(Maybe the ancients were onto something)
Walk into any yoga studio from New York to Tokyo, and you'll see the shoes lined up outside the door. Occasionally, when a yogi forgets and enters the studio sanctuary with street shoes. –you can almost hear the sniffs of disapproval. No dirty shoes! Dirty feet only please!
But have you ever asked yourself why? Is everyone just playing follow the leader? Or are there other things going on? Lets take a look at the historical, physiological, neurological and metaphysical reasons why Yoga is practiced barefoot and why it’s difficult to imagine things any other way.
TRADITION
Ancient pictographs show that Yoga was originally practiced barefoot and on bare earth. So custom clearly plays a role --yet sports ranging from running to wrestling were also originally practiced barefoot and on bare earth --and then went on to develop specialized footwear. So tradition only explains so much.
PHYSIOLOGY
The human foot is an incredible piece of engineering with 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles and over 100 ligaments. It's designed to provide balance and support for the entire body. When you add shoes into the mix, you change the way your foot functions –and in the case of Yoga where balance is paramount: that can lead to instability and injury.
NEUROLOGY
There's also a neurological reason for going barefoot. The soles of your feet are covered with nerve endings called proprioceptors. These receptors provide a stream of information to the brain about the position of your body in space –and just like muscles, bones and tendons they allow a yogi to maintain balance. For obvious reasons, shoes reduce the amount of information the proprioceptors are receiving –which in single foot postures like dancer’s pose -is not a good idea.
METAPHYSICS
There are also some who believe that there are metaphysical benefits to going barefoot. They believe that the Earth is alive and has a healing energy that can be accessed through the feet. The light is often described as golden and pink –similar to a sunset. This may sound like a stretch, but there's actually some scientific evidence to support the idea that the human body benefits from direct contact with the earth.
EARTHING
The practice of walking barefoot on soil or “Earthing” has been shown to reduce inflammation, improve sleep and reduce stress. Soil has its own microbiome and it's rich in beneficial bacteria. Research suggests that being in direct contact with it can help reduce inflammation and increase immune response.
How do you explore your feet?
What other pursuits do we arbitrarily clad our feet in when naked toes might be the way to go? Or… thinking way outside the box – can you imagine footwear that would enhance the yoga experience?
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