Written by Georgette Dutoit, Restorative Foot Therapist
Georgette is a Leading Pioneer in Restorative Foot Therapy. Fusing knowledge from her Apache roots with modern Scientific Studies, she created an updated holistic approach to naturally relieve common Foot Pains. She's also the Creator of PediPower, a first of its kind Foot Center including Foot Therapy, Education, and multi-brand Barefoot Shoes.
Our feet carry us through life’s journey, yet they’re often overlooked until discomfort strikes. Just as a house requires a stable foundation, our bodies rely on our feet for support, balance, and mobility. However, the stresses of modern life, hard surfaces, restrictive footwear, and lack of sensory stimulation, can lead to weakened, unresponsive feet.
Getting farther
There’s much written about reaching your full potential through utilizing meditation, exercise, nutrition, sleep, or confronting your emotional baggage. All will definitely help you become a better and healthier you.
But if your feet aren’t fine, you won’t get far.
Feet can be thought of like the foundation of a house. Foundations are not something we think about directly when undertaking renovations. Probably because we don’t spend time living in them, but rather on them. However, if the foundation of a house is not balanced, stable, or strong, it doesn’t matter how much effort is given to the interior to upgrade its livability. Without a solid foundation the house will suffer persistent problems somewhere in its structure.
The same goes for feet.
We stand on them, walk on them, play on them, land on them. They carry us towards what we need and love, and away from dangers.
We tend to forget how important they are until they start to fail us. And when those two things that we move on don’t work well we can become stuck.
What makes a healthy foot foundation?
The first points that come to mind are alignment and strength; toes in the correct position to give optimal balance, muscles strong enough to support the body. But as we are living and therefore reactive beings, we also must remember the importance sensory feedback plays in our balance and stability.
Consider how understanding the feelings in your soles will take you farther.
Knowing where you stand
We have lost touch with what we stand on, both literally and figuratively.
But because of our current lifestyles – living in cities on hard, flat, unnatural ground developed to support fluid movement of wheeled transportation and structural stability, sidewalks littered with cigarette butts, broken glass, spit out gum, urine of both animals and humans, all of which are not naturally absorbed into cement – we’ve resorted to covering our feet to protect them, and ultimately have lost touch with our soles.
Just as laying on the sofa all day every day would make it uncomfortable to exercise, or staying in a dark room would make it difficult for eyes to adjust to sunshine, depriving the feet of sensory input can cause atrophy in their muscles, movement, and reactiveness, sometimes to the point of pain.
Problems in the feet – the foundation of the body – will eventually cause a chain reaction up the line, weakening the structure and compromising its functions.
Come to your senses
The body operates most efficiently when all senses are being used together, like musicians in a band or orchestra making music in the same key and tempo, harmonizing together, instruments fading in and out to create soundscape atmospheres.
The nose can discern smell that will arouse or repel, working together with the tongue’s taste receptors to determine if something is edible or not, signaling sweet, salty, bitter, or neutral.
The eyes can recognize loved ones or things that cause anxiety. The ears enhance direction and movement and can locate places that can’t be immediately seen.
Just like hands know how to adjust themselves to hold an egg without crushing it, use scissors for cutting paper, steady a pot to pour boiling water from cooked pasta, or gently hold someone’s hand, so too are feet equipped to walk on soft sandy shorelines, ancient stoney ways, moss covered grounds, or rooty forest paths.
Feet were made to recognize and respond to tactile sensations. Soles are receiving platforms for translating information through nerves, muscles, and fascia networks that run all the way up to the brain for fine tuning posture, balance, stability, and reactive adjustments. Signals received from the soles support ideal blood and lymphatic flow through the body, and activate neural systems for proper signaling to the pelvis, which can also help to reduce problems of incontinence.
When the sensory abilities in the soles become lost, so too does the ability to optimally balance and react. As the body ages, this can cause insecurities in mobility, a higher rate of accidents, an eventual lead to loss of independence, and in some cases even an untimely death.
Save your soles
Feet need action, adventure, stimulation, and challenges on varied and natural textures on a regular basis. If your feet feel hyper-sensitive to slowly walking barefoot across rocks the texture of worn cobblestones, this is a clear signal they need to regain the sensory abilities they have lost.
Start slowly to restore sensory input receptors, just as you would a new exercise program for the body.
Roll your feet over a textured massage ball daily to give them some stimulation.
Inside your home create a barefoot parkour. A box of pebbles, sand, woodchips, or even young pinecones to stand on are efficient and cost friendly solutions. A few large textured stones placed as a pathway can better balance and increase reactiveness.
If you have a garden, build a barefoot sensory area to enjoy, changing it seasonally to reflect what wild soles would naturally experience.
When they feel ready, take your feet on barefoot walks in nature areas that are safe from trash, pollutions, and thorny plants. Let them get dirty, muddy, play and move.
This not only restores their strength and health, it also boost your immune system, promotes better sleep, and reduces stress and depression.
For more information about saving your soles, contact PediPower, located in Zürich, Switzerland for resources, ideas, and support on your foot restoration journey.
Read more from Georgette Dutoit
Georgette Dutoit, Restorative Foot Therapist
After a body and life altering sledding accident in Switzerland, Surgeons, Doctors, and Physical Therapists from Zürich's Swiss Olympic Medical Center agreed Georgette would face a lifetime of Pain Management and Orthotic Aids. Drawing on her knowledge from growing up Barefooting the rocky cliffs and tidepools of Southern California's and Mexico's coastlines, her Apache Roots, and updated findings in Sports Science, Georgette made a medically unimaginable recovery – without residual pain and orthotics. She's now using these protocols to help others realize their full mobility potentials, and has opened PediPower, a Concept Foot Center in Zürich, Switzerland including Foot Therapy, Education, and multi-brand Barefoot Shoes.
