How to Give a Foot Massage – What Are The Benefits

Learn how to give a foot massage is easy and gratifying.  If you are asking what the benefits of a foot massage are, well, there are loads. The most important is the relaxation throughout your body and mind that a good foot massage produces, which in return, makes you feel better, happier and energized.

Foot massage also improves circulation, mood, body pains, headaches, neck pain and even backaches.

In this post, you will learn why foot massage is good for you, the pressure points and what they mean when related to the whole body. You will also learn the foot reflexology meaning and what is reflexology for. Also, I am going to explain about Calatonia, a subtle touche foot therapy which is is one of the psychotherapeutic techniques used to reduce anxiety and depression. Calatonia is not well known and differs from a traditional foot massage therapy as it uses very gently touches with amazing benefits.

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There are several ways to do a foot massage. You can do it yourself, through a practitioner or using special equipment as the Shiatsu Foot Massage machine, one of the best foot massager that does the job for you. See also other products at the end of this post.

Shiatsu Foot Massage Machine from Amazon

Learn how to do a Foot Massage – Foot Therapy

Some basic techniques of foot massage are described below. Let’s first understand the reasons for and benefits of foot massage therapy.

Pressure Points on feet and what they mean

The picture above shows areas of the feet and their relation with our body. This is a holistic approach; however, it is well known in oriental cultures. Many people are using it and benefiting from foot massage. It is, of course, not a treatment that substitutes your doctor’s recommendation or a necessary medical intervention; however, it could complement and be very helpful in several situations.

Energy Flow – Body Meridian Lines

Oriental therapies are based on the body’s meridian lines. The meridian lines are like an energy network of the body that transport and let the energy flows. Foot Massage stimulates specific points of the feet that represent the brain structures corresponding to the various organs of the body. Some are saying that science is now recognizing the Meridians; however, others still sceptical.

The Oriental Culture explains that the Chi or Qi (our life energy- the yin and yang forces) moves through our body via these “channel system”, called meridians. If there are any obstructions in these channels, it would be a cause of wellbeing problems or diseases. Some reasons that could obstruct the energy flow could be the use of drugs, trauma or bad diet.  These channels are not like the human circulatory system, and it is very delicate. Understanding the meridian system is very interesting and can review the secrets of maintaining our own energy flow. This consequently, unblocks energy meridians and make us feel pleasant and relaxed.

Yin and Yang Meaning

There are several examples in life that can represent Yin and Yang. The basic concept is that they are the opposites that form a whole.

Looking at the sky, it is an excellent example to understand, which is Yin and Yang. Yin is the nigh (dark, female, cold) and yang is the day (light, male, warm). Yin and yang are not stagnant, as the changes in the sky. Night becomes day gradually, and vice versa. So, they cannot exist without the other. Another example is the change of the seasons.

The unbalance can be caused by the deficit or surplus of Yin and Yang. Concerning the body, the yang corresponds to the upper part and yin to the lower part, and they meet at the centre of the body in a constant flow.

The Oriental culture regarding health is to balance and maintain the harmony between Yin and Yang in the body. Therefore the points where the Yin and Yang meridians lines meet are the points used in acupuncture, reflexology and other holistic therapies.

To learn more about the “Chi Definition” read my other post here.

Reflexology – Pressure Points Foot Massage

What is reflexology massage? Reflexology, like other foot therapies, uses pressure on specific points of the feet that correspond to regions and organs of the human body. When massaging particular aspects of the foot, if there is any discomfort, it is a sign that the related body parts may have an imbalance.

According to the Oriental Culture, as explained above, we have 12 main meridians, six are yang and six are yin. 6 Yin goes down the body, and 6 Yang goes up the body. Three of them pass through the body and end at the edges of our arms and legs so when the foot is stimulated via massage with pressure or subtle touches it unblocks the meridians and let the body energy flow. That is the reason why foot massages benefit our physical and mental health.

It is well recommended for further learning and reference to get the book: Reflexology and Meridian Therapy – Moving the Energy-by Lilian Tibshraeny-Mortenls  – This book is straightforward to understand and full of pictures, colour graphics, charts and illustrations. As one of the best reference guides, it is considered a masterpiece for those of us interested in reflexology.

Customers from the UK: Click Here

Reflexology Treatment – Pamper Yourself

Once you learn the basics, you could practice self reflexology and give a foot massage to yourself or a loved one in the comfort of your home. Experiment a foot massage while taking a relaxing bath is an excellent way to start.

Are there any advantages or limitations of foot Massage?

Well, whatever people believe or not, the evidence shows that it works. Of course, it is recommended that you not to use deep pressure in a foot that has injuries as it can make things worse, but anyone can welcome a kind and gentle massage, right? Just use common sense, and if a doctor advised not doing/receiving foot massage for any reason, please follow your doctor’s recommendations.

It is also essential that if you choose a practitioner that they are qualified. If you want to learn more, it would be wise buying a book that teaches the sequences, the correct movements and pressure points. This is an excellent way to learn the techniques from experienced practitioners.

Catalonia – Subtle touches foot massage

A vital territory for Chinese medicine, worthy of ornamentation by the Indian people and the object of fetishists’ desire, the feet are a region primarily despised by the West, which ignores the magical powers emanating through their contact with the body and mind.

More than being the member that puts us in contact with the ground, the feet are of the great balance of the human body. Techniques of Chinese medicine and, more recently, of psychotherapy, has the foot as the basis for the treatment of physical and psychological illnesses.

Balancing the Energy

In the oriental culture, body harmony and balance is represented by having a “cold mind and warm feet”. The imbalance would be the opposite: “cold feet and the warm mind”. This summarizes the value of feet on physical and mental wellbeing. One of the most widespread therapies of foot treatment is reflexology, which comes from Tuina, the ancient Chinese technique. The principle is that all organs and structures of the human body are reflected in the feet. Therefore, the body can be treated by stimulating specific points on the soles, sides and back of the feet.

Practices, however, may make a diagnosis as if there are sore spots; this indicates that the organ is sick. A Tuina session lasts about one hour, of which 40 minutes are concentrated in the feet. Another technique that has been gaining weight, although not exactly new, is Calatonia. Widely used in psychotherapy as a way of stimulating the opening of the unconscious, the method provides relaxation through prolonged subtle touches of the toes.

The Hungarian doctor Petho Sandor (1916-1992), who settled in Brazil country after World War II, has developed Calatonia. Sandor worked at the Red Cross and in the care of people with amputated lower limbs.  He realized that there was still energy at the place where the limb had been taken. “Calatonia sees foot as a mobilizing source of body energy. Touch, therefore, acts in the energy field of the individual”.

Foot Therapy – A Deep Relaxation

Catalonia is a form of foot therapy that provides deep relaxation that leads to tone regulation by rebalancing physical and mental energy. This type of foot therapy is performed with subtle touches on the feet instead of massage.

The touches are done very lightly in a repetitive and symmetrical touch. The intensity of the contact in Calatonia should be like “the flutter of a butterfly’s wings” or “as if we were trying to touch a soap bubble” (Sandor). Therefore in this type of foot therapy, it is crucial to understand the difference in how to give a foot massage using different techniques. With Calatonia, there is no pressure on using your hands. So, it would be mighty helpful for sensible feet.

Catalonia has been suggested to help in cases of gastric ulcer, glandular disorders, arthritis, asthma, migraine, obesity, allergy, insomnia, panic disorder, impotence, stress, trauma, pre and postoperative periods, climacteric, menopause and others.

It is well known that tensions trigger and aggravate the various processes of illness, leading to stress, and this is the physical disease, so it would be ideal for treating the problem from the beginning.

5 Foot Massage Benefits 

As soon as you start, you will discover what the benefits of foot massage are. So some of them are:

• Improve nerve function
• Improve bloody circulation
• Pain Relief
• More Positive Mental Health
• Relieve Stress

If you are giving a foot massage, it could increase your connection with your loved one. When you relax, you are more centred. This would help your mind to relax, and you can put aside problems and worries that you are not able to deal straight away. Some things in life need time to resolve itself or depend on others, so worry is not something useful.

Foot Therapy Massage

With time and practice, you can become an expert, and everyone would love to receive a massage from you. You can also teach your loved one on how to give a foot massage so you can receive as well!

Offering to do a foot massage might show that you care and you want them to feel loved and relaxed. After a hard day at work, why not together create that particular moment and care for each other? You might want to discover and choose together, the fantastic sense of oils and fragrances to add to your ritual.

How to Give a Foot Massage

A foot massage can be just as simple as rubbing your foot gently with circular movements. Ask your partner as you go along what they prefer. Using the good feeling, you both are experimenting with developing your own method. You can use self foot massage techniques and learn how to massage your own feet better than anyone else. Afterwards, who knows your more than yourself?

One of my favourites technique is Toe Bend. It is also a secret way to tackle insomnia, and I recommend a try if you wake up during the night and cannot get back into sleep.  It is effortless:

• When doing yourself, lay in bed and start bending your toes (you don’t need to use your hands) back and forth at the same time and don’t stop. When you realize you are waking the next day. It is incredible and works for me.
• When you are doing a massage to someone, hold the heel with your hand and move their toes back and forth.

• Use your hands and gently make circular moves using the pressure points

• massage the top of the foot with circular movements

How to do a foot massage

Now, using the Pressure Points Chart above see if you can relate the picture below to the part of the body that can benefit from a foot massage:

Study the chart and the points that are more important to you and your loved one and gently start to make circular movements at each location. In the picture example above the foot massage is stimulating the kidney.

• The picture below shows how to do foot massage in the inside part of the foot. Massage the foot with circular movements from bottom to toes and vice versa. Doing this foot therapy exercises, you will be touching pressure points related to the spleen and kidney meridians.

How to do a foot massage

You can use oils to make them more enjoyable.

Well, know, Argan oil is excellent for hair and skin so you might want to add to your massage. You can also choose other fragrances that you or your loved one likes and off course, you are not allergic.

Best foot massager – Products to Complement your Massage Ritual

There are amazing products out there that do the massage for you! Have you thought on how to give foot massage without even using your hands? To create or improve the connection through a foot massage can be done by introducing something different.

Foot massage products are useful, and some are not expensive. Also, if you have pain in your hands or no one to gives you a message, it does not impede you to pamper yourself!

If you have some time available, why not book that Spa break that you always wanted? If you are in London, check out this place.

You can also search at Amazon for other products using the affiliate link below: