Reflexology for relaxation

It’s World Reflexology Week on the 20^th – 26^th September, and to celebrate, we’re bringing you a series of reflexology practices you can do from the comfort of home to de-stress, re-energise and reconnect with yourself.

These gentle mindfulness practices may help to promote a sense of calm and relaxation, whilst bringing positive energy into your life.

Feel energised

If you’re looking for a way to feel more energised, you might want to try stimulating the lymphatic system through reflexology. If you don’t already know, the lymphatic system can help to carry both vital nutrients and waste products that our cells no longer need. Working the lymphatic system can come with an abundance of wellbeing benefits, including helping you to feel more energised.

Try this for an afternoon pick-me-up: Choose a hand you’d like to practice on. In the webbing between your fingers, use your forefinger and thumb of your other hand and move them upwards in a quick, pinching motion. Work in between each finger or thumb a minimum of three times, before moving to the left hand.

Open your heart

By working the heart reflex, it may help to encourage you to be more open to gratitude, by appreciating what you have around you, even the simple things – and by letting gratitude into your life, you might start to notice more and more things to be grateful for.

Practice this to feel gratitude: On your left hand, gently massage the heart reflex with your right thumb in a clockwise direction for approximately two minutes, as often as your intuition tells you. Start to slow down your breath, inhaling through your nose for five seconds and exhaling through your mouth for five seconds. Visualise that you’re breathing in gratitude and expelling out everything that no longer serves you.

Find your inner strength

If you have something important on at work, or maybe there’s an issue you need to communicate with a loved one, then you might need to summon a little encouragement. We tend to store our emotions in the solar plexus, and therapists use this in reflexology to encourage deep breathing and promote feelings of inner strength.

How to feel empowered: To find the solar plexus, run your thumb down your palm in a straight line, starting from the joint at the base of your middle finger and stopping just below the bottom crease that runs across your palm. Apply gentle pressure to the reflex for two minutes, before practicing on the other hand.