meet my feet.

"What would it be like to know, in the deepest part of you, that every part of your anatomy and each process of your female body contained wisdom and power?" - Christiane Northrup, M.D.

(For those of you who don't know what I am doing, here is the explanation.)

I'm not sure what I expected. I think I expected that it would take a long time to have a connection with my feet. You need to know that there is a deeply practical side to me that I have had to tell that this is an experiment to get it to be brave enough to put this stuff on a a blog. That side of me expected to sit there and have nothing really happen. The other part of me thought that I would get these profound messages from my body, and that I would end up writing something deep and eternal on my feet that would change everything.

Well I washed my feet and changed into some comfortable clothes. I sat down, smudged the area around me and lit a candle. Then I sat and held my feet. I talked to them. I thanked them for all of the adventures that we had been on together. I apologized to them for wearing the mean shoes that caused me to have awful ingrown toenails when I was younger. I apologized to them for hating them for being so big. I told them about all of the adventures we were going to go on in the future and about some of the not-so-fun things that we were going to do. I rubbed them and stroked them and held them until I was done talking.

Then I sat very still and asked them if they had anything that they wanted to tell me. I honestly thought I would sit there for ages waiting for something to happen. I got a message IMMEDIATELY: "Put us up." I thought I was just thinking that myself, but the message came through loud and clear a second and a third time: "UP!" So I moved around and lay on my back with my feet propped up against the chest of drawers.

After a few moments, I quietly asked them what words I should give them. Again, the answer came immediately. "Ready? Set! Go!" Came my answer. I remember shaking my head a little. I had been hoping for something a little deeper. I waited again, but the answer was the same. I asked what other words I could given them. That answer also came out loud and clear. "Be still."

I lay still for a little while longer, but my my feet did not. My toes would not stop wriggling. When I sat up I rubbed my hands over them again. Usually there is a place on the inside of my instep that is excruciating when it is rubbed. I instinctively moved my thumbs to that place. Nothing. No pain. For the first time I can remember, that spot didn't hurt at all. (I'm embarrassed to say that I even pushed really hard just to make sure!) Amazing. So I wrote their messages on my feet and then tucked them into cozy socks (because they asked me to.)

So what have I learned? I've learned that my feet are a whole lot more exuberant than I have given them credit for. They want to move. They want to wriggle. They want to race. They want to dance.

I'm listening. Today we are going to dance!!

So far it's been a very interesting experiment! I am going to keep working up. Tomorrow I am going to introduce myself to my legs. I wonder if they will have as much to say.

xo

"What would it be like if you reclaimed the wisdom of your body and learned how to trust its messages?" - Christiane Northrup, M.D.