Feet On The Ground

'Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as it will. Refuse to be average or to surrender to the chill of your spiritual environment.' - Arthur Helps

Feet are the principal foundation for all standing poses and active in all inversions and arm balances, most backbends and forward bends, many twists and hip openers. They allow us to stand, walk, run, jump and generally have mobility in life. They are our wheels, yet we probably give more care and attention to the tyres on our cars.

A stark foot neglect memory springs to mind. I was standing on a busy train coming back from London when a glamorous, immaculately preened woman walked on with perfectly painted toes pointed out of her very beautiful, very high shoes. I remember thinking, I wish I had the motivation to look that glamorous! A thought that quickly subsided as she proceeded to take her shoes off. She carefully laid a leaflet out on the floor, took off her shoes and proceeded to stand on the leaflet for the remainder of the journey. Her feet absolutely shocked me. They were contorted, misshapen, cut and blistered. She was clearly in pain and yet that was a choice she had made that day and very likely would continue to make until she is forced not to. This isn’t Chinese foot binding but it is still crazy and interestingly both practices stem from a desire to be more appealing to the opposite sex. 

Our attitude to feet in the West is a strange one. We hide our feet away as much as possible in shoes, socks and slippers and being barefoot anywhere but the beach is generally frowned upon. In Indian culture feet are revered. It is the done thing to kiss the feet of respected gurus as a sign of respect, walking barefoot is fairly common and shoes are always taken off before entering the house. In my previous life as a touring PA I was on tour with an Indian classical musician and whilst sitting at breakfast with the band and crew the main act, a renowned tabla player, walked into the room. All of the Indian musicians got up from their tables, walked over to him and got onto their knees to kiss his feet. A beautiful image but not something I can imagine becoming part of our Western culture. 

It can be so easy to completely forget the role that feet play in our yoga practice, let alone our daily lives! I had been practicing for years before I realised that I wasn’t working with my feet at all. The moment I had this realisation was when my teacher asked the class to kneel with toes tucked, a simple enough sounding cue but I was in absolute agony almost instantly. Despite this initial realisation, it wasn’t until I attended a workshop with ex-parkour runner Austin Norris of Primal Motion that the importance of strong and flexible feet for full body health really sunk in. He took us through a whole series of foot and ankle exercises, almost none of which I could do. As with many of us, my feet just weren’t being sent enough complex movement signals from my brain, exacerbated by my shoes and even, unvaried floors. How often do you hear the cue in a yoga class to ‘place one toe down at a time’ or ‘spread your toes’ and just stare at your unresponsive, immobile toes as your teacher stands in front of you using their toes as fingers. This isn’t because they were born this way (although it would seem that some people are!) but more likely they have spent time reawakening those rusty neural pathways.

Our feet have become unresponsive from walking on unvaried, hard surfaces and contorting our feet into constricting, damaging or often over or under supportive shoes. Once we would have walked barefoot on uneven surfaces, which would require our feet to be responsive, agile and articulate. Walking on uneven terrain requires that the foot makes constant micro-adjustments to keep us stable, which in turn promotes movement in the pelvis and spine, keeping the whole body flexible and agile. Stiff, weak feet contribute to our lack of flexibility and mobility. A healthy, aligned and balanced body begins at your feet. 

Activation of the feet begins in the legs. The line of energy running from the top of the femur bone down through our feet creates a rebounding effect. When you intentionally root down from the tops of your thighbones down into your feet, the muscles in your calves and thighs engage. This creates an upward pull on the arches with the tibialis posterior (inner calf) and peroneus longus (outer calf) creating a stirrup-like effect. This lift creates expansion through the joints, a feeling of being firmly grounded yet light, resilient and agile not just in the feet and legs but throughout the whole body.


This past week I have been focusing on feet in my home practice and classes and the effect has been incredible! Balances, standing poses and even paschimottanasana feel drastically different and so much more steady, stable and enjoyable. 

Here are some exercises that can help you to feel more grounded and stable in your yoga practice:

Weaving
Weave the fingers between the toes (the tops of the fingers might be easier if you have tight toes!). Use the fingers to grip and squeeze the toes, flexing and pointing the toes to encourage opening up more space between them.

Toe Fan
Lift up all of your toes and then lower them down starting with the little toe and working through to the big toe. Don’t be surprised if they come down as one clump for a few days/weeks. 

Pronate/Supinate
Roll onto the outer edge of your foot and then the inner to loosen and strengthen the ankles.

Arch Doming
Grip the mat with your toes, drawing the toes towards the heels but trying not to curl the toes. This helps when trying to lift the arches in pada bandha and standing poses.

Toe Crunching
Stand at the front of your mat and try to scrunch the mat towards you, as if you were trying to bunch it up under your feet.

Talasana/Palm Tree
From tadasana (mountain pose) lift up onto the toes as high as you can then staying on tip toes, squat down as low as the knees will comfortable allow. You can also have the arms out in front of you palms facing up as you lift up and then palms facing down as you come down, inhaling as you rise, exhaling as you descend. As your balance improves this practice can be incredibly calming. The mind is so focused on balancing, it tends to be fairly still.

Pada Bandha

Finally Pada Bandha, the way we can teach our feet to ground down whilst staying active, lifted and engaged in all standing poses.

• Spread toes wide
• Keeping toes lifted feel the inner edge of the ball of the foot, press down firmly there
• Lift and lower toes keeping inner edge of ball of the foot rooting down
• Notice how with toes lifted the inner ankles and ankles automatically lift
• Keep this sensation and allow the toes to come slowly back down to the mat
• Notice the rebounding effect, strong activation of leg muscles, awakening of inner thighs and mula bandha. Lengthening through the whole body

Benefits of foot exercises:

• Improved balance 
• Stronger lower leg muscles 
• A reduction in ankle injuries 
• Strengthens arches
• Relieves the symptoms of bunions 
• Foot strength directly influences stability of the ankles, hips and spine

My Feet On The Ground Spotify Playlist

Carly x

Attachment

'Drowning in the sea of tears you're crying, are you worried that you're happier at war than at peace' - John Moreland 

One of the strangest things I have come to realise is how attached we are as humans to our misery. We hang on to what has been done to us, to those who have hurt us, to the conditions we have been diagnosed with. We build a very distinct and rigid sense of self around these labels, which restricts us more than we realise. 

Our language even reinforces this attachment - I am sad, I am anxious, I am depressed, I am angry. In Spanish they often say 'I have' instead of 'I am'. Tengo miedo = I have fear. This gives the impression of a much more temporary state of being rather than something intrinsic to our character. 

John Moreland's lyrics really resonated with me because it can be really interesting to realise how attached we can be to drama and sadness. If you have grown up in or spent time in a volatile environment where anger, drama and tears were a normal part of your day and how all issues were dealt with it can be difficult to break the drama junky cycle. There is something strangely addictive and appealing about dramatic outbursts and passionate, dramatic make ups. 

This cycle is something I have worked particularly hard to free myself from. All of my relationships until now have revolved around drama, sitting firmly in either love or hate, passionately loving or passionately angry at any given moment. These days I am trying to learn to enjoy the peace that comes from not reacting from a place of anger. Trying to have my emotions rather than be them. It is a lot easier to let go of something that isn't part of who you are.

Carly x 

Connection

When it comes down to it, connection is what we are all looking for. Connection is our driving force and our ultimate goal, yet we continually block our access to this blissful state of being choosing instead to barricade ourselves into our emotional forts, drawing up the drawbridge to true, authentic connection when things get rocky.

It’s difficult to put the feeling of connection into words but it is a feeling with the power to completely transform our lives. Often we feel most unhappy when we lose connection and we might not even realise that we were missing it until we find it again. When we feel connected our outlook on the world can completely change. Connection to our true selves can allow us to deeply feel and understand our emotions, which can free up space in our hearts and minds to reach out and connect to others. Connection to others can help us to cultivate deeply healing feelings of compassion, kindness and gratitude. This sense of compassion, kindness and gratitude can help us to see the beauty in the world around us, deepening our connection to nature and perhaps allowing us to tap into that elusive universal consciousness that connects us to every single plant, person, insect and animal.

This state sounds quite abstract but when experienced it is one of those ‘ you just know’ feelings. For me this happens when I feel at peace and my heart is huge and warm and ready for whatever the day has to offer. When I feel like this I start to behave like a mad woman making happy sounds at the sunrise whilst driving down the A5 or crying at the raw emotion of a song.

With all of this immense potential for personal growth, contentment and peace so readily available to us why is it that we so often struggle with this simple feeling? Our bodies and minds, like the electrical impulses that run through us, are wired to choose the path of least resistance and although the rewards to be reaped from living with open hearts are many; it is not always the easiest option. Sometimes it is easier in the moment to ignore someone who is deeply hurting us than to confront them or to say we are ‘fine’ when that couldn’t be further from the truth. To reconnect with ourselves and others we first have to step out of our comfort zone and put ourselves into a position of vulnerability. We have to take that first step, fully accepting that the outcome might not be the one that we want but realising that it is far better to tell an uncomfortable truth in a moment than to live a comfortable lie for a lifetime.

Our modern world provides endless opportunities for escape and disconnection making it all too easy to choose the path of least resistance. If we lived in close-knit communities where each person holds an integral role, isolation would just not be an option to us. We would have to face our problems head on but with the full support of our community. How often have you not felt like seeing anyone and then forced yourself to see friends or family and come away feeling a million times better? Sadly Netflix and ice cream is rarely the answer.

We live in a world where the meaning of connection, friendship, and relationships has changed dramatically. With social media now a ubiquitous presence in most of our lives we are more ‘connected’ than ever before but ironically less connected than ever. We have constant, immediate access to a wide network of people, which can give the illusion of connection but how many of those relationships are genuine and authentic and how many exist solely in the realm of small talk, niceties and approved social convention? We live a strange existence where people miss the present moment with loved ones in favour of capturing it to be shared later with strangers and acquaintances. Where people walk through the streets with their eyes and ears shut off to the sights and sounds, missing opportunities for interaction and experience. The image of couples sat at dinner in silence texting has sadly become a familiar one to us all yet not that long ago people had nothing but each other’s company for better or for worse. People had to talk to each other and that talking would be the making or the breaking of them. Before the invention of portable social media waiting in a queue was a time of thought and reflection or a time to exchange pleasantries with the people in your community.  Now we have yet another quick and easy distraction method, the ultimate cultural epidemic of our time that alluring, dopamine fuelled refresh button. We are losing connection with our true selves and others because we are all too often choosing the path of least resistance, not allowing our minds the space to be and consistently distracting ourselves before we get the chance to think or feel.

As a lifelong sufferer of anxiety with a natural inclination towards introversion, I know all too well how easy it is to choose distraction as the coping mechanism of choice but once you experience the freedom of confronting those difficult situations and emotions with nothing to fall back on, you will never look back. Despite my biggest fears revolving around public speaking, social interaction and performance of any sort I have chosen two professions (yoga teaching and music performance) which require high levels of skill in all three of these areas. I couldn’t begin to tell you why things have ended up this way but I couldn’t be more grateful for the weekly challenge to my comfort zone. 6 years ago things got so bad that I couldn’t leave my room, let alone my house, I was so socially anxious that I was completely unable to enjoy any conversations and I couldn’t use public transport for well over 2 years. These days I somehow get up in front of a room of people on a weekly basis and face my fears but it’s not always easy and I have come to realise that at the very heart of how comfortable I feel on any given day is how connected I feel. I came to this realisation after the unbelievable turn out of kindness, love and community support throughout the ordeal with my dad. It left me with a deep, unwavering sense of connection and for the first time in my entire life I spoke, performed and interacted wholeheartedly and without inhibition. I was even able to open my eyes whilst singing, something I have never been able to do.

So the next time you notice yourself reaching for a distraction, see if you can resist and see what it feels like to just be. Next time you notice you and your partner stuck in a technology bubble, see if you can turn to them, ask them a question and really listen to the answer. Next time you feel yourself slipping into isolation, see if you can find someone to help or spend time with. And most importantly never ever be ‘fine’, no one is ever ‘fine’! If a friend of loved one asks you how you are, tell them how you really are!

‘Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.’ - Rumi

Carly x