by Master Helen Whysong, a graduate of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts' MT 500 Therapeutic Massage Practitioner program.
Everyone has had at least one in their life, and sometimes as often as once a day. What I would like to do is to help you get rid of this problem with reflexology in a few minutes.
If anyone is unfamiliar with reflexology, an easy way to explain it is your body is mirrored on the hands, feet, ears and body points. This is to say there is a pressure point for every single part of the body located in the hands, feet, ears and body parts. When you add pressure to a certain spot, similar to a gentle massage, it stimulates that point and the pain goes away.
Frequent headaches can be caused by a vast variety of things! It is important to understand what is triggering your headaches. Pain is a warning sign that something is wrong. With reflexology we look for the pain area on the feet, hands etc. Pain in these referral areas is our road map to where there is blocked energy that could produce pain somewhere else in the body, like your headache. If you take Advil or aspirin and make the pain goaway, you are masking why the pain began in the first place. The root cause is found by following the pain map of reflexology. This is done with zone therapy, pain location, anatomy knowledge, or just plain working where it hurts.
Ther are many reasons, types and causes why a headache may be present: Cluster Headache, Stress, Sinus, Allergies are a few examples.
Cluster Headaches are what my husband, Gary used to get. Theses are the worst type, they can go on for days, you have nausea with the pain, and your whole body hurts. You cannot take noise of any kind. The pain is so terrible; they call it a suicide headache.
When Gary would get his headache his great toe, would swell up about one fourth the size. His physical neck would also swell up, located mostly around the center where the skull meets the vertebrae. If we would catch it in time he would allow me to work on the great toe, or thumb area and it really helped. The swelling would go down in both places; the pain would be less, and not as long standing. Sometimes you would think you were breaking the toe, it would pop, and grind, and hurt but the final results was worth it. Instead of days of pain, he would just have a headache. Come to think of it, he hasn't had one for years now.
Stress and Tension Headaches: When tension strikes so can a headache. Notice what you are doing when you get the headache. I used to get a headache the same time each might. Than I noticed what I was doing at that time of night. It was bedtime for the children and preparation for baths, etc. I changed the time for the bath schedule, and the headaches went away. Is the headache due to muscle strain around your shouldrs and neck? These type headaches can be brought about spontaneously, or because of stress at work, sitting at a computer, poor sleeping habits and etc. Some of the muscles around the neck are kidney related. Kidney emotion is anxiety. Other muscle around the the neck is stomach related. Stomach emotion is worry.
Allergy & Sinus Headaches are very common. The core area, the stomach, could create sinus headaches. The stomach emotion is worry, so ask yourself are you worrying too much? Tap the area under each eye, on the cheekbone. Tap this area with your pointer or index finger for a count of 15 - 20 taps. Work also the stomach reflex on the feet located under the great toe pad, along the middle of the foot, again look for sore spots, this will alert you to the area that needs worked. This area could extend laterally across the foot to even the middle of the whole foot.
Allergies affect the Ileocecal valve and appendix area in the colon.This area is located only on the right side of the body. The reflex points are along the little finger side of your hand. Located above the padding of the wrist, on the hand, about halfway from the end of the baby finger pad to the padding of the heel of your hand. Search for a sore area here and work it out. A normal reaction to working this area is mucus in your first bowel movement.
Most headaches can be treated on the first joints of each finger, plus along the sides of the fingers. Working the sides, and bottoms of fingers help to relax the tight neck and shoulder muscles that could be creaing the headache. By releasing these muscles, you are allowing the body circulation to freely move up into the head and back into the body with ease. Thus, releasing head pain due to too much blood flow.
The thumb is easy to get to and works well for headaches. Do a little range of motion with the thumb, what side is the range less? It is usually on the inside of the thumb, around the joint. Search for a tender area, this is usually quite sore. You don't need any special tools, use your fingers and just work it out.
Warning: I have given you a lot of safe areas to work for headaches using reflexology. Most people talk about the reflex point located in the fleshy part of your hand between the forefinger and thumb for a headache. This area is not to be worked when someone is pregnant.
Master Helen Whysong is the director and founder of Arizona Institute of Reflexology & Clinic, visit: www.arizonainstituteofreflexology.com; 480-820-3880.
