"[N]ervousness, stress, fear, anxiety, caution, boredom, restlessness, happiness, joy, hurt, shyness, coyness, humility, awkwardness, confidence, subservience, depression, lethargy, playfulness, sensuality, and anger can all manifest through the feet and legs.”
Stress and anxiety can lead to all kinds of uncomfortable symptoms, including foot pain. If you can't identify obvious signs and symptoms for your foot pain, it may be time to explore how stress and anxiety can be attributing to them.
While it may be surprising, stress can actually contribute to foot and ankle pain. The human body releases hormones, such as cortisol, when stressed to trigger a “fight or flight” response. This can have a variety of effects on the body which will certainly impact your feet and ankles.
Emotional information is stored through “packages” in our organs, tissues, skin, and muscles. These “packages” allow the emotional information to stay in our body parts until we can “release” it. Negative emotions in particular have a long-lasting effect on the body.
Reflexology may be beneficial in restoring balance and harmony in the body and releasing tension. Practitioners believe that it helps facilitate a deep state of relaxation, calm the emotions, and produce a serene mind. Research studies support many of these benefits.
Some may have a fight-or-flight type of response, which may include muscle tension, heart pounding and sweating because their body "believes it needs to activate," she explains. Others maybe experience a freeze response, which can look like someone who struggles to move or get out of bed.
Reflexology is great for people who suffer from PTSD because of its ability to take care of the body and the soul - those two important parts injured by the trauma. The Reflexologist can ease the pain with a gentle touch and can release the nervous system from that stress.
Exercise helps your body burn off adrenaline, release endorphins, calm your nervous system, and relieve stress. While any physical movement can help get your energy moving, some forms of exercise are especially helpful for trauma.
During the purification process, you'll face and address uncomfortable feelings you've stuffed away to avoid dealing with them. An emotional detox pulls up all the repressed feelings of fear, anger, hurt, sadness, and frustration to clear them away, effectively hitting the reset switch on your emotions.
"[N]ervousness, stress, fear, anxiety, caution, boredom, restlessness, happiness, joy, hurt, shyness, coyness, humility, awkwardness, confidence, subservience, depression, lethargy, playfulness, sensuality, and anger can all manifest through the feet and legs.”
Other Causes of Tingling Feet From Anxiety
One common explanation is over-sensitivity. Those with anxiety are often prone to noticing small changes in the way they feel, especially when compared to someone without anxiety. Your feet may tingle and feel lighter all the time.
Foot pain may be telling you to lose weight, signal the onset of arthritis or result from a stress fracture. The more weight that we carry, the more pressure we put on our feet, which can cause pain. Arthritic conditions can also make your feet susceptible to pain.
Ever since people's responses to overwhelming experiences have been systematically explored, researchers have noted that a trauma is stored in somatic memory and expressed as changes in the biological stress response.
The most common areas we tend to hold stress are in the neck, shoulders, hips, hands and feet. Planning one of your stretch sessions around these areas can help calm your mind and calm your body. When we experience stressful situations whether in a moment or over time, we tend to feel tension in the neck.
Buttocks = Anger and Rage
Anger and suppressed rage are often stored in the buttocks.
the inhibition of thought, speech, or other responses due to extreme emotion, often associated with extreme fear.
Reflexology will often hurt when the congested reflex areas are treated and in no way resembles a foot massage. As the condition improves with several reflexology sessions, so will the soreness on the corresponding reflexes.
Patients with foot fractures, unhealed wounds, or active gout in the foot should avoid reflexology. Patients with osteoarthritis that impacts the foot or ankle, or those with vascular disease of the legs or feet, should consult with their primary provider prior to beginning reflexology on the feet.
Reflexology Aftercare Advice
Try to rest for the rest of the day as this will help the treatment work to its full potential and will allow your body to begin the balancing/healing process. Avoid tea, coffee and alcohol as these are stimulants and will reduce the effectiveness of the treatment.