  Sometimes there are good reasons why a person will hang on to symptoms and illnesses.

Listening to people’s words can tell you a lot.

A mother expecting twins with a child of two years came for a reflexology session to try to control the nausea and vomiting.  Working her feet immediately relaxed her and she began talking.  Somewhere in the conversation she said, “Just the thought of having twins makes me sick!” 

She was telling me what the origin of her problem was.  She had never adjusted to the fact that the twins were coming.  When I drew her attention to her words, she said, “So you are telling me that I need to change my attitude?  That’s what my mother keeps telling me.”  

“I’m simply repeating back to you your own words.”    

Someone else had extreme lower back pain.  He had continued on in the family business for many years.  His words were, “I have made a rod for my own back.”  He was creating in his own body what he thought about his business. 

One lady had severe pain on the inside of her foot near the heel.  Her description was, “It feels like someone is stretching it.” 

Using her words back to her I asked, “Is someone stretching you to the limits?” 

No answer.  Actually nothing further was said during the whole of the session. 

“Oops,” I thought.  “Must have said the wrong thing.” 

As the treatment finished and she stood up she said “I could punch so and so in the mouth.”

How she described the pain in her foot told her story without her realizing it, and the reflex area confirmed it.  The feet or body never get it wrong. 

The most difficult person I have found to work with is the one who wants me to fix them; people who see no connection between what is happening in their bodies and the rest of their lives.  The body will heal itself.  My contribution is to help a person find the starting place or create a safe environment for them to look within.

Working in the energy around the feet or body helped to find the cause of a problem or direct someone to an issue that needed to be addressed.  The lesson I needed to learn most was to pass on what I saw as clearly as I could without trying to interpreting it.

I was working with one client when I became aware that I was in an old fashioned country kitchen.  There was a short stocky lady in a white apron cooking a meal in a large metal pot on a big wooden stove.  There was a long wooden table in the centre of the room.  When the meal was ready she called for everyone to come and eat, but no one came.  She waited and waited and then became very angry and decided to throw the meal out; but when she took the lid off the pot, she saw that she had been boiling the washing not cooking a meal.  While she thought she was cooking the meal and nurturing them, she was actually doing their washing and picking up after them.  This client needed to learn how much was enough when it came to what she did for the family.  She knew that and the little scene that had unfolded was again drawing her attention to making some changes.

I was watching a person dig two holes.  The first hole was dug with a shovel.  Its shape was a square.  A lot of hard work and sweat went into digging it.  It was so hard going, the person almost gave up.  The second hold was dug with a mechanical digger.  Its shape was round.  The digger had it dug in seconds, with no effort at all.  What was the message?  There is the hard way and the easy way.  There is the hard logical linear way of the ego versus the intuitive way of spirit, which often gives you shortcuts and makes the job much easier.

I was aware of a school room with a platform at the front near the black board.  The teacher sat at a table.  She was a little old fashioned with a cane in her hand.  She was belting the cane on the table saying impatiently, “Come on! Get on with it!  What are you waiting for?” 

I explained the picture to the client who didn’t know what it meant at first.  Then it dawned!  He had been thinking about being a volunteer English teacher to help people learn the language.  The Universe was simply telling him to get on with it.

I was watching a lady.  At first I saw her face, in particular the texture of her skin.  Then her hair cut, with very specific lines to the style.  Then her dress, and as the picture unfolded the dress was shown in intricate detail.  As this was unfolding, a second face jumped in and out of the scene.  The second face was of an older person, worn out and exhausted with hair pulled back in a bun. 

“Wonder what this is all about?” my mind began to ponder.  “Don’t try to figure it out, just tell it as it is.”

The client immediately recognized the person in the scene.  The two faces were exactly that; a two faced woman who had caused this lady untold grief.

When I first saw people in black capes and pointed hats, I wasn’t too comfortable with it.  I realize now that this is part of the shadow showing itself; a part of the self that has been hidden and disowned but now wants to show itself and be healed.  I got quite used to them coming in.

A woman who suffered with profuse sweating for many years finally had an operation to cut the sweat glands to the upper part of her body.  While I was working her feet, I saw three scenarios, one she was being burnt at a stake, then she was a fish left to die and finally she was in one of those old stocks with her head and hands through small holes, her feet anchored, and left to die.  No wonder her body was ceaselessly calling for water with all those memories from other lifetimes imbued in her cellular memory.