The Key to Grounding is in the Feet

Yoga has brought me a new awareness of my feet, including all ten toes. The more awareness I have of my feet, the more grounded and embodied I feel, and the more present I feel.

My malasana yogi squat

Being able to have your feet and toes properly grip the surface beneath you creates a whole new level of awareness and proprioception. Proprioception as most people know it, is the ability for the body to be able to be in best balance of awareness to our environment. This is a subtle physical way of knowing where our body is “in space” around us. Increasing our proprioception also increases our psychic ability. The ability to know when to move out the way of an object, that feeling of knowing that someone is coming or behind you, or that nudge to go a different route home, is not only just a mental perception or intuition, even. It’s also a bodily intelligence.

The energy centers like the chakras, and energetic bodies like koshas all help us to perceive energy within and around us. In yoga, the annamaya kosha is our physical body, the densest most physical energetic seath that contains our soul. Above that is a subtle layer, the pranamaya kosha or the breath body or energy body. Above that is subtler layer, the mind and emotions layer, the manomaya kosha. Each layer of the 5 koshas become subtler and subtler. I am also currently studying which of the koshas are connected to the 7 energetic bodies and the 7 planes of existence.

When it comes to spirituality, we always want to start from the ground up. That means starting at the root, muladhara. This is why I talk a lot about not neglecting your lower chakras when it comes to “doing the work”. Taking care of our physical self, our physical bodies is just as important to tending to our higher energies. Neglect of the physical self creates energetic discord through disembodiedment. The type of “Out of body” enlightenment or common denouncing the body type of sprituality was a result of the Piscean Age that we are currently moving out of. In the direction we’re now moving into, Embodiment is key to not getting spiritually infiltrated out here in these streets! I’m telling you! It gets real out here, so we must tend to our physical body, as it is the vehicle of our soul.
Starting from the ground up by creating awareness in the toes and the feet sends a chain like effect to all other parts of the body, starting at the ankles, going up our legs, then our to our knees - a vital joint to mobility, then our hips which is also important to our mobility. The awakening of the hips then opens awareness of the spine, which then supports our torso, which then endlessly powers up our core, our power center for the entire body. And it’s just this good exchange of functionality that causes us to feel good, that allows us to quiet our mind and tune into the subtle energetic layers of our body. You feel me?

How do we create this full body awareness by way of the feet? Let’s start with these three basic asanas:

1. Downward Facing Dog (Adho Muka Svanasana) - Downdog has an inversion element to it. With our palms on the ground and our head below our heart, it is a full body activation pose.
   
   Start by finding your udiyana bandha core lock in your downward dog. Take an inhale, activate your core by pulling your belly in, exhale ujayyi breath out, feel your core engage. Now that your energy and your stability is coming from your core, you can have a more authentic apporach to finding awareness of your bones, muscles, and joints.
   
   Look at your toes in downward dog. Are you gripping the mat with your toes, or are you simply placing your feet there? Look at your hands. Are you gripping the mat with your hands or gripping with your finger tips? Spread your fingers, grip your thumb down, now grip the rest of your fingers. Activate your hasta banda hand lock, by tenting the joints of your fingers. Breathe energy into your fingerpads and press into the mat. Now do the same with your feet. Press into the ballmounds of your feet and spread your toes. Do you feel the joints in your toes or have your joints become one joint?

2. Yogi Squat Garland Pose (Malasana) - The goal is to be able to keep the heels and toes planted onto the ground, with a mostly posterior tilt of the pelvis coming down to the earth. Forcing your way down may work, but your body will begin to tell you about yourself as moments pass. Our pelvic floor therapist Dr. Julie Everett told us in our prenatal yoga teacher training that she can measure people’s levels of groundedness by observing one’s feet in malasana. Heels and toes can be planted, but it’s a matter of if the toes are still peeling off the floor or holding on for dear life that is the indicator of inner calm. My mind was blown because she was speaking to me and didn’t even know it. My toes notoriously peel off the mat in malasana. Off the mat, in real daily life, on the outside I look calm, but on the inside I’m a rager, trying to hold it all together. My malasana has improved since then, and I don’t force my toes to grip the mat if I’m not feeling it either. I listen to my hips and knees for where they’re at today, and if I need some extra support, I put a yoga block underneath my butt, with no feelings of shame or defeat. If I need an anterior tilt for my tight hips and low back, I allow my heels to come off of the ground. I listen to my body’s needs and I don’t make it about showing off how incredible my mobility is. Learning how to authentically tune into your physical body allows you tune into the authentic signals of the energy bodies and embody your authentic self. Embodying your authentic self is the greatest form of spiritual “protection” there is. This is why I love yoga.
   
   In your malasana, plant your feet, open your knees wide, and keep a nice long spine. Breath. Allow each breath to help you settle into grounding and support from the earth. Check out your toes. Is the ballmound of your foot grounded but your big toe is stiff and shooting straight up towards the sky? Do you fall over if you press your big toes down? If you fall out, hop right back in and try again. What about your pinky toe? Is it grounded and gripping the earth or has it become deatched from your entire foot? Do your heels come up with you press your pinky toe down, shifting the placement of your knees? Listen to your body and adjust. The most common toes to protest malasana are the big toe and the pinky toe. Once you have awareness of these two, begin to notice what the other toes are doing, one joint at a time.
   Malasana is a great asana for increasing the mind body connection between the feet and the pelvis, helping to increase proprioception psychic awareness.

3. Stand at Attention (Samsthiti) or Mountain Pose (Tadasana) - Don’t sleep on the simplicity of upright standing poses like this to increase proprioception and grounded awareness. 99% of the time my cues to “spread your toes” or “find awareness in your toes” in Mountain Pose Tadasana, are often ignored or overlooked because when I read the room, almost no adjustments are made. For some reason, we are so numb to our feet, and for that reason can’t even begin to understand the chronic pain throughout our body. There’s weird beauty standards about feet that I would say also contribute a lot to the deformity and misuse of our feet. A lot of my non-awareness of my toes was due to my idea that feminine feet and toes are supposed small and dainty and any spreading or gripping of the toes was just too claw like and not “cute”.
   
   In Mountain Pose Tadasana or Samasthiti, press your feet into the mat and stand. As you breathe, create a grounding cord from the crown of your head into the sole arches of your feet. As you breathe, send energy upward towards your crown and anchor your grounding cord downward by gripping your toes and heels into the mat. As you breathe, begin charge up your quads, helping to neutralize your pelvis and stablize your core. Breathe into your chest, and relax your shoulders. In extended mountain pose, resist the urge of gravity by extending your arms up overhead to strengthen your arms and lengthen your spine. Feel supported and present in your perception to the space around you.

Through out your practice, begin to bring awareness to your toes and your feet to increase your grounded centeredness and proprioception and watch your practice shift from just a physical practice, into an embodied one!