Lose Your Shoes - The Benefits Of Being Barefoot
Shoes are here to stay but could they be harming our health? I'm not saying you should clean out your closet and walk around like a Buddhist monk all the time but I believe there are benefits to going barefoot for extended periods of time.
Shoes are practical and needed in today's society and fashion proves shoes are big business. According to Footwear Industry Statistics, the global annual revenue from footwear did $52,175,000,000 in business last year alone.
That's about half of the cryptocurrency market every year!
Reflexologists believe nerves connected to all the organs in our body converge in the souls of our feet and applying pressure to different places on our feet has a beneficial effect on the person's health.
I've experienced this myself and have relieved headaches and a stuffed up nose just by pressing down on specific points on the bottom of my feet.
It seems noteworthy to me that our bodies wouldn't go through all the trouble to grow nerve cells that connect to every organ terminating at the souls of our feet if there wasn't a good reason for doing so.
Why bother if it isn't important?
Nerve cells communicate with each other through electrical impulses and for an electrical current to flow there needs to be a grounding terminal.
In electrical engineering, ground or earth is the reference point in an electrical circuit from which voltages are measured, a common return path for electric current, or a direct physical connection to the Earth. Wikipedia
Our bodies have employed vasts amounts of resources to grow a nervous system throughout the entire body and they all connect to the bottom of our feet.
Feet are in constant contact with the Earth and that is where every part of our nervous system converges.
This hints to me that it may be important to our bodies nervous system to have a good connection to the Earth for most of our waking hours.
Nerve impulses, the language of nerve cells, are electrical signals and the result of ions moving in and out of the cells.
An ion is a charged atom or molecule. It is charged because the number of electrons does not equal the number of protons in the atom or molecule. An atom can acquire a positive charge or a negative charge depending on whether the number of electrons in an atom is greater or less than the number of protons in the atom. Wikipedia
As mentioned earlier a common ground is needed for an electrical current to function properly and there is no better ground than the Earth itself.
The most logical place on our bodies that are connected to the ground is our feet. Makes sense that nerve ending would travel to the souls of our feet, right?
Have you ever noticed how good it feels to walk in the forest, at the base of a waterfall, barefoot on the beach, or anywhere that moving water is close by?
All of those places have one thing in common. An abundance of negative ions in the air.
Negative ions are tasteless, odorless, molecules in the air that we inhale when we are near moving water and forest environments that get into our bloodstream creating biochemical reactions that produce serotonin.
Serotonin is known to relieve depression, stress and boosts our immune systems giving us energy.
Those same molecules, or ions, are used by our nervous system to communicate throughout the body and to keep the circuit flowing or plugged in it needs to be grounded.
Walking barefoot connects the whole body, not just our feet, with the Earth and plugs us into the "global circuit", if you will, making our entire system function as it was intended.
It makes sense that walking barefoot on the beach close to the waves or at the base of a waterfall feels so good because we are breathing air rich in negative ions and massaging our bare feet on the solid, grounded Earth.
That has to be good for us, right? What are your thoughts on walking barefoot and its effect on your health?
Been living it for 3 years brother. Only in airports or immigration do they make me wear them!
By being barefoot we are earthed at all times ensuring the correct voltage is retained in our bio-electric bodies. Our voltage should be in sync with the planet. The rubber insulation of shoes combined with all the electricity cables around us throws our natural voltage way off, causing lots of potential health problems.
I also sleep on an earthing sheet which has small metal fibres running into a single cable which is plugged into the soil in the garden. So my voltage is correct even while I sleep in a bed, elevated off the ground with my phone charging next to me.
Long gone are the days of bedding down for the night in the long grass, so this is a good alternative to retaining correct voltage at all times.
I am pretty sure my posture is better too. And the soles of my feet are very thick now so rarely do I feel pain when walking on sharp stones.
It's a super interesting topic I should really do a post about. Now that it's been three years of no shoes ;)
Upped at 100% & resteemed
Wow, you really go all out there... where did you find this earthing sheet? And why are the grass days long gone? On that note, I read somewhere people still can benefits from going barefoot for even a few minutes a day in grass - although certainly going all out like you is probably better! It sounds like you must work from home then? It might be hard going barefoot to an office job :P
I go barefoot when I'm in a park, but that's usually about the extent of my caveman feet freedom. Otherwise, I'll do the next best thing which is wearing the five finger toe shoes as much as possible. It's funny, I haven't worn "normal" sneakers with lots of cushioning in a couple years, and now I just tried some gym shoes on for the first time and it wasn't comfortable at all! Even though I loved how they looked on me, I just couldn't do it... returned them 2 days later.
The earthing sheet is from here: http://www.groundology.co.uk/products
What I meant by the grass days is that few people sleep with their body in direct contact with the earth any more. Well, certainly not in the western world.
And yes, even just a few mins a day will play a part in returning your body to its correct voltage.
Very cool, thanks for sharing that! I'll check that out. Yep, as someone who works on the computer all day, I do enjoy going out and being barefoot on grass/in nature but I definitely need to make a point of doing it on as close to a daily basis if possible.
They also make grounding mats which sit under your desk so your bare feet can be on this as you work and your natural voltage will be unaffected despite all the electricity flowing around you. I don't actually have one of those yet however! Probably not that hard to make yourself if you're keen.
Aaaand another nice tip! I hadn't heard of grounding mats, I do use a safe sleeve for my computer and cell phone though.
just googled it and found this one - looks good https://www.earthing.com/universal-mat-with-cover-kit.html/ will seriously consider ordering.
Not exactly cheap but I'm sure it's worth it, there's no better investment than your health :) I wouldn't know the first thing about how to make one myself by the way.
Another thing - I just realized my apartment has hardwood floors... would that be considered grounding as well since it is natural? No idea, do you know?
I went many years without shoes and you do get used to it.
There's a reason we have expressions like:
or
There is more to it than meets the eye. If you do a post about it please be sure to add a link to it here so others can read your post.
I'll ditto that! Well now I'm following you both so I hope to see it ;)
Will do ;)
I like to go barefoot around the house and especially in the summer, I wear sandals. But, I am not convinced it's better for my health. I have an uncle that swear the opposite. Such as so many topics I suppose
I think there's a generation that equates bare feet with poverty and being unhealthy. They were sold on shoes and it was passed down through the generations.
When I lived on a wwoofer farm in Hawaii there was a volunteer there who hadn't worn shoes for over a year. when he went hiking he was barefoot, it amazed me. ...All I know is the feeling of sand or grass on my toes and feet is invigorating - except when the sand is scalding hot and you have to run across it, LOL!
One thing I love about the beaches in the Yucatan where I live is the sand doesn't get hot no matter how hot the sun beats down on it. You can walk without burning your feet. I love the beaches here for that reason.
I totally agree. The sand here is amazing! In Europe the sand gets so hot in any places there are wooden walkways to the ocean. You literally cant walk on the sand. It burns. It's like air conditioned sand here. I love it!!! ❤️
I actually just listened to a Freakonomics episode about being barefoot the other day. Very fascinating stuff and I've definitely started trying to take my shoes off as much as possible.
Is it a video? You can post a link to it here if you think it applies to the conversation.
Here's a link to the page that posts it. It's a podcast by Steven Dubner (from Freakonomics the book)
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/shoes/
It's a podcast that you can check out here: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/shoes/
Walking barefooted really has great benefits! I was always taught by my parents to do it from time to time and feel the earth, enjoy the moment!
Wearing shoes for my past job has really made my feet to get skin problems, I now feel better whenever i go for a walk on the beach and walk barefooted on the sand!
Thanks for this great piece of info!
Cheers
@progressivechef
Good read.
I wonder about leather mocacins, I imagine they too would allow earth grounding.
Leather is conductive so it is good to wear leather soled shoes. It is even more conductive when moist so if your feet sweat a little in your shoes, it’s a good thing.
Leather shoes allow grounding after they have been worn long enough to absorb moisture from the environment. The conductivity of the leather increases with wear, as the shoes absorb more moisture over time.
I've had lots of troubles with shoes... It seems that I have very sensitive feet, and its prolonged use also affects me enormously. Very good your information ;)
Take your shoes off and there go your trouble with shoes.
I thought I was the only one with that kind of trouble jajajaja! Greetings ;)
I live near a nice waterfall thats about a 15 minute hike into the woods and i try to do the hike at least one way barefoot every time. I make a point of stepping on round rocks and roots sticking up to massage the bottoms of my feet and my whole body feels great afterwards!
It is like a foot massage if you walk on the right surfaces and always makes me feel invigorated afterwards.
Great post! I've developed a distaste for shoes as of late. I'm known as the shoeless one at work because I remove my shoes when sitting at my desk. It makes me feel more grounded lol
Atta boy! Take them off as much as possible.
I also love the Japanese tradition of removing shoes before entering a house.
I have voted for you can you vote my comment please .. Thank you dear in advance .
It is considered bad form to ask people to upvote your comments especially when you have not added anything of value to the conversation. Continuing to do this will only hurt your reputation.
I know you are new here and don't know how it works on Steemit so I suggest you read about Steemt etiquette here and maybe you should read this post about the two biggest mistakes new Steemians make when they join Steemit.
Very nice reply, and worthy of my upvote :-)
Thanks
I see you're going through the same issues as me. You have a very cordial response here. Hope you don't mind if I borrow it?
Thanks. Of course, you can borrow it. Admittedly, I'm not always cordial but you get your point across better when you are. I'm also trying to be patient with new Steemians.
ditto that - I actually said the same within my first 5 minutes on Steemit in a comment to someone in a similar situation. Although it hasn't been even a week of me being on Steemit, social media etiquette is almost the same on any platform whether it's here, FB, Twitter, etc. That's like writing "please RT" at the end of a tweet. Oh well, I suppose if someone doesn't have a lot of social media experience it's understandable if you simply don't know yet.
Some people just don't understand the "social" part of social media.
I wouldn't walk into a party full of people I have never met and ask them to do a favor for me and if I did I expect I wouldn't be invited to too many parties.
It's no different online. Mingling and having conversations with people will get them the upvotes they seek just as naturally as someone giving you a high five.
Haha I just pictured someone walking into a party and trying that..yeah, pretty awkward.
Brilliant!!!!! Pmsl 😆 I literally just visualized someone trying to do that! 😂
Great response.
Thanks, glad you liked it....just joined your "army" (aka followed) hehe
He actually was responding to my comment but your response was great as well.
You can tell who he was responding to by seeing how these comments are nested. Follow his response up using the avatar as a guide and the next avatar up indented the same way is the response someone is commenting on.
Oh I see what you mean now, sorry about that! My mistake. Still very new to Steem..thanks for telling me in a gentle way haha,
It's all good. This is how we learn to Steemit.
Both of your responses were great! LOL. I thought i'd gotten over these bad robo like comments and then one got to me yesterday and I vented a little too much for my own taste in a post. Which is why @luzcypher response struck a chord with me. Welcome to steemit @jobsande, you found someone good to follow in @luzcypher, and I'll do my best to make myself worthy of your follow!