Benefits of Arm and Foot Reflexology

The holidays have arrived in NYC, and with them come an assortment of emotions, obligations, and sentiments. As Manhattan starts to spring into its holiday attire, lights, trees, decorations, and window displays are a constant reminder for us to find the “perfect” gifts for our loved ones. As this can be almost impossible depending on the person, we find that there are some gifts that truly stand out no matter who is receiving them. The gifts of relaxation, good health and serenity. Spa packages and spa services at best spa’s in New York make the perfect gifting experience all NYC men and women of all ages can enjoy. After the busy fall rush at work everyone looks forward to unwinding and decompressing, with the gift of therapeutic spa services in New York this enjoyment is multiplied ten fold.

Some popular spa body treatments for stressed New Yorkers one can find at the best spa’s in NYC include:

The Deep Tissue Massage, a service that relieves your muscles of stress and sports related muscle tension. The Swedish massage, which will improve blow food and releases, built up toxins from the muscles throughout the body. The Reflexology massage, which is utilized to effectively work through the patients pressure points in both hands and feet to relieve tension, aches, and pains throughout the body.

Reflexology for Hands and Feet: Reflexology is a form of a massage that focuses primarily on your feet and hands. Having originated in Asia, reflexology is quickly becoming more popular in New York City spa’s being that it’s quick and can even go to supplement the regular weekly manicure and pedicure (for both men and women) while relieving all the tension from the tough work week.

The underlying theory behind reflexology is that there are reflex areas on the feet and hands that correspond to specific body parts, organs and glands. For instance, tips of the toes reflect the head, the heart and chest are around the ball of the foot, the liver, pancreas and kidneys are in the arch of the foot, lower back and intestines are towards the heel. Practitioners believe that applying pressure to these reflex areas can promote health in the corresponding organs through energetic pathways. Therefore, you can get relief in places you thought were impossible to reach by simply applying pressure to the right points in your limbs (arms and legs)!

Along with these effective stress-relieving solutions there are a number of facial treatments that help to clean and restore dry winter skin to its healthy self and let the patients look their best for all the precious holiday photos. Some options include:

Aromatherapy facials, which are therapeutic facials that can visibly improve the vitality and texture of the skin by using a gentle massage technique combined with essential oils. This service is especially geared to relieve muscle tension, poor circulation, and headaches.

Light Therapy Anti-Aging Facial, which uses light and heat to reverse the effects of environmental exposures and aging. As you age, skin texture roughens, spots appear and fine lines make their debut. This treatment works deep under the skin to recapture yesterday’s glow. It can soften fine lines, homogenize skin tones, decrease pore size, improve skin texture and enhance absorption of future creams and lotions.

I was just reviewing the tutorial I had this week with a student in my current Professional Reflexology Training Program. I love the laser focus that working one-on-one can give and, as always, huge improvements were achieved.

Because this particular student is also a massage therapist, the conversation included not just the specifics of thumb walking and reflex point locations but also ergonomics -meaning the best posture and angle to sit and work to minimize stress on the body.

Yes, massage therapists and reflexologists alike will have aches and pains from our work (and so will chiropractors and acupuncturists, etc.). Just because we have the knowledge and the power to effect positive change in the body doesn’t mean that we ourselves don’t suffer from the pain of overworked muscles or awkward body mechanics.

It is because we have the knowledge that we can deal with pain in our own body more efficiently and more and more effectively.

For example I have reflex points for most parts of the skeletal and muscular systems, so I can easily work on my own feet or hands (something that’s a little harder to do in massage, polarity, acupressure, etc.).

If it’s a pain that one of my reflexology clients has, I will address it via the feet or hands (face and ears are options too) and I can feel confident that the ensuing relaxation will offer great support.

But what’s the best way to stay in shape and reduce our discomfort when we’re not working on ourselves or having someone work on us?

You guessed it… exercise.

Now there’s a whole sub-culture based on exercise and the one thing that they all have in common is the range of motion action provided for the joints of the body.

In today’s article, I’m going to talk about the most basic and the simplest exercise that can be done by young and old alike. Don’t be fooled by its simplicity – it could be an Olympic event.

The Benefits of Walking as an Exercise

Walking is an exercise that isn’t too glamorous and you don’t need to join a gym because it can be done almost anywhere. In fact, they say that walking for just 30 to 60 minutes every day is practically the best thing you can do for your body, mind and spirit (and it’s also good for the sole).

It seems to get more and more difficult for people today to lead a healthy lifestyle. For example, there are new and more interesting snack and junk foods to distract us from the simple nutrients in simple food. In addition, eating disorders – too much or too little, the lack of proper regular exercise, and a myriad of other health diseases, increase our stress levels and almost seem to contribute to the decline in our contemporary world’s lifestyle.

What to do? Well there are many different approaches and just from the perspective of exercise there are hundreds of popular styles of training and gyrating to keep us fit, but the one exercise that is suitable for people of all ages is a good, brisk walk.

So what are the advantages of walking over say kick boxing? Well the obvious one is that you don’t have to kick anything. Both offer joint mobilization and movement throughout the body but walking is the kinder gentler of the two. You don’t need an equipment or a partner or team and it’s absolutely free! (No two year membership with penalty of leaving early costing hundreds if not thousand in equipment, training and fees.)

Benefits of walking are:

1) Did you know that people who walk tend to live longer and healthier lives? Yes, it’s been studied and found that walking just two miles a day can cut the risk of death (a serious consequence) by almost half (including a lower risk of dying of cancer).

2) Is it true that you can walk off weight by… walking? You bet. Walking is, or should be an important part of any weight loss program.

Of course, you’ve got to watch how much you eat but some weight-loss and conditioning studies have proven that walking is actually more effective than running and other more exotic activities.

Why? Because it’s virtually injury-free, and in addition to that it also has the lowest dropout rate of any form of exercise. Good points.

3) Walking also can have a positive effect on your personal habits. It makes sense that if you commit to this, or any form of exercise, you’ll be taking your health maintenance more seriously and will likely develop the pattern for follow-through in other aspects of your life. It’s been noted that smokers who begin walking will more often cut down or quit the habit.

4) Did you even realize that walking helps to reduce depression? It makes sense that a walk in the park or even an unhurried stroll down the street can help reduce the symptoms of depression. The results can be peace of mind AND body. Now that’s what I call a win-win… winner.

5) Its good for the joints and that includes arthritis: Walking can actually relieve your aches and pains by keeping the joints in movement which in turn helps activate the body’s natural fluid tides. Never underestimate the value of this simple form for support to helping anything from backache to digestion.

6) And last but not least, walking can help to boost your brain power: One study showed that walking 45 minutes a day at good pace (16-minute mile pace) can increase your thinking ability. I’ll never forget that when my Mom was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, I found a book written by an MD that claimed he reduced his own symptoms of Alzheimer’s by walking daily.

Today, massage chairs are so advanced to the point where they can give you a massage almost as good as professional massage therapists. It’s something that really gives you lots of pleasure, and maintains your health up at the same time. It has lots of different techniques to massage all parts of your body. And there are also many other features that can help with stress relief and relaxation.

If you’re a great fan of massage and relaxation, you might have been looking around for one of these products which are getting increasingly popular lately. Well, this special furniture really does work wonderfully. Here are some good reasons for you to get one.

With a massage chair, you can have a massage therapy anytime you want. It’s very convenient, and it will never get tired trying to relieve your everyday stress and make you feel better. You can simply do it at home whenever you want a massage. Just simply grab a seat and take a quick 15 minute massage. Or if you have more time, go for a full body massage with longer duration. By having a massage chair, you’re provided with unprecedented access to get frequent massage treatment whenever you want it.

Massage therapy can help you relieve pain, aches and discomfort in your body. It has been practiced for many centuries! Mentally, it helps you to relax and can increase awareness. Today, the challenges of our new economic times are causing us to be stressed more than ever before. It is very important to reduce the negative effects of stress on the body. This is one of the best ways to relieve stress while still enjoying ourselves.

Other benefit is you don’t even need the human interaction. To train your massage therapist to give you the massage you want. How much pressure you would like or exactly where you want the massage. Most modern chairs contains a computer which can memorize the setting you enjoy the most. Simply pick the one you like and let the chair do the rest. Some good massage chairs also have many sensors that can make sure that the massage is custom fitted just for your body.

The other reason of having one is because it’s actually a lot cheaper! Think about it. Three thousand hours of massage therapy the chair can give you in just one purchase. Compare it to a massage that runs $65 per hour plus tip from a therapist.

Without a doubt you are aware of the importance of reviews. When you go over to Amazon to look for a book, as an example, what is the first thing you do? You take a look at the book reviews.

It’s human nature to turn to other consumers for assistance in making decisions to purchase things. In the case of Amazon.com, that group of people is various book enthusiasts. With massage and bodywork services, that community of people is other massage therapy consumers.

Web visitors don’t believe a business will deliver objective guidance on their website. They are skeptical and rightly so. So they seek feedback from customers for the truth. They recognize that individuals who have used the business services before will happily share their frank feelings about a business they’ve used and will truly give them the good, bad and ugly.

There are a ton of review sites. And a ton is a lot.

Right now I want to focus your attention on a specific sort of review website: The ‘map site’. The ones that we look at this week are the three big ones and the ones that we should pay attention to. StatsCan, the government branch responsible for census data in Canada, recently reported (2009) that 52% of Canadians engage in online window shopping. I’m sure that consumers in other places in the world act in a similar way.

It’s the job of search engines to deliver relevant results to searchers. So they put a large emphasis on local businesses because that’s what people most often search for. Google a local service right now. You’ll notice that the local business listings are an integrated part of their mapping systems. Yahoo and Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) do exactly the same kind of thing.

You can plainly see that these listings are given special prominence on the search results page. This is big! Getting listed in Google’s local results is surprisingly easy. For the most part it’s a matter of filling out your listing fully and soliciting a few reviews.

You might be surprised to find out that you may be showing up at the top now without realizing it.

Your company name appears and is hyperlinked to your website. You can see that the phone number is likely displayed beside your website URL. And what’s really important is the links to reviews for that business. Before even looking at your site, people want to know what others have to say about your business, so they click to read reviews.

Check it out in Google. Type ‘massage [your city]‘ or ‘[any type of service] [your city]‘ and take a look at the results. When you click a review link you will see a Google Places listing. This listing contains information that Google has found on that business from phone directories and other sites like review sites. If you look through the Google Places listing a little you’ll see customer reviews.

If you claim the listing as belonging to you, you can edit it, correct any mistakes and beef up the information to get prospective patients to make the decision to book an appointment.