Becoming Embodied: Feeling Your Feet
As humans we are designed to feel our feet on the ground. Hence the long list of old adages to aid us in trying times: “get your feet on the ground”, “take your stand”, “get grounded”. In the somatic work I provide, feeling your feet isn’t just a metaphor or a good idea - it’s an essential part of coming into your body, your senses, and of trusting yourself.
What Your Feet Can Tell You
People who have a history of trying to “hold on” in life may have toes that are chronically curled down, as if they are trying to grip the floor. Conversely, people I work with who have a challenging time feeling settled in themselves or in their roles as leaders often have their toes stuck in extension, as if they are unsure if they can trust fully landing on the ground. For those who have been forced to make themselves small and hidden, the toes and entire foot will often be tight, pulled inward. For these people, spreading out and really taking their stand has been historically challenging.
Somatic Bodywork To Promote Awareness
I will often work on clients’ feet to help loosen up the arches, toes, heels, and general connective tissues of the foot. This is not simply massaging them to make them feel good, but helping to hold the areas of contraction for a moment - perhaps a few breaths - so the feet can begin to relax and soften. In doing this it’s important to ask the client to take their attention to their feet - to join you there - so that they can become more aware of how they are in their feet such that they can have more choice in how they hold tightness/ relaxation in their feet. This step is important for effective somatic bodywork as it provides a context for the practitioner and client to join together in seeing and feeling what is really happening in the moment as a way of building awareness. If the client is “zoned out” or adrift in thought during this time, the feet will revert to their previous contractions as soon as I am done attending to them.
The Importance Of Feeling Our Feet
After a bodywork session I will often ask the client to feel their feet on the ground as a reminder to take their attention there. (Again, we see that much of somatic work is actually about where we put our attention). When people can begin to feel their feet on the ground as actual sensation, they become connected to the millions of years of evolution that make us the unique bipedal organisms we all are. In feeling our feet - the pressure under our soles, our balance front-to-back, the temperatures and energy moving - we push the pause button on whatever mental chatter is running in our heads. We give ourselves the opportunity to have an embodied experience (contrasted with a cognitive experience) of “I belong on this earth”.
If we begin to dissociate out of fear we will lose all sensory contact with our feet. However if we are not feeling our feet to begin with, it is much more challenging to know if we are triggered emotionally or, conversely, if we are more connected to our grounded sense of self. It is in this way that feeling our feet is not only vitally important for helping us come into a state of feeling grounded in our nervous system in times of stress, but it can also serve as a gauge - something of a litmus test - for assessing how present or absent we are moment to moment.
If you’re struggling with feeling grounded, contact me to learn more about how somatic bodywork can help.