(hint: it’s not the lure of enlightenment or a toned butt).
I grew up mostly barefoot. The soles of my feet were like little moccasins from running around a 30 acre semi-communal property in Northern California. Even when I landed on the mean streets of NYC for college, I was loath to put on shoes. My friends berated me for months. I was going to get ringworm or step on a rusty syringe! I grudgingly clad my feet.
This was the dark ages, when ‘barefoot shoes’ was an oxymoron. It was four decades before I learned that going barefoot doesn’t just feel good, but that the health benefits are actually far ranging and unexpected. From reduced cortisol and inflammation to increased energy and healing ability. (Plus, if you’re more fancy than me, you get to show off your pedicure).
It was a huge relief when I finally found my way onto a yoga mat and was sanctioned to take my shoes off in public again. For 90 minutes a day at least.
Today, I have been teaching alignment-based vinyasa yoga for three decades. Even after all this time, I continue to be obsessed with the power of the breath, and other subtle practices like bandha, to elevate a rigorous physical practice into an investigation of inner space. I also love to balance on all parts of my body. The hands, head, forearms, as well as feet.
Our feet are the most foundational part of our body. Literally. How we stand, and walk, and balance, and bound. They affect the whole chain of the spine, and the function of all our joints. I’m fascinated by the huge variations between people’s feet and their lack of awareness about the function (and dysfunction) of this incredible feat of engineering. 26 bones (1/4 of all the bones in our bodies!), 33 joints, more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments, and an incredible 200,000 nerve endings. When we step barefoot onto the mat, we are liberating our feet from centuries of self-imposed abuse.
There are many reasons that yoga practice is different from ‘regular’ fitness modality. We are engaging in an intoxicating dance of brain, body and breath. Whether or not you regard your time on your mat as a ’spiritual’ practice, you are engaging in a mind-body modality that is elevated beyond the physiological.
Our practice is bracketed by two portals. We begin and end the practice with a chant of Om. To me, this is a gateway we pass through to create a defined – and perhaps divine – experience. We also establish a collective sacred space when we take off our shoes as we enter the studio. This might seem like a small gesture, but I think it is profound. We are leaving the outside world behind. We are making ourselves at ‘home’ in the collective. We are getting just a tiny bit naked, and walking a little closer to the earth.
So the next time you slip off your shoes and unroll your mat, spread your toes like a big smile. Stretch, bend and strengthen your feet as you do the rest of your body. Align your arches as you do your nervous system. Stand your ground. Because there is no better practice for what life will ask of you when you leave the studio.
Schuyler Grant is a world-renowned yoga teacher, founder, and co-director of Kula Yoga Project, and co-creator of the Wanderlust Festival. Raised on a communal property in Northern California, she later moved to NYC to pursue acting and filmmaking at Columbia University. Instead, she found her calling in yoga, opening Kula Yoga Project near Ground Zero in 2002 to help rebuild the community and heart in Lower Manhattan.
Coming to London for the first time, Schuyler will be teaching two workshops at Mission on May 7th and 8th. Each 2.5 hour master class begins with mobility exercises followed by a creative Kula style flow sequence infused with bandha work, and finishing with a restorative breathwork session. These classes will leave you energised, stable, and profoundly aware of how you move through space.
These workshops are in collaboration with Vivobarefoot, a barefoot shoe company that promotes the natural strength and movement of the feet. Students at Schuyler’s workshops will be entered into a Vivobarefoot giveaway!
Book Wednesday 7th May
Book Thursday 8th May