Happy Feet!
Being healthy is one of the essentials of Happiness. It’s important to always be active, to watch what we eat, to really take care of this temple called our body. Something I’m finding out through my yoga practice is how important it is to take care of our feet.
Our feet are made up of numerous tiny bones held together by a network of muscles, tendons, nerves, and blood vessels. Our feet are designed to be flexible, to be sensitive, to hold up our bodies. When we don’t take the time to give our feet a good workout they become like clubs that we stand on. At this point it seems like they’re always sore and aching. Barking dogs they’re sometimes called.
Over the past two months as I’ve been practicing yoga three or four times a week I’ve discovered how weak my feet are. The pain from just standing in savasana was often too much and I’d drop down to the mat to relieve this incredible pain I was feeling in my feet. What is going on? Why are my feet so sore? It’s because they’re not used to being barefoot. They’re not used to flexing and supporting the weight of my body as I work out. That’s what a good pair of shoes is supposed to do.
Shoes may protect our feet in some ways, like preventing you from feeling the thorns in your lawn, but in other ways they prevent our feet from working the way that they should. Imagine having to wear a stiff leather or plastic jacket which limited the movement of your arms and shoulders. If you wore this all the time for years upon years how fit do you think the muscles, tendons, and joints of your torso would be? Take away the support and start moving, and I’d bet that your entire upper body would be screaming with pain. That’s what we do when we encase our feet in shoes.
Will I stop wearing shoes? Not a chance. It’s just not appropriate in our society to walk around unshod in lots of places. Will I be going barefoot a lot more? You can bet on it. Especially some of the places that I’ll be visiting this summer. Remember how happy you were when summer time came when you were a kid? Besides no school for three months it also meant getting to run around barefoot. Those were happy times in my life, and I had happy feet. This summer I’m looking forward to having many happy moments and having happy feet with them as well.
Surely you’ve noticed the strange looking shoes up in the picture. They’re called Vibram Five Fingers, and I’m planning to get a hold of a pair as I drive through Bend, Oregon next week. They might look a little weird, sort of like toe socks on steroids, but I bet they’re great for knocking around rivers, swimming holes, and hot springs.
Take some time for yourself this summer and walk around barefoot. Get your feet moving, flexing, and gripping. Get a foot massage. Dance the Tango in the kitchen in your socks. Have fun! Have Happy Feet!
brought to you by Philip Robert.
