Anti-Postural Tip: Soft Feet

So, we have established that posture is dumb. What now? In future blog posts, we'll go into some mind-body explorations which help us gain an innate sense of poise, ease, and stability in our bodies to replace dull, unhelpful rules imposed externally.

Let's start with the feet. In standing, your feet are your roots. In sitting, this can be partly true as well, assuming your chair is at the right level. The feet and ankles feed a large amount of information to your brain about the balance of your weight on the ground, so if your feet are alive and awake, your brain gets a bunch of accurate information and is able to control postural muscles more effectively. If there is tension and a lack of awareness, this information is distorted or reduced. 

One simple way to explore this is by first standing normally, taking a moment to become aware of your whole body. Then bring your attention to your feet, imagining them to be very soft on the ground (they can be sinking into wet mud, or they can be made of soft foam, or whatever image helps you to imagine best). Let your feet yield your weight into the ground. Don't "do" anything extra except imagine this softening in the soles. Notice if anything shifts in your body. Is there a change of balance? A change in muscle tone? 

Next, imagine the soles turning very hard, like a brittle shell or unyielding iron. Imagine it drawing away from the ground, turning a cold shoulder. What does this do? Take a moment to scan your body, and then go soft again to watch the changes.

If you want, you can try having one foot be soft and the other hard- this was very interesting when I tried it, and I felt like one foot was down in the ground, and the other lifted up. I also noticed my shoulders changing tension levels along with my feet. You may notice something different. 

You can do this any time, and it wakes up the muscles of your toes as well, so they can stabilize and propel you more effectively. Most importantly, the effect can go through your whole body, and relax your mind at the same time. It is pretty unreal how much power your feet can have when you learn to connect to them. 

Enjoy!