If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be writing about an “obscure” little point like the Eustachian tube reflex, I might have laughed out loud.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always known how powerful all the points around the bases of the toes are.
So important, in fact, that I’ve designed a new technique, or at least one that I was never taught or had never seen done before, just to detail this incredible reflex area.
You know where I’m talking about… at the base of and in between those little toes. Who but a reflexologist would even go there. It’s where sock bunnies live and other squishy things that we sometimes just have to avoid.
But deep in those crevices, around and between the toes, are some of the most populated reflexes known to humankind.
I suppose I’m more sensitive to their effects because this area contains the reflexes to the parts of my body that give me the most grief: the neck, the sinuses, the lymph, the trapizeus muscles, the eyes and ears and… the Eustachian tubes.
What a list, and at any given time, on any given person there will be cause to work there, to detail this reflex or that, for the sheer relief that our reflexology techniques can bring through relaxing the body and connecting to all its systems and parts.
I could spend a good amount of time on any one of the reflexes mentioned above, but I want to focus on just one… the Eustachian tube reflexes.
What are the Eustachian tubes anyway? When was your last conversation about them? Can you even spell the name without looking?
Most reflexologists know that the Eustachian tube is the fine tube that connects the middle ear to the outer world.
One function of the Eustachian tube is to drain excess fluid down, and eventually, into the throat. Other functions allow ventilation and the equalization of the middle ear and atmospheric pressure.
Think colds, sinus build-up and congestion – plenty of not so wonderful things that can benefit from the draining effects of a wonderful little tube.
Now, this tube is small, it’s thin and delicate – and that’s just in adults.
Babies have tiny little parts and the Eustachian tube is one of them. If anything gets clogged or congested in the body, it can cause discomfort and worse.
I want to remind you that reflexology is never a substitute for medical attention, so if you or anyone else has inflammation or infection, you must seek medical attention.
I’ve long taught the joys of holding the Eustachian tube reflexes, either steadily or with a playful alternating stroke, to calm and sooth fussy babies.
And, everyone who has tried it, and has reported back to me, describes an experience that has had some measure or a calming or soothing effect, especially on babies.
For some it has “worked like magic” to quote one or two very relieved parents.
Mothers are such naturals… healers and all. When they play this “little piggy went to market”, they are, in reflexology terms, stimulating the CNS reflexes – the brain.
And when they tweak between the toes they’re detailing the neck, shoulder, lymph, sinus, eye, ear… and Eustachian tube reflexes.
How do you find the Eustachian tube reflexes.
Think of Spock… Mr. Spock.
He’s the Vulcan guy with the big ears on Star Trek. He gave a special signal that opened to the Eustachian tube reflex of the hand.
That’s it, in the web of the hand or foot, between the third and fourth digits.
“Go forth and prosper”, I think he said.
I say, hold on and reflex.
Try it and let me know.