I’m delighted to have a fabulous article From the Feet Up in the Bury and West Suffolk Magazine. Have a read in Health and Wellness of the Jubilee edition, June 2022.

As the colder months creep in, you may find yourself dealing with some familiar emotions. Feeling down during a particularly dreary day can be completely normal, but when your low energy and depression are a constant problem, you may be dealing with something more serious. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) has become a recognized health issue in the last few years, but how can you tell if that’s what’s getting you down? Here are some basics you need to know about SAD and how to start feeling like yourself again. 

Add More Self-Care in Fall and Winter 

The effects of seasonal affective disorder can leave you with less motivation and energy. To get some of your happiness back, however, you may have to make more of an effort to fit self-care into your life. Self-care is not a luxury; rather, it’s a necessary preventative measure you need to take to protect your physical and mental health. This is especially true if you are recovering from addiction or have a difficult time dealing with stress and anxiety. So, devote more time to the basic activities that help you feel your best. Stick to your fitness plans through the winter by picking up some home gym equipment, or find healthy comfort foods to get you through the colder months. Even if it’s something as simple as getting a haircut, you need to make time to truly focus on yourself. Regular stress relief and self-care should be the foundation of any seasonal affective disorder care plan — or any effort to improve your mental health. 

Talk to Your Doctor About Treatment Options 

One of the most important moves you can make in treating seasonal affective disorder is to get diagnosed. Different from depression, SAD is still considered a variant of major depressive disorder that tends to show up around the same time each year. Although this condition is referred to as the “winter blues,” symptoms can also surface in the summer, and not everyone diagnosed with SAD will experience the same effects.

Having an official diagnosis is important because it is easy for individuals to mistake other mental health conditions for seasonal affective disorder and miss out on crucial treatment options. Research is increasingly showing that certain bipolar disorders can have seasonal symptoms as well, but the care prescribed for bipolar disorder is much different than the care for SAD. If you are feeling especially down and are having any thoughts of suicide or self-harm, it’s important to seek medical help immediately. Feeling disconnected from friends, losing interest in your favorite activities, or experiencing feelings of hopelessness are signs that something more serious is going on and you should reach out for help. 

Find Tools That Will Make Winter Easier 

If SAD is indeed the source of your winter depression, the good news is that there are a few tools that can help you feel better. Some of the most effective gadgets for relieving seasonal depression are SAD lamps. For these specialized lamps to be effective, they need to mimic outdoor light (10,000 lux), but they also need to provide protection from any UV rays that may be emitted during use. Limited natural light exposure during the winter may also account for lower levels of vitamin D. Your body needs this vitamin to keep you feeling energized, but if you can’t get it from the sun, you may need to add a vitamin D supplement to your winter care routine. It’s a simple move that can make a difference in how much SAD impacts your life. As with any supplement, ask your healthcare provider about any interactions with medications or treatments. You should also look for a vitamin D3 version for the most helpful benefits. 

When you are suffering from seasonal affective disorder, the winter months seem to drag on forever. You can make those days more bearable, however, with some extra self-care and more insight into your mental health. So, don’t let SAD leave you feeling down the entire winter. 

Photo Credit: Unsplash

Easter approaching, after we’ve eaten our Easter eggs, laughter is a great aerobic exercise burning more calories per minute than walking, apparently! 

Also, whenever we laugh we are toning 15 facial muscles so it’s a rather pleasant alternative to cosmetic surgery!

So, enhance the health and happiness reflexology gives us by hanging out with your friends and family as often as you can and laugh and laugh!  Read, watch and listen to anything funny and never stop yourself from laughing out loud.  You can even encourage yourself to laugh by breathing out on a “HA HA HA” or “HE HE HE”.  Do that with a friend and you’ll feel so daft that you’ll probably end up giggling away for real!
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I’ve just been reading about how great laughing is for us and it seems so incredibly in line with the wonderful benefits of reflexology that I had to share my findings with my lovely clients!

The physical act of laughing calms anxiety.  It relaxes muscles, hence the expression “weak with laughter”, and can lower blood pressure.  Laughter blocks stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenalin that cause wear and tear on the system (I know some of you will be relieved by that!) There are claims that laughter stimulates the immune system to produce cells that fight disease and tumours. Natural Remedies To Boost Immune System With Video By Sachin Goyal Laughter also triggers the release of endorphins which make us feel good and dull the pain sensors. I hope you’re enjoying the Spring which is definitely in the air and I look forward to seeing you very soon.  Oh, and if you hear any good jokes between now and then, be sure to bring them to your next treatment! Very best wishes, Rosanna

What are Chakras?

According to eastern metaphysical theories of Ayurvedic Indian medicine, there are seven “Chakras” or integrated energy centres that are considered to correlate with physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being.

These energy Chakras are positioned or embedded into the spinal column at various locations beginning with the coccyx, rising all the way to the crown of the head.

‘Everything is Energy’. This is a widely accepted theory in Quantum Physics and scientifically proven.

All matter is held together via energetic bonds.  The movement of energy is vital to life. When we think, breathe, function or even when we are resting, electrical energy is flowing through our bodies via our neurones and nerve pathways.

The nervous system is composed of two main parts:

The Central Nervous System (CNS) within the brain and spinal cord, and

The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS), which connects the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body, via little river-like nerve fibres. This system is apparently what correlates with the Chakras through it’s sub-parts, the Autonomic Nervous System and the Parasympathetic Nervous System.

What are Scientists Discovering?

Electrophotonic analysis in medicine is something that’s been gaining more attention from scientists world wide.  It’s part of the continual realisation that the mind, body and ‘spirit’ or energy are intrinsically linked.

Konstantin Korotkov, Professor of Computer Science and Biophysics at Saint-Petersburg Federal University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (quite a mouthful), developed a scientific device to measure the bio-energy of living organisms, as well as the environment. The device provides a painless evaluation that can highlight potential health (physiological and psycho-emotional) abnormalities, it’s called the GDV.

Each Chakra is considered to resonate at a different frequency level. With this new software, it is now possible to quantitatively estimate the energy of Chakras and graphically display their level of activation, and indicate whether this level of activation is above or below the level found from large numbers of subjects

Below are the results from a case study done by Dr. Pradeep B. Deshpande, a professor emeritus at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Louisville, which had over 100 participants in attendance.  Please keep in mind that clinical studies of more than 10,000 patient cases with various health challenges have also been well documented in Russia.

The aligned Chakras indicate that the subject was calm, relaxed and nourished from their participation in the case study, which involved information on meditation, breathing practices, love, kindness and intention. You can also observe a smoothing of the energy field before and after the case study work shop. Results like this were consistent with a number of volunteers.

“Each individual sector or portion of the fingertip is connected energetically with specific organs and organ systems such as the respiratory system. When the data of the 10 individual BIO-grams are collated and interpolated, an image of the entire full body energy field is created. An example of the full body energy field from both a healthy and unhealthy/emotionally unbalanced individual are shown above. The gaps, reduced emissions and out of balance Chakras for the unhealthy individual are quite obvious.” Dr. Pradeep B. Deshpande

In this case, a healthy and balanced emotional state is correlated with truthfulness, honesty, steadfastness, equanimity, unconditional love, compassion, gratitude, the ability to discern truth from falsehood, spontaneous affection, and the capacity to remain calm despite what’s occurring in the external world. An unhealthy and emotionally unbalanced state is correlated with attachment, ego, greed, lying, fear, anger, irritation, sorrow and more.

This evening, why not start a gratitude journal?

I’d love to be one of those people who can keep a diary, and when I say keep a diary, I don’t just mean acquiring a beautiful mole skin note book and writing in it for the first 8 days of January; I am talking about Bridget Jones, Samuel Pepys – esque diary keeping! Sadly, I’ve never been able to sustain diarising. I am frequently too tired or too i’nto a good book’ to bother jotting down the ins and outs of my day.  What I have started to do however, and what has allowed a peaceful joy to settle upon me as I doze off, is the keeping of a gratitude journal.It’s brief, quick and simple. I often just write a friend’s name or a couple of words about a lovely reflexology client or perhaps simply ‘bike ride’ or ‘Bake Off“!  It’s wonderful to cast your mind back over your day and just note down a word for each thing you were thankful for… ‘pasta, coffee, the bus arrived as I got to the bus stop’.  Recalling these simple things and committing them to paper makes me realise how lucky I am and often makes me reevaluate what I may otherwise have perceived as a difficult day.

Give it a go!

An article in the Independent reveals Reflexology may be as effective as painkillers, according to a new scientific survey.

Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have found that people felt about 40 per cent less pain, and were able to stand pain for about 45 per cent longer, when they used reflexology as a method of pain relief.

Participants attended two sessions, in which they were asked to submerge their hand in ice water.

In one of the sessions they were given reflexology before they submerged their hand, and in the other session they believed they were receiving pain relief from a Tens machine, which was not actually switched on.

The researchers found that when the participants received reflexology prior to the session they were able to keep their hand in the ice water for longer before they felt pain, and that they could also tolerate the pain for a longer period of time.

Dr Carol Samuel said: “As we predicted, reflexology decreased pain sensations.”

The research results suggest that reflexology can be used to complement conventional drug therapy in the treatment of conditions associated with pain such as osteoarthritis, backache and cancers.

Doctor Samuel states, “It is likely that reflexology works by causing the brain to release chemicals that lessen pain signals.”

Dr Ivor Ebenezer, co-author of the study, said: “We are pleased with these results. Although this is a small study, we hope it will be the basis for future research into the use of reflexology.”

Learn what else Reflexology can help to treat.
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Just, stare up at the ceiling and count down from 60. It’s that simple!

Gazing upward stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which lowers blood pressure and slows the pace of the breath. Slow, deliberate counting will also help rid your mind of distractions. This can also help you sleep.

This can also help kick start your meditation practice.

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This weekend I was lucky enough to visit both Southwold and Aldeburgh with my husband. The Suffolk coast is in my opinion one of the most beautiful parts of the UK and a place that I feel has an almost magical effect on me. I feel clear-headed whilst there. I’m calm yet buoyant. I’m excited by the prospect of challenges whilst simultaneously not having a care in the world and I know I’m not alone in feeling like this by the sea. So, is it magic??
I definitely sleep better by the sea. In fact, when I first arrive, it’s a struggle to keep my eyes open past 10pm!
Agatha Christie novels are stuffed full of characters who retreat to the coast so that they may recoup whilst “taking the sea air”. Well, I assumed that this was no more than an old-wives-tale, akin to using leaches in medieval times to cure all ills; yet, it’s undeniable that I felt calmer, happier and healthier this weekend by the sea.
So, magic? Old-wives-tale and therefore just my imagination? Or is there a scientific explanation?
I didn’t have to do much research before discovering it is the latter.
Sea air is charged with healthy negative ions that accelerate our ability to absorb oxygen. This enables us to think clearly, quickly and positively. The increase in oxygen absorption encourages us to do more exercise, which we do with greater ease making us feel healthy and elated. The increased oxygen absorption also aids our sleep.
Negative ions also balance levels of serotonin, a body chemical linked with mood and stress. The sea air literally calms us.
The great thing about being calm is that far from being an idle state, we are often at our most productive and social.
I’ve sometimes wondered whether walking our feet along a pebbly beach inadvertently stimulates some reflex points. Perhaps it’s the earth’s natural reflexology foot massage, enhanced by paddling in the cold sea water. Nature’s first reflexology treatment and a million miles from Whitechapel, Shoreditch, Fenchurch Street and Canary Wharf!
However, if you are working in Bank or Liverpool Street or frantically running around Hackney trying to get things done and the sea air is simply not an option, do not feel blue! Reflexology balances serotonin and cortisol, which demonstratively reduces stress and anxiety. I’m not sure that your reflexology treatment will necessarily increase oxygen consumption; however, we start and end your reflexology session with deep breathing which can only be a good thing! And as a reflexologist, I have a particular gift for enabling restful sleep. Many clients have said to me that the sleep following their reflexology treatment is the best they’ve had in years.
So, though the sea air seems far away from us in this fabulous city of London, perhaps Feet Pray Love Reflexology can be our Whitechapel on Sea! 😉

So, I’ve made a pact with myself that I will meditate on a daily basis for the next month and observe and enjoy the benefits meditation brings. I’m not setting myself an unachievable goal by any means; I’m only going to meditate for 6 minutes a day and build up steadily. However already I’m thinking, how do I build up? I don’t have time; I’m too busy giving reflexology treatments and thinking about all things feet. Okay, perhaps that’s not quite true; I’m also meeting up with friends and watching Bake Off!  Perhaps I need to pay heed to one of my favourite quotes, which is (as many great quotes are) from the Dalai Lama. He says:
“If you do not have time to meditate for an hour, you must meditate for two.”  Okay, okay Dalai, I get your point!