Bobbi Dempsey

Acupressure is mostly a matter of working with meridians, or energy centers of the body — and the human body has a number of meridians to work with. Those meridians are echoed in the feet, and a foot reflexology map is quite useful in energy work.

Acupressure and reflexology can have many positive effects on your life — physically, emotionally, and mentally. Here are some of the major benefits you can enjoy by taking part in bodywork sessions. You're more relaxed Acupressure and reflexology both encourage deep tranquility and relaxation by restoring the optimal flow of energy throughout your body, helping your body release the negative energy brought on by stress.

The healing arts of acupressure and reflexology are often misunderstood or incorrectly represented. Here are a few common fallacies surrounding these practices. Acupressure involves needles Different from acupuncture, acupressure involves no thin needles or sharp instruments at all (in fact, no instruments of any kind).

When giving an acupressure or reflexology session to another person, you may expect to immediately be able to feel energy. In time, most people can feel the qi, or vital force, moving through the receiver's meridians or collecting in the receiver's acupoints, but you need practice and patience. Take heart: Giving a session can open your awareness to your own energy flow, causing interesting sensations!

Many healing arts, including acupressure and reflexology, are based on the beliefs of Chinese energy medicine — which people first practiced more than 5,000 years ago. The ancient Chinese believed that spiritual imbalances caused many illnesses and physical ailments. In order to effectively address the pain, you needed to resolve your spiritual imbalance and get your energies and life force in a balanced state.

The human body channels energy (chi) along meridians, or pathways. These meridians have both yin and yang components, based on the direction of the energy flow on the body. The following table identifies the meridians, their complements, and abbreviations: Yin Partner Abbreviation Yang Partner Abbreviation Lu

Your feet are full of acupressure and reflexology points. The following illustration shows each foot and its reflexology sites. Note that the feet are not mirror images of each other when it comes to reflexology, although they share many characteristics.