Why I’m obsessed with feet. And why you should be too.

If you’ve practiced with me already this month you might have noticed my current obsession - feet. We’ve been playing with weight bearing through different surface areas of the foot (think: toes, top and sides of feet), exploring a slow motion walk that turns into a broader, floaty balance and letting our feet get really curious about space in shapes that require zero contact to ground. All in the act of resensitising our super intelligent feet to the world.

Okay so this obsession is nothing new. The feet are obviously incredibly important in terms of our yoga practice. We stand, balance and feel the earth through our feet. They’re also a part of the body that is so often scrunched up in a strangely fitting shoe or a too-tight sock. This means they can get pretty neglected and forgotten.

Here’s just a handful (or footful) of reasons to be obsessed with your feet.

A foundation of a supportive alignment

Foot health is overall health. The way we place our feet has a direct impact on our knees, legs, pelvis and overall embodiment. It starts with the feet.

You can feel this by taking a roll from your inner to your outer arches. Notice the shift in your knees as they buckle in or bulge outwards. Notice the corresponding movement in your pelvis. Now find an even balance through inner and outer arches, as well as an even balance between the heels and the toes. Root evenly through your feet and imagine your knees stacked over the centre of your foot and, in response, your thigh bones plugging right into the centre of your hip socket.

When you stand with your feet hips distance apart and bend your knees you should feel them stacking right over the second toe. If we find ourselves constantly leaning into the inner or the outer arches, the rest of the body will compensate. As a general rule in standing poses, move your knees in line with your feet and you can’t go too far wrong. When we take this considered and detailed approach to the way we are placing our feet in the practice, everything changes. We receive a lightness, a space and a freedom in our movement that all begins in the way our feet touch down.

This is the small detail that we can find in our practice that leads to lifelong impact. If we never stop to notice our feet, unhelpful patterns, leans and misalignments can lead to discomfort or injury down the line. On the flip side, when we resensitise to our feet and stand rooted and tall, everything changes. We minimise our risk of damaging the joints later in life and our whole posture shifts.

Our source of stability and balance

When we stand in a way that is engaged and aligned, we can sense into the three arches of our feet …

-  the medial longitudinal arch, or instep
- the lateral longitudinal arch, or outstep
- the transverse arch, which runs from outstep to instep, just behind the ball if the foot

Imagine this shape like a strong triangle. Rooted, grounded, engaged but also crucially, dynamic. Our arches are in a constant play of balance. This is why when we come to standing balances like Warrior 3 or Half Moon the foot on which we stand is in a heightened conversation with the ground, accommodating to the challenge of weight bearing by dancing, adapting and adjusting through these arches. 

And this is exactly what we want to happen for balance. As we practice yoga we learn that there is movement within stillness. That nothing is fixed and life is constantly moving through us. The earth is turning beneath us. We feel that balance is rhythmic and see how interesting it is to let that balance play through the body.

So, the feet are a source of stability and balance but this is much more akin to the living roots of a tree as opposed to the concrete foundations of the built environment. Stability is dynamic and I often encourage my students to find the place where they fall out of balance in order to test the boundary and find their ever changing range of movement.

The start of our momentum

“Any surface of the body that makes contact with the ground must yield to the earth. Actively yielding to the earth creates a rebounding force away from the earth, elongating the body upward into space.” Donna Farhi in ‘Yoga Mind, Body and Spirit’

As our feet meet the ground we feel the potential for movements. A walk, a run or a jump all begins from the foot as it makes contact with earth. 

As we press down, supported by gravity, there is an upwards force in response. It’s that same two-way conversation that allows us to find momentum and to move through the world. Without this yielding, rebounding action we would find ourselves grounded and motionless. And while this is something that we can feel through any body part that is released into the earth, the feet are so often the surface that meets the ground.

Our connection to ground and means of knowing the earth

Thich Nhat Hanh encourages us to “walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” 

What a beautiful way to move. With care, attention and awareness of our impact on everything around us. When we move in this way, every footprint is symbolic of our wholeness. Our feet become a way to know landscape - to recognise the textures of sand and mud and snow. They teach us which surfaces are safe and easy to move through, and which are more challenging to navigate. 

And while this relationship is more often explored through a shoe, the same principle applies. 

It can also be incredibly interesting to get to know not just the earth, but space too through your feet. There’s nothing quite like the freedom of wriggling your feet and feeling the space between your toes, without the need to weight bear at all.

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This is your invitation to take your shoes and socks off. Explore your relationship to ground through your feet. And build a heathy alignment that will support joint health as you age.