"How may I best serve? Make me an instrument of Spirit!" was my prayer and my plea! And all the sudden toes started showing up everywhere!
I began to notice all kinds of people wearing sandals or flip flops -- and for some reason I would find myself just staring at their toes. People around me were stubbing their toes and asking me what I thought it meant. At the time, I had a very active massage practice, and the clients coming to me wanted reflexology above anything else I offered. The moment I touched their feet, it was as if I could see dimensionally -- like some special power or ability had come over me, and I could see beyond the physical foot into the metaphysical.
After about the tenth session of having god-bumps appear while I was working on someone's feet, I sat back remembering my question: "How may I best serve?" On one level, I began to feel that this toe thing was somehow the answer to the prayer I had uttered with deep sincerity. With this realization, there was just a little bit of momentary disappointment too, with me thinking, "Are you kidding me? The most you’re going to trust me with are toes?"
Never question your destiny!! Once I begin to realize what I was 'on path' and surrendered into my 'assignment', amazing things began to happen.
As a trained reflexologist, I totally trusted the holograms of the foot -- and of the body for that matter! One of the things I most love about reflexology is how extremely predictable things can be found -- like emotions and pathologies . Once you understand that the great toe represents the head, the most lateral side of the foot represents the shoulder and outer body, that the soft tissue of the foot holds all of the corresponding organs, you can become quite proficient in reflecting to those you are working on exactly where they have aches and pains or malaises are.
Once I got brave enough to begin to ask simple questions about stored emotions that I perceived the clients may have had, such as anger, sadness or fear – all based on the organ points that were tender, ah-ha’s came fast and furiously! The accuracy was so surprising to the clients they would almost always say, "How could you possibly know that?" Part of me wants to say, “It’s the predictability of reflexology!”, and part of me knew that the true answer was, “I’m serving in the best way I possibly can as an instrument of Spirit!”
The magic really began to happen when I understood the ayurvedic elements of the toes: Ether, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Once I understood that each toe represented an elemental side of the person I was working on, and that the toe tissue somehow held the emotional issues of the client, the insights began to happen quickly. By using descriptive adjectives to describe what I was noticing and posing my observations in the form of inquiries to my clients, incredible connections were made.
As a devoted follower of Louise Hay, author of the classic You Can Heal Your Life, I believed that 'everything is something' and that our body was a messenger for our emotional work. Interestingly enough, Louise Hay's book doesn't cover the toe's pathologies in detail. My favorite tongue-in-cheek claim is to say, "Louise left the toes for me, or for all the Toe Readers in the world."
Although I did not fully invent Toe Reading, I can say I wrote a book on it -- based on my lifelong mission to touch lives, heal bodies, and free souls.
My contribution is twofold: One is teaching the art of Soul Coaching, or ‘sacred questioning’! Once someone is able to understanding the body's holograms and view what is being stored in cellular memory as metaphors, the spiritually encoded messages can be revealed. I believe, and teach, that if someone comes for a Toe Reading, they are ready to know! Almost always, a Toe Reading turns into a Soul Coaching session, where the practitioner presents questions that will deeply impact the client's way of looking at their past experiences and stories.
A Toe Readers 'job' is to offer hope -- which is an acronym to describe the work done during a session:
HOPE = Honoring Others Past Experiences!
The second big contribution I feel my lifework has been dedicated to is really seeing people -- and teaching others to do the same. When you sit in front of someone, especially from the humble yogic position, with your heart open to their heart, you have the opportunity to really ‘SEE’ the person sitting vulnerably before you. Once given permission to look deeply at the toe tissues, they are not secrets! All of their life issues, challenges, struggles and victories are there to see. The bumps, lumps, warts, blisters and bumps are all messengers! Each tissue wrinkle is a god-wink with an invitation to hear and hold the story of what may be yet unrecognized or un-celebrated.
March has been deemed International Toe Reading Month in honor of the work those who call themselves Toe Readers are doing. In addition, it sets the stage of a documentary being made by Ann Cabano Films entitled “#ISEEYOU”, based on the profound effect ‘sacred witnessing’ of others has on their lives and the healing process.
This month many of the Toe Readers and Soul Coaches from around the world will be featured in the SWIHA BLOG. Toe Reading classes are offered both on-line and on campus.
