For as long as I’ve been walking, I’ve essentially ignored the very thing that has supported me—my feet.
Yet a few months ago, my soles came to my attention. I went along to a movement meditation class where you are invited to dance freely in a park for two hours. It was the summer solstice and the sun was setting late. We took off our shoes and socks, put away our phones and donned headphones so we could hear the DJ but not disturb other parkgoers. Dozens of us danced around on the grass like no one was watching.
Having collected the advice that grounding yourself on the grass or wet sand can be a great way to recover from jetlag, I’ll often do short stints walking barefoot in the park. But two hours was something else. The next day the soles of my feet had this incredible sensation—it was as if they had been stretched and awakened.
I didn’t want to ignore my feet anymore—I wanted to learn about the very thing that keeps us connected and grounded.
In my research, I investigated things like yoga toes and box-toed shoes. I also wanted to understand how I could exercise and strengthen my feet, so I reached out to Jim Dooner, the head physiotherapist of The Foot Collective.
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