Foot Yoga: Faucet into the Energy of Your Personal Two Ft

I lately revealed a weblog on the 6 Parts of Balancing. First on the checklist of the balancing necessities is wholesome, steady and delicate ft. On this submit, I’ll introduce some foot yoga, that will help you give your ft the TLC they deserve. 

I’ve been blessed with many longtime yoga college students. Many have attended my courses for greater than 10 years, some for greater than 20. It’s a privilege to maneuver by life’s inevitable ups and downs with such a strong core of sensible and fantastic people.

I met one among these college students—I’ll name her Patricia—within the late ’80s. At the moment she was in her 50s. She got here to courses recurrently for greater than 20 years, taking part absolutely into her late 70s. Balancing on one leg was her one nemesis. For many years she propped herself towards the wall with the intention to follow such staples as Tree Pose.

Foot Yoga and Balancing

Within the early 2000s, Washington DC-based trainer Jenny Otto taught a workshop in Salt Lake. She started every class with a five-minute foot therapeutic massage that included spreading the toes; massaging the toes, balls, arches and heels; and rolling a tennis ball beneath every foot. She preached the significance of tending to our ft on daily basis as we age—a course of that’s occurring to all of us irrespective of once we had been born.

The subsequent week, I introduced Jenny’s foot therapeutic massage to my courses. My college students beloved it and we practiced it recurrently. Six months later, Patricia was balancing on one leg—with out the wall—for the primary time in her 20-plus years of follow.

Foot Yoga and Wholesome Ageing

Not lengthy after Jenny Otto launched me to foot therapeutic massage, an article in The New Yorker (“The Means We Age Now,” April 30, 2007) described how main geriatrician Dr. Juergen Bludau spent most of a brand new affected person’s preliminary examination taking a look at her ft. He claimed that the situation of an individual’s ft tells an vital story about her common well being. In accordance with the article, the best threat for many of us as we age isn’t what we would suppose. Our best general threat is falling.

The article’s writer, Atul Gawande, writes: “Annually, about 300 and fifty thousand People fall and break a hip. Of these, forty per cent find yourself in a nursing dwelling, and twenty per cent are by no means capable of stroll once more. The three major threat components for falling are poor steadiness, taking greater than 4 prescription drugs, and muscle weak spot. Aged folks with out these threat components have a twelve-per-cent probability of falling in a yr. These with all three threat components have virtually a hundred-per-cent probability.” I discover these numbers staggering—so to talk.

Our Superb Ft

In early June I reconnected with Mark Bouckoms, a yoga trainer from New Zealand who co-taught a trainer coaching right here with Donna Farhi in 1996. In his workshop, he spoke concerning the significance of the ft in conventional yoga follow. Our ft are our strongest power supply, he mentioned. They comprise a plethora of marma factors, gateways to the connective tissue and the nadis, the delicate traces that channel power to each cell within the physique. The 72,000 nadis and their 108 marma factors are Ayurveda’s reply to the Chinese language meridian system.

In Mark’s workshop, we began every follow tending to our ft. In my courses, even when we don’t undergo the total foot routine, we all the time start every class by rolling therapeutic massage peanuts beneath our ft to stimulate the connective tissue by way of marma factors. Most individuals really feel marked variations within the two sides of their our bodies after merely rolling a therapeutic massage peanut beneath one foot for about 30 seconds.

Good Issues You Can Do for Your Ft

Stroll barefoot. Direct contact, particularly with uneven surfaces stimulates the connections between your ft’s 11 stretch-sensing muscle groups and your mind.

Keep away from excessive heels. I’m properly conscious that heels are de rigueur for a lot of particular events. (I lately examine some girls that had been denied purple carpet entry at a swanky awards present as a result of they wore flats!) And a few folks simply get pleasure from sporting them. However there are lots of methods during which heels may cause main injury to your ft, knees, hips, again and the whole lot above, however that’s one other article. If you wish to put on them, achieve this sparingly.

I hate to say this as a result of they’re a summer time favourite for therefore many, however flip-flops should not nice both. Your toes must work very laborious to maintain them from falling off. This creates a complete lot of stress in your ft and toes. It’s superb to put on them for working errands and for brief walks, however keep on with extra substantial sandals or sneakers for intensive strolling.

Therapeutic massage Your Ft

• Sit on the ground with legs prolonged. Bend your proper knee and place your ankle throughout your left thigh. Thread the fingers of your left hand between your toes.
• Together with your fingers between your toes, circle your ankles about 8-10 instances every route. Then flex and lengthen the balls of your ft 8-10 instances and twist them 8-10 instances.
• Take away your fingers and therapeutic massage the balls of your ft and toes for 15-30 seconds or extra. Discover your “effervescent spring” level (Kidney 1 in Chinese language drugs), a pronounced melancholy situated between the primary and second metatarsals just under the ball of your foot. It’s straightforward to search out. It’s an influence level that, when stimulated, is claimed to ship a spiral of energy by your physique. Spend a while—30-60 seconds—massaging it.
• Therapeutic massage your arches. Considered one of my college students, a physique employee who is aware of reflexology, says this stimulates and calms your “guts,” the very important organs.
• Straighten out your leg and let it settle. Repeat in your left foot.
• Get up and roll a tennis ball beneath every foot for 30-60 seconds. After your first foot, take a second to really feel any variations between the 2 sides of your physique, all the way in which as much as your neck and shoulders.

We depend on our ft all day lengthy, far more than we notice or admire. Take a while—5 minutes—every day to offer them some TLC. Your ft will return the favor by conserving you steady and upright.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Observe and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third e book is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards.