Barefoot Stress Relief

I love digging in the dirt and feeling my connection to the earth. I find it quite helpful for releasing tension and stress. I also find walking barefoot in the grass to be a great stress reducer. I had a journalist ask me about this a few months back - he wanted to know why walking barefoot might be a "good" thing to do since it seemed to be "beat out of us" as we grew into adulthood. This is what I told him over the phone... as I was walking barefoot in my backyard. Grin.

I recall when all my friends and I would run barefoot outside in the new spring grass... how soft the carpet of cool green felt under my tender feet. I recall how sensitive my feet were in the spring and then how they would toughen up over the summer months; and it was a badge of honor to be able to walk calmly over small pebbles or areas of gravel without making a face by the end of the summer. I recall the warmth of the sun on the summer grass as we ran around and played freeze tag, leap frog and roll the bat.

I also have memories of my father, the only doctor in two counties, chastising all of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade children in our small neighborhood 'gang' running and squealing with laughter in my backyard as we chased fireflies in the early evening. he would yell that we should know better than to go barefoot. He would remind me often that a person should wear shoes as soon as they weighted enough to make a nail on the ground puncture a foot if they accidentally walked on it.

During my medical school training, I recall a microbiology instructor, from maryland, informing the class that all sorts of parasites could be contracted by walking around barefoot. He used as proof the 'fact' that all southerners were "naturally lethargic and slow" due to having contracted so many parasites by going barefoot from childhood to young adulthood. he even went so far as to say that that was the likely cause of the South losing to the North during the Civil War. (It was all I could do not to scream out loud at his ridiculous statements and accusations....sheesh.)

After I had become licensed to practice medicine, board-certified in psychiatry and had been in practice for 5 years, I began to pursue additional training in complementary and integrative (mind-body) medicine. I began to learn about acupressure points, reflexology, meditation, traditional Chinese medicine, color and sound therapy, and other ancient techniques for well-being and improving. then I became aware of different points on the bottom of the feet that correspond to every organ system of the body, and how stimulating them is believed to promote health and wellness. it appears that walking barefoot may actually massage and stimulate some of the key areas on the bottom of the feet better than walking with feet trapped on a flat surface of the insole of a shoe. Who knew that perhaps everything we needed to know about promoting wellness we instinctively knew when we were in kindergarten? Grin. What would our parents say?

DocTracy