Foot Yoga: Tap the power of your own two feet – Hugger Mugger

I recently published a blog about the 6 elements of Balancing. First on the list of the balancing supplies are healthy, stable and sensitive feet. In this message I introduce some foot yoga, to help you give your feet the TLC they deserve.

I am blessed with many old yoga students. Many have followed my lessons for more than 10 years, some for more than 20. It is a privilege to go through the inevitable ups and downs of life with such a solid core of wise and beautiful people.

I met one of these students – I call her Patricia – in the late 1980s. At that time she was in fifty. She regularly came to lessons for more than 20 years and participated in her late 1970s. Balancing on one leg was her one arch enemy. For decades she pushed herself against the wall to practice staples as a tree posture.

Foot yoga and balancing

In the early 2000s, Teacher based in Washington DC Jenny Otto gave a workshop in Salt Lake. She started each class with a five -minute foot massage, including spreading the toes; massaging the toes, balls, arches and heels; And roll a tennis ball under each foot. She preached the importance to take care of our feet every day as we get older – a process that happens to us all, regardless of when we were born.

The next week I brought Jenny’s foot massage to my lessons. My students loved it and we practiced it regularly. Six months later, Patricia balanced on one leg-without the Wall-Voor first in her more than 20 years of practicing.

Foot yoga and healthy aging

Not long after Jenny Otto introduced me to foot massage, an article in The New Yorker ((“The way we get older now,” April 30, 2007) described how prominent geriatrist Dr. Juergen Bludau spent most of the first exam of a new patient watching her feet. He claimed that the condition of someone’s feet tells an important story about her general health. According to the article, the greatest risk for most of us is as we get older, not what we might think. Our biggest general risk is falling.

The author of the article, Atul Gawande, writes: “Every year about three hundred thousand thousand Americans fall every year and break a hip. Of those forty percent ends up in a nursing home, and twenty percent can never walk again. Have almost a hundred per cent chance.” I find these figures amazing – so to speak.

Our great feet

At the beginning of June I made contact again with Mark BoucomsA yoga teacher from New Zealand who gave a teacher training together here Woman Farhi In 1996 he spoke in his workshop about the importance of the feet in traditional yoga practice. Our feet are our most powerful energy source, he said. They contain an abundance Marma pointgateways to the connective tissue and the NagisThe subtle lines that channel energy to any cell in the body. The 72,000 Nadis and their 108 Marma points are Ayurveda’s answer to the Chinese Meridian system.

In the workshop of Mark we started every exercise that provided at our feet. In my lessons, even if we don’t go through the entire foot regime, we always start to roll up every class by rolling massage endas under our feet to stimulate connective tissue via Marma points. Most people feel clear differences in the two sides of their bodies after they simply rolled a massage pinda under one foot for about 30 seconds under one foot.

Fun things you can do for your feet

Walk barefoot. Direct contact, especially with uneven surfaces, the connections stimulates between the 11 stretch muscles of your feet and your brain.

Avoid high heels. I am well aware that heels are strictness For many special occasions. (I recently read about a few women who were denied access to red carpet during a chic prices show because they wore flats!) And some people just enjoy wearing them. But there are many ways in which heels can cause great damage to your feet, knees, hips, back and everything above, but that is another article. If you want to wear them, do it sparingly.

I hate to say this because they are a summer favorite for so many, but Flip-Flops are not great either. Your toes have to work very hard to prevent them from falling off. This creates a lot of tension in your feet and toes. It is great to wear them to do groceries and for short walks, but stay with more substantial sandals or shoes for extensive walking.

Massage your feet

• Sit on the floor with legs extended. Bend your right knee and only place it over your left. Turn the fingers of your left hand between your toes.
• Circle with your fingers between your toes your ankles about 8-10 times each direction. Then bend and extend the balls of your feet 8-10 times and turn them 8-10 times.
• Remove your fingers and massage the balls of your feet and toes for 15-30 seconds or more. You find “Bubbling Spring” point (Nier 1 in Chinese medicine), a pronounced depression between the first and second metatarsals just below the ball of your foot. It is easy to find. It is a power point that, when stimulated, sends a spiral of power through your body. Take some time to fit by 30-60 seconds.
• Massage your arches. One of my students, a body worker who knows reflexology, says that this stimulates and soothes you ‘guts’, the vital organs.
• Take off your leg and let it settle. Repeat on your left foot.
• Get up and roll a tennis ball under each foot for 30-60 seconds. After your first foot, take a moment to feel differences between the two sides of your body, all the way to your neck and shoulders.

We trust our feet all day, much more than we realize or appreciate. Take some time – five minutes – and day to give them some TLC. Your feet will return the favor by keeping you stable and upright.

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell discovered Yoga in 1982 and started teaching in 1986. Charlotte is the author of Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life: A Guide for Everyday Practice and Yoga for Meditators, both published by Rodmell Press. Her third book is entitled Hip-Healthy Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Guide to Protect the hips and avoiding SI joint pain (Shambhala publications). She writes a monthly column for Catalyst Magazine and serves as an editor for Yoga U online. Charlotte is one of the founders of board member for GreenTree Yoga, a non-profit organization that brings yoga to disadvantaged population. Charlotte, a lifelong musician, plays oboe and English horn in the Salt Lake Symphony and Folk Sextet Red Rock Rondo, whose DVD won two Emmy Awards.