Issue: #11

Spring/Summer 2014

Greetings!    

It's one of summer's simple, sensual pleasures:  kicking off your shoes and letting cool grass tickle your toes or soft sand caress your soles.

Freeing your feet from shoes can have important health benefits, too. Going barefoot stimulates the sensory receptors on your feet and allows you to use all your foot muscles in a way that's unrestricted by a shoe.  Exercising your feet--for example by flinging your toes out so that no toe touches another toe, then curling your toes into a "foot-fist"--can enhance the strength and flexibility of your feet.  This, in turn, may have beneficial effects throughout your body, relieving pain in the knees, hips, and back, and enhancing your balance. 

Even if your feet are stiff or have deformities, such as bunions or hammertoes, gentle regular foot exercise and self-massage can help enhance flexibility and relieve pain.

Yoga's sister science of Ayurveda, sometimes called Traditional Indian Medicine, holds that massaging your feet at bedtime calms the nervous system and aids sleep.

Try this practice of  "Shaking Hands with your Feet":

Soak or wash your feet if possible, then sit comfortably and place your right foot on your left thigh.

1. Massage oil or lotion into your foot, being sure to attend to the top, soles, heels, and lower leg.
2. Use your thumbs and fingers to smooth out any sore spots you find.
3. Weave the fingers of your left hand between the toes of your right foot with each finger between two toes, and gently stretch and spread your toes.
4. Repeat with the other foot.
5. You may want to wear cotton socks to bed to keep the oil from getting on your sheets. 

Be sweet to your feet!