What Does It Mean to Have Sensitive Points on Your Feet?

Photo by Rune Enstad on Unsplash

People often ask me, “What does it mean to have sensitive points?” when it comes to the Chinese Reflexology points on their feet. This is a great question because sensitive points can let you know what’s going on in your body at the energy level, thus empowering you to take command of your health and vitality. 

Here’s a little rhyme to help you learn what it means to have sensitive points on your feet:

Something new,
Something old, 
Something chronic, and 
Something yet to unfold.


Something new refers to an acute condition. This is something that’s happening right now in your body. It usually comes on quite suddenly. What happen is that points that don’t normally feel sensitive suddenly start feeling a LOT more sensitive. For example, most people don’t usually feel much sensitivity on their Lung reflexology point. However, this area of the foot will become a lot more sensitive if they catch a cold.

Something old refers to sensitivity due to something a person experienced many years ago. The physical problem may be resolved, but there could still be an energy disharmony in the body. 

One time, I was massaging the reflexology points on a friend, and when we got to her Lung point, it was unexpectedly very sensitive. I found this strange because she didn’t have any respiratory issues like allergies and she didn’t have a cold. I asked if she used to smoke, and she never had. But her parents smoked when she was a child. 

Thus, even though she didn’t have any known physical issues, her Lung point was still sensitive because of the exposure to secondhand smoke as a child. For my friend, this sensitivity would suggest that she might want to focus some attention on activities that help strengthen the Lung qi (life force energy in the Lungs and Lung meridian).

When it comes to something chronic, this refers to chronic health conditions that have been ongoing for months or even years. Chronic conditions usually affect more than one of the body’s primary organs or energy meridians. 

For example, a person with Type II diabetes may be taking insulin to help control their blood sugar levels. From a western perspective, you would expect the person’s Kidney and pancreas reflexology points to be very sensitive. 

Chinese Medicine takes a much more holistic view, seeing the body’s organs and meridians as interconnected. The health of one impacts the health of the others.

From a Chinese Medicine perspective, there are a number of different imbalances that lead to the symptoms diagnosed as diabetes. It’s different in each person, but a common root cause is a disharmony in the Lungs and Lung meridian known as Lung heat. Thus, someone with diabetes might have extremely sensitive Kidney, pancreas and Lung reflexology points. 

Now let’s look at something yet to unfold. Sensitive points can reflect physical issues, but they can also reveal imbalances that are only at the energy level. The imbalance hasn’t yet shifted from the energy level to the physical level. 

Energy disharmonies can go on for quite a while before anything shows up physically because our bodies are quite resilient. But if the disharmony continues for a long time, it will begin to affect the physical body. That’s because qi is the energy that helps move the physical substances in your body. Qi helps move blood through your arteries and veins, food through your digestive tract, lymph through the lymphatic system, and air through the lungs.

A good example of something yet to unfold would be a headache. There’s going to be an energy block or constriction in the head before a person experiences any physical pain, and the corresponding reflexology points will increase in sensitivity before the headache strikes. Similarly, before somebody catches a cold, their lung point will suddenly become a lot more sensitive before physical symptoms appear. 

Ancient Chinese Wisdom in Your Feet

There’s a Chinese Medicine proverb that says: The superior doctor prevents sickness, the mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness, and the inferior doctor treats actual sickness.

With Chinese Reflexology you have the opportunity to prevent sickness by identifying something yet to unfold through sensitive reflexology points on your feet. 

For example, if you notice that your Lung point has suddenly increased in sensitivity, but you don’t have a cold, take action to look after yourself better, get enough rest, eat healthier, and slow down.

Massaging the Lung point will also help strengthen and harmonize the Lung qi, which helps to address energy imbalances that are at the root of physical symptoms. This helps to support your body’s natural and innate ability to heal itself. 

As you practice Chinese Reflexology regularly, you discover how to listen to your feet. You’ll notice when points on your feet become more sensitive and when they start to feel less sensitive. When sensitivity levels decrease, it means that things are improving at the energy level. And as things shift at the energy level, things start to shift at the physical level. 

Sensitive points on your feet can mean something new, something old, something chronic or something yet to unfold. But they mean much more than that because when you’re aware of the sensitivity of your reflexology points, you know what’s going on in your body at the energy level. This gives you incredible knowledge to be the “superior doctor” to prevent sickness and be in command of your health and vitality.