Reflexology with Wendy Guilfoyle

Wendy qualified as a Reflexologist in March 1994, so she’s a dab hand at it and has been a practitioner for 21 years. Now, if you’re like me, your feet might not be your most attractive feature. In fact, when I broached the subject of feeling slightly embarrassed to bare this most unbecoming body part, her reply really tickled me, “It’s not as though they fray at the ends.”

Don’t be afraid to bare your feet

“Hmm,” I thought, “She hasn’t seen mine.” However, my fears were unfounded and Wendy didn’t run screaming from her treatment room. As long as you show up with clean feet, all will be well.

This much neglected body part deserves more love

That’s one of the lovely things about reflexology. We often ignore and neglect our feet, when they actually deserve to be pampered. After all, they’ve been getting us from A to B for our entire lives!

So, does it tickle? Not at all!

Now, Wendy is a lovely lady who has a very calming aura which seems to put everyone at ease as soon as they meet her. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and wondered whether my feet would get a good pummelling! However, Wendy practices Gentle Touch Reflexology – which is just as relaxing as it sounds and doesn’t tickle at all.

Relax in a comfy chair next to an open fire – pure bliss

Wendy practices her Reflexology (along with other modalities such as the allergy work which she’s been carrying out for 20 years), in her cosy treatment room. She prepared a roaring open fire and got to work on my feet with a lovely scented oil. Meanwhile, I reclined in her extremely comfortable therapy chair.

Now, as far as I know, the theory goes that certain areas of your feet are linked to other parts of the body. When she manipulated a certain part, I felt a pressure in my chest and had to ask her what part she was working on. It happened to be one of my lungs. As an ex-smoker, was this more than a coincidence perhaps? After she had finished working on my feet, she wrapped them in warm towels and left me to relax by the open fire for 20 minutes.

Total relaxation that lasted well into the following day

So, how did I feel afterwards? Well, I felt great and that lasted well into the next day. So, I’d recommend Reflexology to anyone who needs a little extra help unwinding – they’ll also have the pleasure of Wendy’s company!

You’ll love Wendy’s practical no nonsense approach to alternative healing

In fact, something that really impresses me about Wendy is her approach to alternative therapies. Her background is actually in science, and one honestly gets the impression that she wouldn’t bother practising any therapy which didn’t have some sort of logical basis in science. The whole alternative health scene can seem a bit “woo” to some people, but Wendy does away with that in her own quiet but matter of fact way. 

January is often the time when resolutions are made: - less sugar, fewer carbs, no alcohol, (just for January!)  more exercise, start that art class…

Yet even just in the making, you may hear a quiet whisper. “You said this last January: your gym membership ran out and you’d only been twice; you want to do that - at your age?” It scuppers your resolve immediately.

This is your “Saboteur”.

You may have met him in other circumstances. Someone has just paid you a compliment – “ What a beautiful dress! You look lovely.” How do you reply? “Thank you. I love it” or do you mutter something about “This old thing? I’ve had it years”? Part of you doesn’t believe you can look lovely. There can be a deep, almost hidden, sense of unworthiness. “ I can’t possibly look that nice”. This is the Saboteur.

We seem unable to accept that we can be happy/successful/talented but envy those who are.

Panache Desai writes about the Saboteur in a most interesting book – “Discovering your Soul Signature”. Fear, sadness, guilt, shame, self-judgment, patterns of behaviour and thinking can prevent us achieving our true purpose, our full development. So can self-sabotage.

 Much is written about developing your business, increasing profit, marketing, how we should look, where and what to shop for. What about you? Were you born into this wonderful world with intelligence, perception, feelings and sensibilities just to work and shop?

I think we are here to evolve. To own and heal grief, despair, guilt, fear, hatred and doubt. If we don’t, they control us, preventing us from becoming the full, joyous wondrous Beings that we really are.

Why is the Saboteur there? He is there to test our resolve. He is asking, “ Are you sure? Do you have the determination? Do you believe in yourself? Do you love yourself”. How can you catch the Saboteur at his game?

Various forms of therapy can help, but in the end it comes down to awareness, and courage. Notice these diminishing thoughts; choose to love yourself enough to be courageous in the face of them to say, ”No, I don’t believe you” and make a different choice. Stop. Breathe deeply and slowly. Come down into your heart.

“I am good enough. I can and will do this. I choose to be happy. I choose to be successful, slim, healthy”.

Good luck! You deserve it.

My Theory Of Relativity

I saw a facebook post today from a friend in the boxing community. He had achieved 2 efforts at the abdominal plank, each lasting 90 seconds. You might know the exercise, if you don't, you perform the plank lying on your front, propped up on your elbows and feet. The challenge is to keep the core muscles engaged, stop the pelvis dropping to the floor - keeping the head, shoulders, pelvis, knees and ankles in line.


It's great that he posted about his success, I love seeing posts like this.
The problem is the second half of his post. He followed his achievement with,

"But I know that's nothing compared to everyone else."

My comment to him was simple, "Who cares about everyone else!"

Really, who cares?

If you can't do the plank. And then you get to 30 seconds, and then 60 and then 90 - to me that's awesome and you should be very proud.

If someone else does 80kg on bench press and then does 90kg and then 100kg that's just as great. Should you immediately be going to check your progress against the Bench Press World Record? Of course you shouldn't, it has no relevance to your personal achievement. Everything is individual. Everything is relative.

I've been a dedicated strength athlete for 7 months and I've made good progress. If I was to take a novice training with me, they might feel out of their depth and think I was doing well. If I went to train with one of athletes at the World Weightlifting Championships which took place recently, I would suddenly be the novice and I would be well out of my depth.

Does either comparison make me more or less of an athlete? No. If I train with someone less experienced I would still have to lift my weight and they would have to lift theirs. Likewise with the Championship athlete.

So success is relative and all that really matters is how we progress in relation to where we are and where we were. Of course, if we are competitive athletes then we have to be aware of the level our rivals are performing at but, in preparation, we can only control what we ourselves do and that is who we have to compete against ultimately.

Too many people are put off by what other people are doing.

The fitness industry unfortunately can have a guise of perfection and elitism. It isn't always the case and isn't always intended but it is too often the way the fitness industry comes across and it scares a lot of people away.

They think fitness is too hard when it is only improvement that we are after. And that means different things to different people.

Some of us love to go to the gym and work until we can't move, whilst for some just going in the door is a terrifying ordeal.

I get upset when I hear people say -

"I'm not fit enough to go to the gym."

"I need to lose weight before I join that class."

Fitness is individual.

If you want to improve your health and fitness, get started. Head high, believe in yourself and go for it.

It doesn't matter what anyone else is doing, they're concerned with what they are doing. Trust yourself, track your progress and go for it.

Get 1% better every time you enter the training environment and build consistency, and a love for what you do.

Good luck.

Chris Adams

[email protected]

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REFLEXOLOGY IN THE FOREST OF DEAN

I think it’s true that most people are very sceptical about reflexology. Although there is a small body of research confirming its benefits, one still has to be cautious when making claims about these. However, there are two things, at least, that we can be sure about.

Firstly, it has been demonstrated that reflexology encourages the release of endorphins. The word is derived from ‘endogenous’ and ‘morphine’ and is intended to mean a ‘morphine like substance originating from within the body. The function of endorphins is to inhibit the transmission of pain signals and, additionally, they can produce a feeling of euphoria. Hence, reflexology can help relieve pain and produce a ‘feel good’ factor.

Secondly, researchers have noted that the brainwaves of people undergoing a reflexology session tend to switch to alpha rhythm mode. This brain pattern is associated with suppression of depressive thoughts and chronic pain signals. Again, one can see the connection reflexology has to controlling pain and feeling better in oneself.

I could add numerous additional benefits derived from my own observations with clients. Improved circulation, enhanced immune system, relaxation, relief of stress, release from grief and trauma to name but a few but cynics are not usually impressed. I tell them that reflexology is a holistic treatment that helps the body to heal itself but they smile and think it’s a load of quackery or just not for them.

Therefore, let me approach the subject from a different angle and talk purely about the treatment of the feet. Not only do we stand around on our feet but take perhaps 10,000 steps per day and take it for granted that our feet will carry our often overweight bodies around for a lifetime. We don’t help when we wear ill fitting shoes or those designed for fashion rather than comfort. We suffer a host of complaints from bunions to plantar fasciitis and rarely do anything about it until the condition is chronic. In truth, we don’t give our feet the attention they deserve.

If one looks at the structure of the foot, there are 20 muscles as well as ligaments and tendons along with 26 bones (28 if you include the sesamoid bones at the base of the big toe) and their associated joints. There are blood vessels, lymph vessels and over 7000 nerve endings not to mention the skin. That’s quite a lot to look after!

So what has that to do with reflexology? Well, in my experience an extensive foot massage which forms a part of my reflexology treatments can bring great benefits. I have helped athletes and those with a variety sore and aching foot complaints. It seems to me that even if you are dubious about the general health benefits bestowed by reflexology, the purely physical benefits to the foot structure are themselves invaluable so my message is that if you don’t want to be associated with the term ‘reflexology’, just come for a foot massage. In view of what they do for you, surely it’s time to ‘give your feet a treat’.