As well, do not try this if you are pregnant.

Sore points on your feet correspond to areas in your body where your qi, or life force energy, is not flowing as it should. An imbalance of your energy field eventually leads to physical symptoms. Read my article on “What is Chinese Reflexology?” for more details. Therefore, since you have a cold, the points on your feet related to your cold are going to hurt, probably A LOT.

This is perfectly normal, especially the first time you rub them.  If you don’t feel anything, you’re probably not pressing hard enough.  Try to rub through the pain, but be sensible about it.  As the energy flow returns to optimal form, the points will stop hurting.  Chinese Reflexology is a lot like that cough syrup that tastes bad, but gets the job done.  Chinese Reflexology hurts, but it works.

The whole process should take about 5 minutes, so you really don’t have an excuse for not doing it. Try to massage your points on an empty stomach or at least an hour before or after you eat.  You want to prime up your energy flow when it’s not concentrated in your stomach.

Rub these points on BOTH of your feet 4 times a day at the following times:

• When you first wake up
• Either 1 hour before or after lunch
• At the end of the day (e.g., 5pm)
• Before going to sleep

Do this for at least two days in a row.  As you start to feel better, you can cut down on the number of times you rub your feet.  It’s tempting to stop as soon as you start feeling good, but continue for an extra couple of days to help your body fully bounce back from the cold.

You still need to rest, drink plenty of fluids and take it easy.  Just because you’re feeling better, it’s not a reason to go out and push yourself.  Trust me.  If I didn’t have to look after my kid, I would have loved to just lie in bed in pajamas all day.  Ooh, that’s a dream that might come true in about 3 years…

Chinese Reflexology Point #1: The Lungs

The most important reflexology point to rub is your lung point. In Chinese Medicine, there’s a direct relationship between the lung meridian (of energy) and the “invasion of external evil”, which is merely a quaint Chinese way of saying, “cold germs.”

The lung meridian is considered the first barrier to protect the body from “evil pathogens.” Normally, the reflexology area for my lung is completely painless, but I noticed tender spots while I was massaging it when I had the cold.

Here’s a diagram of the reflexology area for the lungs. It’s located on the ball of your foot, between the big toe and little toe. The location of the sore points on your feet will correlate to the soreness in your chest.

In my case, I felt tender areas around the base of the ball of my foot and indeed, I felt tightness in the solar plexus area of my lungs. In previous colds, the upper area of this point has been tender and that correlated with soreness in the bronchial area of my chest.

To massage this area, press deeply with your thumbs and when you feel a point that is tender to touch, press even deeper and massage using small circles. Massage the entire lung area, focusing on tender points for a total of one minute per foot. This will give your lung meridian an energy boost. Personally, I’ve noticed that regular massage of the lung point helps to prevent a cold from settling into my chest and lungs.