Hey, this is Calynda, and I want to “officially” welcome you to my world.
About 15 years ago, I was working full-time in the corporate world, raising two children as a single mom, managing a household, running like a chicken with my head cut off trying to meet deadlines that were coming from every direction, when my body decided it didn’t want to keep up to me anymore.
The problem is it had to because I needed it to!
I was caring for an uncle that had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given 4 months to live, the company I worked for had just been forced into receivership and every time I picked up the phone it seemed another crisis hit that HAD to be dealt with.

Desperate to get some relief from my stress, aches and pains, I was reminded about an experience I had while taking a girls trip to Mexico in my early 30’s. There was a woman on the beach that “rubbed feet” and I was fascinated with how she was able to maneuver pressure points and how I was able to feel a little better after she did.
Interesting!
One day when I was feeling REALLY bad at work, a co-worker had recommended a reflexology therapist to me. I had no clue what it was, but I was willing to try anything once and hoped I would get some relief as I did when I was on the beaches.
Thank goodness, as luck would have it, there was someone local that has similar skills! I was grateful.
During my daily hospital visits to see my uncle, it got to the point that I couldn’t touch my uncles’ hands or feet because they were just too tender.
During one of my reflexology sessions, I asked the reflexologist what those reflexes were and he let me know it was the lung reflexes.
My mind was blown because he did not know that my uncle was diagnosed with lung cancer.
After that, the charts on the reflexology therapists wall fascinated me.
As I had sessions it was evident that my feet were changing as grief started to introduce itself to my journey.
They went from feeling tender to feeling hollow, which is ironically how I felt right before my uncle passed away on April 28, 2009.
Uncle knew that I had taken an interest in figuring out more about reflexology, but I was nervous pursing it because I get queezy with the sight of blood or even talking about anatomy.
I was looking into taking the course, but hadn’t committed to it yet (obviously, I did eventually)!
Uncle made me promise to help others feel better as one of his last requests.
That’s a big promise to have to make when you don’t even know where your appendix is, but I wasn’t a rockstar at saying no back then, so of couse, I said yes.
Today, I can say THANK GOODNESS, but back then, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to save myself, forget help anyone else!
My body had eventually collapsed from stress, anxiety disorder and panic attacks.
How bad?
I could barely get out of bed for 4 months. Getting dressed was a BIG WIN for the day and I was living breath to breath for most of it.
I had a panic attack that lasted for 7 weeks (they usually last 7 minutes).
My digestive system quit breaking down food because it was in such a state that if I ate anything it came out the other end in record time looking like it did when I put it in my mouth.
It was TERRIFYING!
My “go to” medicine cabinet that I had relied on for the first three decades of life had started failed me.
The pills weren’t working anymore.
It felt like I had taken a hundred trips to the doctor trying to get some relief, but nothing we tried seemed to work.
It wasn’t uncommon for me to spend the night in the emergency room back then.
After a few years of trying every test that showed everything was “normal”, my doctor let me know that “this is as good as it gets”.
Those were the words that triggered something inside of me to make changes. I started looking in places I had never been open to looking before to get some answers on how I could get my energy back and start feeling better.
The first step was an agreement with myself to stop battling symptoms and start trying to figure out the cause so that I could correct that.
Have you ever asked anyone for the cause of pain?
What an eye-opening experience that can be.
I quickly discovered that “I don’t know” and “I think it is” are the causes for A LOT of things. The challenge is those paths didn’t lead to feeling better or getting more energy.
If anything, I felt more drained.
After meeting with my doctor and FINALLY hearing that they have tried everything they can, I needed to figure out what I could do because not being able to get out of bed at 36 wasn’t working for me.
I decided that I needed to understand how the body worked together holistically. That was my next step to regaining my health.
Good news!
I eventually discovered that the body remembers what the head forgets… and that was a turning point that changed everything for me!
I’ll get to those details soon, but the next first step was to discover the power of perspective which ultimately led me down the path I needed to go to beat anxiety naturally, leave the corporate world to do reflexology full-time and share my passion of reflexology with over 150 students that love it as much as I do.

Lesson learned: Amazing things come from crazy experiences!
How cool is that?
Calynda “your reflexology friend” Triffo
ABOUT AUTHOR
Calynda Triffo is a Reflexology Therapist and Teacher Licensed with the Reflexology Association of Canada, developed emotional reflexology and the recipient of the “Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award” with the Reflexology Association of Canada in 2016, 2017 & 2018. Click here for more information about reflexology.