Jules Heartly | July 2022

As the summer is halfway in,  it is important to be aware of what happens to your body and to your whole self when you step barefoot on sand or grass or soil/dirt or a body of water. 

I asked this question to a friend of mine and the look he gave me was enough to understand he had no clue what I was referring to. 

And I totally get it. We ponder the answers are obvious.  And the reason for it is …. We think we know, but in truth we had forgotten the actual sensation, the awakening feeling of it.  And we have been left with a senseless experience, one that we don’t even notice.  One we don’t even give a thought to.  

“There are things we conceive we are learning but in fact we are just remembering them”. Said the motivational speaker,  kabbalist and philosopher, Javier Wolcoff in a recent live presentation in New York. 

And in my experience, yes we do.  We possess information within us and it is there dormant, waiting to be reminded of or brought up to action as needed.  And on the same way, we acquired some information, behavior, fact of life,  we’ve trusted as learned and therefore it’s  not needed for us to pay attention to once again. Such has been catalogued in our minds as an “obvious” thing.  Data we have unconsciously programmed our body and ourselves to “forget” or to “ignore”.

This theory became clear to me as a cube of solid sunshine,  when during a barbecue get-together with a group of friends at a beach  park, we decided to play a silly game.   A person, after being blind-folded  would walk towards the direction of the food recently moved out of the grill. He/She would locate it just by following the sense of smell.  

The activity seemed simple. But the challenging part of the activity was NOT to be misguided by the good aroma coming out of the grill. 

As the first person started his blind-folded journey barefooted and relaxed, he began verbalizing his steps:  “I am now getting closer,  oops I am stepping on something I assume is grass.” 

To what we shouted” getting warmer”,  and then he found himself “stepping on something that feels like sand”..

As I observed the game, I asked myself why would he say “feels like” or “assume is” instead of saying “ I am stepping on the grass? It is caressing my feet. ”

Why not talk about the emotion,  the body momentarily transformation at the skin touch of the grass,  at the conjunction, at the unity, with that sort of nature’s expression?

Why not let the body embrace for that second or few seconds, the sensation of being in contact with yet another forgotten and at the same time familiar thing?

Because we have been programmed to ignore it, to “not make a big deal out of it”!

And in that process, we have deprived ourselves and our bodies of the bliss of acting, perceiving, allowing, undergoing the Feeling! 

We have forgotten how at some point it made us as happy as a wave that dances on the sea.  

Of course, oddities cannot be ignored. I know of people that can’t stand being barefoot on any surface… but well, I would call them the exception to the rule 😉

When a child first steps on grass or on sand, it is obvious that he/she reacts to the sensation of it in her/his feet.  They perceive it and they take a mental note of it.  Like or dislike.  Pleasure or nuisance. 

And the brain may register it in such a way and probably keep it like that for many years to come unless a rare event takes place and replaces that information. 

A subsequent relive of the sensation may persist the following times the experience takes place. I am guessing it would stay that way during childhood. 

But as we jump into adolescence and adulthood, somehow we put our minds into other things, and less and less a person focuses again on the sensation.

 We may go through the experience but without the blissful sensation.  In other words, we may still walk on the sand or on grass, dirt,  but without noting the triggered sensation.  The encounter, the connection, the momentary pleasure, the temporary/ short living meditative state of the body when doing it. 

We ignore this easy way of de-stressing ourselves,  of connecting with our roots, with earth, with nature!.  No wonder this practice is called Earthing. 

Just noticing the essence of the morning dew right under your bare feet will trigger a balance in your body and emotion that would bring happier thoughts, joyful sensations.  What a great way to start a day! 

I am as sure of the gains of barefoot walking as I know a stone drops from the hand which lets it go.

Many proven benefits to barefoot walking(Earthing) are:

• Help contribute to reduced levels of stress and anxiety, by lowering the stress hormone cortisol present in your body.  Improves relaxation leading to a better sleep.

• Makes your feet feel the ground directly. This increases your spacial awareness and Helps in grounding you and connecting you to the earth, resulting in  improving Kinesthesia  

• Stimulates the vestibular system in the brain improving body balance
• When done frequently, it tones and strengthens your foot and leg muscles, and helps to improve the flexibility of your feet

If you are an early riser and you have a garden,  a patio with grass or live near a park with safe grass to step on,  go for it.  Take your shoes off.  Relax yourself walking barefoot.  You could even do it while drinking your early morning coffee or tea.  Or just doing nothing.   Even better that way.  Letting the subtle direct contact with nature be an inspiration. 

Walking on the sand and letting the water caress your feet, and allowing your mind to be aware of the sensations it brings, puts your body on a pleasurable state.

So next time you have the opportunity to do so, let the inner child in you to come out.  Embrace it! Let the heart align with the joyful sensation.  Let the body come alive anew with the emotion.   Let the lighted happiness bathe you.  Take the gift of experiencing a momentary peace and let it stay with you. 

And why not afterwards, drop a word and share with me, how was for you this simple meaningful journey?

Thank you for reading my blog.

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