It’s often we don’t pay attention to our feet, but they also need the care that we give the rest of our bodies. You probably don’t even notice it, but you could be walking off of alignment, and your arch can be off too. That’s because we work our feet so hard and forget to care for them throughout the day.
But we should at least be able to do something good for our heels and toes at least once in the day. So to help keep your feet both healthy and beautiful, try some of the following.
Alignment of the Foot
Having proper foot alignment can help ease back pain, improves posture, helps to prevent serious foot injury, and gives a more appealing look to the foot. Sometimes, as we grow, our feet become turned in or turned out. The best way to start aligning your feet, is to of course determine if they are turned in or turned out. The next step is to sit, placing your feet flat on the ground with your ankles at least 5 inches apart. Your ankles should be directly beneath your knees. Keeping your feet so that they are flat, move them so they face the wall directly across from you. It is helpful if you have two marks on the opposite wall, if at all possible. For the legs, this feels odd, but as you practice, it becomes easier and not so alien. Aligning the feet can be done at anytime, on the bus, at work, at school, out for coffee, or sitting at home.
Stretching those feet!
Stretching is an important part of our daily routine, and sometimes the feet are overlooked. The easiest stretch is to point and flex, if you have ever taken a class that requires stretching, you probably know what we are talking about! You simply sit on the ground with legs together and stretched in front of you, point your toes to the opposite wall for 10 seconds, then bring the toes to a ’flexed’ position for 10 seconds, and repeat several times.
Another stretch is similar, but gives the feet more range of motion. In the same starting position, feet flexed, turn them out to the sides of your ankles, allowing your legs to move. With your feet on their ‘sides’ point them forward, and then bring them together. To finish, bring them back to a flexing position, and repeat as desired. As with any type of stretching, doing so for the feet will increase their flexibility, strength, and arch of the foot. If you look at beauty ads that have bare feet in them, you will notice the foot is almost always arched.
Releasing Tension in the Foot
Along with turned in and turned out feet, often when we walk, we place more pressure on one part of our feet than on any other, mainly the heels of our feet, the balls of our feet, our toes, the insole of the foot, or the outsole of our foot. To help evenly distribute the weight in order to release tension, stand with feet roughly shoulder width apart, bend your knees slightly, keeping them beneath your hips, and your ankles beneath your knees. Move your feat around on the ground, notice where you put the most pressure, and try moving your feet around to even out the pressure, once you achieve this, walk around for a bit, and then do this process again. Do this at least once a day, to get into the habit of relieving the stress in your feet.
Massaging the feet
Okay, we know you wanted to read this, and since it is true that massaging is good for your whole body, we’re telling you to massage away!
Take a look at either the Sensual massage for her or Sensual massage for him sections in the article ‘How to Use Essential Oils at Home’ if you would like to add a bit more to the massage. Start with your little toes, and massage each toe individually. Once you get to the big toe, make sure to get in between the toes as well! Wrap your hands around the balls of your feet and massage in a circular motion, moving down the foot towards the heel. Next do the same thing on the top of your foot, and finally, massage the front and back of your ankle. You can do each of the above massage techniques for as long or as short of a time as you like. You’ll find yourself so much more relieved and relaxed, especially after using your tired feet all day!
