Introducing #GetGrounded
My chiro sister, Dr. Brit Finkbeiner is here this week to touch on the multiple benefits of being barefoot! Her mission is to contribute to humanity’s deeper embodiment, to re-connect people with their physical self. Brittnie uses her background in mental health and the principles of chiropractic to facilitate self-discovery as well as empower and educate people about their pure, inborn potential.
There are 21 bones and 25% of the body’s joints in the FOOT! This isn’t by chance. This intricate anatomy is designed to be adaptive-forming themselves to walking surfaces and footwear. We can lose this ability due to wearing solid, hard-soled or ill fitting shoes, after injury or insult, or just as a result of walking primarily on sterile, flat, man made surfaces. Putting stiff, padded, and inflexible shoes on your feet are similar to putting square blocks on a car instead of tires-doesn’t make evolutionary sense.
Our feet aren’t just there to propel us from point a to point b. Have you ever wondered why our feet, like our hands, are more sensitive than other areas of our body? There are more than 200,000 nerve endings in the sole of each foot. These nerve endings provide sensory input that affects our entire body. This sensory input to our feet acts as a movement conductor for every muscle above, and changes the way the entire body moves and the way our brain works. Our feet connect our bodies to the earth so we can sense what’s beneath us so that we can make make the millions of tiny adjustments that propel us through the world. Modern shoes can stop feet feeling and can lose them up to 50% of their functional capacity! If your feet are rigid it can contribute to your entire body being rigid. Our feet should be continuously exposed to grass, dirt, stone, rocks, and balancing on beams, logs, curbs, and etc. Feet need more feed back than a flat human-made surface, they should be molding around different shapes, providing more mobility in each joint, engaging muscles on different demands, and balancing to connect to the rest of your body.
Being barefoot isn’t a trend…..it wasn’t until the last 100 years or so that we ditched our ancestral liberated feet and the deeper implications that accompany this natural way of living.
The truth is when you’re wearing shoes, you’re disconnected. You’re u n g r o u n d e d. You are not in touch with the Earth. Could this disconnection be an overlooked factor in the increase of our culture’s illnesses? Recent research has shown the extensive benefits our ancestors experienced from connecting to the Earth’s natural energy, by walking barefoot.
The Earth is a conductor or free electrons and so are all living things on the planet, including us. The body is composed of mostly of water and minerals which in combination are excellent conductors of electrons from the Earth providing there is direct skin contact or some other conductive channel for them to flow through. Harmonizing the body’s basic biological rhythm promotes well being and decreases inflammation (a culprit in almost all chronic illness).
Even without research data, this makes sense. When is the last time you felt your toes in the grass or lied on the beach? How G O O D did that feel?
Your feet are sensors that require feedback from the ground and from earth for your body to function optimally. The further you get away from functioning how your body is designed, the closer you get to disconnect, separation, and dysfunction.
Don’t follow the human made sidewalks- travel the unconstructed path; take the blindfold off and discover a healthy body, through healthy, bare feet.
– Brit