When I arrive at a yoga class I take my socks off. Actually, when I arrive at the beach, or on a grassy hillside, or in a field, or at the gym I take my shoes off too. Actually, even when I wear shoes I wear a minimalist style of footwear called “barefoot shoes” but that’s a conversation for another day.
The main reason I take my socks off is because it feels good to me, and I find I enjoy my yoga practice more when I am barefoot.
Neuroscientists and anatomists have gone some way to explain why barefoot movement feels good to me. Firstly, it keeps me safer and helps with balance. Secondly, it helps me to listen more deeply to the messages my body is sending me. And finally, finding space and mobility in my feet might help me to find space and mobility elsewhere in my body.
So, why should you ditch the shoes (and socks) next time you roll out your mat?
1. Your barefoot practice is safer and you are less likely to fall or injure yourself.
Proprioception is your ability to sense where your body is in space. It functions by way of a continuous feedback loop: sensory receptors in your body send messages to your central nervous system and then a message is sent back to make any adjustments needed. Think about all the little micromovements your body makes when you are balancing on one leg. This is proprioception in action.
These sensory receptors are found throughout your body including in your feet. Your feet are often the foundation of the shapes you make in yoga. They are your first point of contact with the ground and bear the weight of your body as you move.
The sensory feedback given (and received) by your feet in shoes will be different to that given by your bare feet. Removing your shoes will maximise the sensory feedback your feet is able to give. It will also give your feet the space and ability to respond and adjust your position as needed.
2. You will develop a greater understanding of your own body and needs.
Interoception is your ability to sense what is going on inside your body. You know that moment at the beginning of a yoga class where you still your body and become aware of your breath? - that is interoception in action.
We are not encouraged to develop our interoceptive sense in our society. In fact, it’s largely not even acknowledged to be a sense. Our primary school idea of “senses” is limited to those exteroceptive senses which inform us about the world around us. The importance of understanding the world within is largely dismissed. Even where loud and clear messages are being sent by our bodies, we often ignore them.
Why not give this experiment a go for a day? Make a conscious effort to notice every time you need the toilet. And then notice how many times you don’t go to the toilet immediately. Perhaps you are watching telly and waiting for an advert break. Or working at a desk and keen to get as much done as possible in the time available to you. Or you are a carer and someone else’s needs take priority. Isn’t it interesting how often you don’t respond to your body’s own clear messages? And interoception is fundamentally important for our wellbeing. This article by David Robson in The Guardian is an interesting read if you would like to consider this further:
When you wear shoes the interoceptive messages you receive from your feet are dampened. Your feet are literally encased. How can you begin to listen to the messages of your body while you are actively preventing them from being received? Practicing yoga barefoot frees your feet and gives you the opportunity to begin to flex your interoceptive awareness.
3. Everything is connected, and finding space and mobility in your feet can help you to find space and mobility throughout your body.
Your body is not made up of a collection of individual bits and pieces. It is one interconnected whole. And this wholeness comes from your fascia, a collagen based tissue which weaves in and around and between structures within the body.
For most of the history of anatomy and dissection fascia was simply removed and discarded. Only in recent years has the value and importance of fascia been explored by scientists (and adopted as a buzzword by movement professionals!).
My yoga practice and teaching is informed by the work of Tom Myers, who wrote the pioneering book “Anatomy Trains”. You can read more about this on his website:
Tom Myers provides a map of specific routes or lines in the body where muscles and fascia interact (called “myofascial muscle meridians”). I find it helpful to think about these lines as a guide for the ways in which fascia connects during movement rather than an absolute truth. And this guide gives you the opportunity to explore the possibility that tightness and restrictions in one part of your body may have an impact on other parts. If, instead of thinking of your body as a set of individual parts, you instead think about movement in one area having a direct relationship to other areas you start to open up possibilities to understand and explore your own movement patterns.
Your feet come into this because so many of these lines or meridians of muscles and fascia begin in the feet. So begin with your feet. Free your toes, spread them wide, and instead of balancing on shoe shaped hooves investigate how the rest of your body might feel if you used your feet to their fullest potential.
A suggested practice
I’m no anatomy expert or neuroscientist. I’ve tried to explain my understanding of some of these really complex ideas but you might well want to dig deeper yourself into these new fields of study. In the meantime, how about taking five minutes to connect to your feet?
Here are three things you could explore:
Take your shoes off and spread your toes wide. Then curl them up tightly. Stand up and see if you can lift any of your toes independent of their neighbours. Press each toe into the floor (or a cushion or a block) in turn and notice how easy or difficult this is.
Make sure you are safe, and balanced and take a few minutes to roll a tennis ball underneath each foot in turn. Notice how it feels. Don’t do anything that feels painful or tingly, but explore where you might have “sweet spots” on your feet which respond to the pressure. Take a moment between each foot to notice how the rest of your body feels after taking the time to massage out the fascia on the sole of your foot. Can you feel the effects further up your legs or back?
Take a comfortable seat and see if you can interlace your fingers between your toes (as if you were holding hands with your foot!). Hold this for a few breaths. How does it feel to mobilise your toes in this way? Does your foot feel any different after you have done this?
And as an extra bonus – why not take your shoes off and have a walk around in your garden or a park (somewhere safe and without any sharp stones or litter). Free your feet and explore where this freedom takes you!