The Lost Art of Bare Feet
Sweet Friends, I have a small confession… I LOVE being barefoot… summer or winter! 👣 That said, ‘adulting’ causes me to spend FAR to many minutes within a day wearing shoes!!
There's something we knew instinctively as children that many of us have quietly forgotten as the years have gone by… the simple, grounding joy of bare feet on the earth.
Warm grass, cool morning dew, sun-soaked deck boards, the give of garden soil. Our feet were designed to feel all of it, and yet for much of our day they're tucked away, cushioned and covered, with nothing much to notice at all.
Here's my gentle invitation for this week…
Find a patch of grass (your backyard, a park, that soft strip beside the garden) and slip off your shoes.
Just stand there for a moment.
Let the soles of your feet, which carry you faithfully through every single day, finally feel the ground beneath them.
Spread your toes.
Notice the texture, the temperature, the small shifts of balance as you settle.
And while you're there, layer in a few slow breaths… inhaling the summer air, exhaling any rushing or holding you've been carrying.
Allow your exhale to be longer than your inhale and let your feet absorb the moment
This isn't just lovely (though it absolutely is)… our feet are rich with sensory nerve endings 👣 When we bath them in grass or soft dirt and sand, we're sending a quiet, steadying message all the way up through our nervous system that say…
‘You are here’
‘You are supported.’
‘You are safe.’
Pair this practice with conscious breathing, and you have a beautifully simple way to come home to your body… no equipment, no class, no schedule… just you, the ground, and a breath.
It's funny how the things that heal us are so often the things we left behind in childhood.
Aging with grace and vitality doesn't always ask us to learn something new… often it simply asks us to remember. The wisdom and simplicity of your youth hasn’t gone anywhere… it still is (and always will be) within you 🧡
So this week, let your bare feet remember the ground, and let your breath remember the rest, one sweet step and one sweet breath at a time 🌿
Love,
