How Did We Come up with the Foot Massage Points or Reflex points?
Finding a map of a foot reflexologist will probably have you wondering how someone would be able to come up with such an idea. A map of our organs in the feet? It does seem a little weird but you would be surprised at the number of years and how many people have worked on such a concept before it turned into something that people would believe into.
Even though the use of pressure points is believed to have been started as an ancient form of therapy way back tens of thousands of years ago by different civilizations in China and Egypt, what we now know as the modern reflexology is being credited to the Father of “Zone Therapy” Dr. William FitzGerald. Our contemporary reflexology is based on the Zone Theory and Zone Therapy which was introduced by Dr. Fitzgerald in the early 1900s – apparently, he did not provide further information about the foundation of his studies. However, he did claim that he found out that pressing or applying pressure to a single point on his foot could cause an entirely different part of our body to go numb and constantly applying pressure to it can lead to pain and relief. This led to him mapping out certain areas in our own body to figure out which affects which and he called this science the Zone Therapy. Later on, Eunice Ingham extended all of his works. She patiently mapped the feet and toes very carefully with all of its corresponding organs and glands all over our body, giving her the credits to the foot and hand charts as what we see today.
Where are the Reflex Points in our Feet Exactly Located?
In general, we can imagine our feet as a small representation of our body. The inside of both of our feet is associated with our spine. The dark area underneath the toes is our chest, then our foot’s thinnest division our waistline. If you are imagining it the right way, our stomach should be situated on the side above of our waistline (again, the thinnest part of the feet) and the intestine should be on the side below it. That makes the bottom part of our foot corresponds to our pelvic area. Note that since our stomach is located on the left side of our body, its area is actually found on our left foot.
Our toes also play a major part in foot reflexology. There are a lot of body organs that each toe represents and remembering these can be very helpful. All of our five toes on each foot regularly correspond to our head and neck. This basically means that when we massage these or applied pressure on specific points on each toe, we are then working on our head and neck. The big toe represents the spleen and liver meridians, the second toe corresponds to the stomach meridian, the fourth is for gall bladder, and the last toe represents the meridian points of our bladder. Putting the right amount of pressure on these meridian points can provide instant pain relief. If you are having problems with your eyes may it be fatigue, eyestrain, or anything related to the eyes, you should aim for the eye area on the second and third toe. Or if you have trouble with ears, its spots are located just below the fourth and last toes of our feet.
How Can We Use these Massage Points?
First, if you have problems related to digestion, a foot massage can definitely improve its situation. Our feet correspond to a lot of organs related to the digestive system, which can all be accessed by rubbing the bottoms of our feet.
Now, if you are having sleep problems or issues, you may try applying some pressure to the bottom side of the middle of your big toe, which is where our pituitary glands are connected. Most sleeping problems may be a result of issues with this gland and massaging its pressure point can help in better sleeping patterns.
Also, if you suffer from frequent headaches, you can massage your toes to relieve it. Most headaches originate from the tension in our neck and massaging our big toes can relax our neck. Giving a massage to the upper halves of all of our other toes can also help.
Lastly, if you have been experiencing back pains (which is very common especially to young adults and workers), you can target these muscle groups by massaging the bottom half of the bottom of each of your feet.
Most of the pressure points mapped in our feet are not very hard to remember and actually being aware of these points and what needs to be done when a certain part of our body aches is quite a convenience for us since we can use it to relieve ourselves of pain without having to go to a spa. Anyhow, as convenient as it may seem, keep in mind that we can utilize our knowledge of these reflex/massage points only for a few instances until we are able to find a professional foot massage therapist or reflexologist when the situation demands us to.
