The most obvious answers are: appeasement and energy.
For example, in France, I live in the countryside and there is a dirt road right in front of my house. When I come home stressed from work, what relaxes me the most is going to walk barefoot, even just 10-15 minutes, on this path and ideally when it is muddy. A passage in the grass to wipe most of the mud, followed by a quick shower and I have clean feet again.
On the other hand, I am unable to explain why!
We will see in another post the different possible explanations.
But, it’s not limited to that…
There is also the pleasure of feeling very different sensations constantly.
An old cliché suggests that touching is with your hands.
But in fact, the touch is done with all parts of our body.
Former teacher of schools in kindergarten, work this meaning with young students, discovering their bodies and their environment, and deconstructing this cliché, was very instructive.
This learning has even become essential in this sad period when touch has become almost « forbidden » because seen as a risk of contamination.
Walking barefoot is therefore also an immersion in very varied permanent sensations depending on the ground on which you walk: cold / hot, dry / wet, rough / soft, pleasant / unpleasant …
I therefore recommend this practice in family with young children, experience also very enriching in terms of vocabulary.
Another feeling very present in barefoot in my opinion is the feeling of freedom, hence the title of the site.
Many people experience well-being when they go home and take off their shoes. We feel freed from a straitjacket, which is nothing more and nothing less than our shoes for our feet, especially according to the models that can sometimes be on the verge of torture.
In most advertisements where the advertiser wants to display well-being, the characters are barefoot, at home but also at the beach for example.
The expression « toes in a fan » is also very representative of this.
What will differentiate from barefoot is that the place is considered safe for the feet.
However this practice with a minimum of caution is risk-free.
Rationally, walking barefoot at the beach is not without pitfalls, we meet in another form dangers present in the countryside or the city (beer bottle cap, sharp shell, piece of glass or any waste a little sharp that is hidden under the sand, hook, live, sea urchins, etc.). But these dangers are minimized by experience that has shown us from a very young age that their probability of realization is low.
The practice of barefoot will have the same effect, but you have to get started and detach yourself from this preconception.
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laurentcornelis100
- 17 janv.
- 4 Min
What walking barefoot brings me. (Post in english only)
Dernière mise à jour : 18 janv.
The most obvious answers are: appeasement and energy.
For example, in France, I live in the countryside and there is a dirt road right in front of my house. When I come home stressed from work, what relaxes me the most is going to walk barefoot, even just 10-15 minutes, on this path and ideally when it is muddy. A passage in the grass to wipe most of the mud, followed by a quick shower and I have clean feet again.
On the other hand, I am unable to explain why!
We will see in another post the different possible explanations.
But, it’s not limited to that…
There is also the pleasure of feeling very different sensations constantly.
Instinctively, when we think of the sense of touch, we think of the hands.
But in fact, touch is done with all parts of our body.
Former kindergarten teacher, working this sense with young students, in full discovery of their body and their environment, was pure happiness.
This learning has even become essential in this sad period when touch has become almost « forbidden » because seen as a risk of contamination.
Walking barefoot is therefore also an immersion in very varied permanent sensations depending on the ground on which you walk: cold / hot, dry / wet, rough / soft, pleasant / unpleasant …
I therefore recommend this practice in family with young children, experience also very enriching in terms of vocabulary.
Another feeling very present in barefoot in my opinion is the feeling of freedom, hence the title of the site.
Many people experience well-being when they go home and take off their shoes. We feel freed from a straitjacket, which is nothing more and nothing less than our shoes for our feet, especially according to the models that can sometimes be on the verge of torture.
In most advertisements where the advertiser wants to display well-being, the characters are barefoot, at home but also at the beach for example.
The expression « toes in a fan » is also very representative of this.
What will differentiate from barefoot is that the place is considered safe for the feet.
However this practice with a minimum of caution is risk-free.
Rationally, walking barefoot at the beach is not without pitfalls, we meet in another form dangers present in the countryside or the city (beer bottle cap, sharp shell, piece of glass or any waste a little sharp that is hidden under the sand, hook, live, sea urchins, etc.). But these dangers are minimized by experience that has shown us from a very young age that their probability of realization is low.
The practice of barefoot will have the same effect, but you have to get started and detach yourself from this preconception.
In short, the freedom of our feet, and ours, in the end it is everywhere or almost!
Not only at home in a known universe (the Lego at night or the corner of furniture reminds us) or in places where we are used to being barefoot such as the beach.
Our feet carry us all day, they deserve a little recognition by being released as soon as possible, right? Let them breathe.
Especially since your well-being goes through theirs.
Another source of pleasure is to take your time. This is so important in a world where everything has to go fast.
This is essential especially when you start, if only to see where you put your feet. But also and above all to enjoy the sensations felt, the link found with the ground.
I will come back to this in a chapter dedicated to the first steps in barefoot, but it is important to understand that walking barefoot is different from walking with shoes.
It is a form of return to the wild, to the sources of the human.
Wearing shoes, we have taken the bad habit of putting first the heel, then the metatarsus, the fleshy part at the base of the toes that I prefer to call « pad », then the toes.
Walking barefoot, it will be necessary to relearn to put first the pad, then to anchor with the toes and only after finding these supports, put the heel.
Slamming the heel, which generates a shock that is bad on the rest of the skeleton, is thus avoided.
It’s a bit like the so-called « wolf » or « felted » step walk that you use when you want to walk gently without making any noise.
The pad, much more fleshy than the heel absorbs a lot of the shock of the first contact with the ground, and the toes continue this work before in the end the heel is laid.
This learning requires taking your time to be aware of each movement, the search for balance (especially in rough terrain) as well as the sensations related to contact with the ground.
It is also a moment that allows you to better discover your environment.
Very often, a barefooter will observe things, details, that a walker on shoes will not see.
With the habit, you will be able to accelerate the pace. And if you feel like it, discover barefoot running (a post will be devoted to this sport).
Finally, and this is certainly the most personal feature of the pleasure I find in barefoot, I like the notion of originality, marginality or even provocation.
It’s not about making it a finality, but for me it’s a little extra pleasure.
The brake essentially encountered by beginners in barefoot walking, perhaps even more than danger or dirt, is the gaze of others.
Personally, I don’t care and on the contrary I have fun with it.
Especially in France where I am often targeted by disapproving looks through which I understand that I am perceived as a madman or a homeless person.
Conversely, in the Netherlands, I meet many people who come to ask me about this practice and ask me intelligent questions.
I will develop this « social analysis » in another post.
But I assume that as long as I don’t harm anyone, I do what I want. So if I feel like walking barefoot, I do it.
I take advantage of it, for the moment it is still allowed and … free!
