I am inspired every day by the commitment and accomplishments of my students. So, I thought it would be fun to share a few things that I heard from students this week in a couple of blog posts. This one is about bunions, but also about establishing a strong foundation for practice and life, and about standing on our own two feet to be who we are meant to be in the worl

“Look, Barb, my big toes are touching!”
When we come into Tadasana (Mountain Pose), I tell the students to stand with feet together, big toes touching, feeling rooted into the ground. When I first met Heather, she had bunions which prevented her from bringing her toes together. After almost two years of practice, she suddenly noticed that her big toes touched. “I thought I was doomed to have feet like my mother’s, especially after all the dancing I have done. You said that bunions can get better, and now look!”

The feet are the “pad” or foundation of our standing body, upon which we build our alignment, balance, and movement. All of the work that we do to build strength, mobility and flexibility in the feet and ankles provides a strong foundation for our practice and our lives.

I remember when I first started working in the business world, wearing high heels all day, and soon noticing aches and pains in not just my feet but also my low back. I began to notice how many women had that “my feet hurt but I feel like to have to wear these shoes” look. And then we all started wearing exercise shoes while walking and taking the bus, and only donning out high heels when we absolutely positively had to.

Even if you are still wearing heels (hopefully just occasionally and hopefully not too high), foot exercises can help keep them healthy and pain free. I will post a video of a good beginning foot sequence soon. Yours in health and happy feet.

Namaste.