Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Benefits of Bare footing

Those of you who are intrigued but not yet convinced about bare footing, please read my article here.

It explains why bare footing is a Naturopathy healing technique, how babies don't learn to walk wearing shoes, the precautions and care for feet that walk bare, and the least harmful footwear for the barefoot community.

Btw, anyone knows how to get in touch with M F Hussain? No, I don't want to talk about bare footing with him, I just want his blessings that my book sells.


I was actually trying to upload an image of my child's bare feet, but the mountain has come to mohammed!

This is Pradakshina road, and it is kept clean by the pilgrims because they walk on it barefoot.

Goes to say that if more and more people walked bare foot, we would have cleaner roads, healthier feet, and happier (if a little hippier) public.

14 comments:

DR JITESH BHATT MD said...

we mortals are really gifted
we can find good reasons for what we like
we can find good reasons for what we reason right.

Manjushree Abhinav said...

Why are you being so politically correct, doc?
Tell us what you really think, whether you wear chappals at home all the time and have you ever given a thought to bare footing yourself.

Henri said...

I was just thinking how much I enjoyed playing barefoot, and my mom never once insisted that I wear chappals! I hated wearing chappals at home as others do :) Even in winters I walk barefoot. Even in Pranic they say, that you should be connected with mother earth, at least for sometime :) But today, mothers fret if children want to play barefoot. I wear chappals at home, Bangalore chills my feet :) But in Ahmedabad, I enjoy being connected to Mother Earth :)

DR JITESH BHATT MD said...

dear grasshopper
in reality i have not thought about bare footing. at home i am comfortable barefoot only. and often i love to lie down on floor with just one bedsheet. but those are my likes. i am not in favour of roamin barefoot outside home as we become prone to foot borne infections, so my advise is that , barefooting in home and at clean lawns.

Manjushree Abhinav said...

Foot borne infections? What are they? Never heard of them. Please explain, doc, where and when did you last see a foot borne infection to someone because of walking bare foot in a city, village, fields, whatever.
Our bare feet are perfectly capable of walking on tar road. My grandmother walked bare foot all her life and never had any infections. All she had were thick, black, dirty feet but then, I never saw her eating with them.

Anonymous said...

I Cirucumbulate Arunachala with slippers on. Bare footing is a big no-no because of heal cracks and infections.
Bare footing is okay when you're camping in Nature. I am definitely apprehensive about bare footing in the Cities. You could stamp onto some Toxic/Infectious Waste.

Manjushree Abhinav said...

Do you know, Sri, that doctors actually bled patients only a few hundred years ago? And that we thought that the earth is the center of the universe. And that we still may be having some stupid conviction which will be proved wrong after a few years?
That shoes are good for health could be among them?

;)

Anonymous said...

LOL. In these Naturopathy series, I hope you don't end up saying Just Bathe in Water, don't use Soaps.

Anonymous said...

hey great blog! Am definitely gonna come back to read from home (at work now). For now, I just have a question, what is advaita...I pass the other criteria not sure about this one :-)

Anonymous said...

Landed here from Neha's blog. Good one you have out here :)

About walking barefoot, what about sharp gravel and glass pieces on the roads? Won't they hurt our feet?

Manjushree Abhinav said...

Dear Inbavalli,

Do you know what a myth is? A popular belief.

Yes, there are some 'ouch' moments to bare footing, but they serve to bring attention back to the body. We lie too much in our heads.

Secondly, the acupressure effect is good for health.

And, if your feet are right now very soft and sensitive, you can keep looking down and walk carefully.

Glass pieces have never hurt me, and gravel is something that I now love feeling under my feet. It wakes me up. :)

Anonymous said...

O, I agree with Grasshopper! Going barefoot is natural, healthy and very safe. Our bare feet are specialized instruments of the sense of touch; the more we go barefoot, the better we get at going barefoot, and the better we get at going barefoot, the tougher our soles get with natural protection because we've been going barefoot. Just like other parts of our bodies, feet get stronger when we exercise them, and there is no better way to exercise the feet than going barefoot frequently. There is generally no need to use shoes unless A) you really want to or B) there is some actual and not just some phantom potential for danger, just as you would wear a hardhat or gloves in certain situations.
Sadly, too many people now believe that simply walking in the grass or upon the sidewalk barefoot is somehow "dangerous," yet many of the same people turn a blind eye to the chemical additives in food, air pollution, etc.

Barefoot by Choice and Happier For It,

Sole Music

Anonymous said...

I don't know why I got that doubt, considering I've done it often myself. There's a Hindu deity called Sarabeshwarar at a temple about 4 km away from my house. Mythology has it that it's best to visit his temple barefoot, so I've done that at least 5-6 times with absolutely no foot injury. The biggest horror is stepping on paan-laden saliva.

Thought this might interest you: http://noobmarathon.blogspot.com/2008/06/performance-pressure-of-running.html

Manjushree Abhinav said...

Saliva and pan? Cow dung? Dog shit? All of these are organic, aren't they? Meaning they are washable.
In fact, mud itself cleans your feet if you walk on it a bit.

All this boils down to what we think of as dirty.

For me the dirtiest thing I ever touched was my child's shit. But once I got used to it, it was no big deal. All you got to do is wash your hands. And your feet.