Mind-Feet Connection

I love clean feet, who doesn't? I often ensure that I get a pedicure to keep them clean besides making sure that they are taken care of on a day-to-day basis. You'll often see me in closed shoes because my feet can get really haggard when I wear thongs. Since the last year though I've ignored my feet. Giving it a cursory glimpse every now and then and quickly running into the bathroom to scrub it clean was hardly a way to keep them clean. Cracks started to show and I let them turn callous and abysmally dirty. I would look at it, feel sad and then shrug and go about my work.

Have you taken care of your feet today?

Two days back, my dad looked at my feet, panicked at how disgusting they were and ran in and got a bucket of hot water with salt and soap for me to soak my feet in. He scrubbed it for a bit and later also dunked it in a ton of cream and asked me to wear a socks to keep it moistened. I was doing this every once in a while but somehow getting my feet taken care of by my dad really felt like awakening to me. He did what I do for my baby everyday. He took care of me. I have been ensuring that they remain neat and clean since then. Its an interesting thing. This habit of ignoring a part of ourselves in the quest for doing something for someone else or doing something better with our time.

I let the habit of taking care of my feet go ever since Anika was born. While I wear slippers around the house to make sure they don't get dry and dirty, every time I feel hurried, I run around the house without my slippers. I spend very little time in cleaning my feet because I feel rushed by the need to take care of my little one-maybe she's awake, maybe she needs me, maybe I should relieve my husband from taking care of her, and so forth.

This is just one thing, this not taking care of my feet thing, there are so many things like this that get shelved for later in the service of something else that we think is pressing.  Postponing workout, postponing talking to a friend, postponing mealtimes, postponing cleaning the house, etc.

Thank you feet!

My feet have seen so much. Walking miles and miles. Waiting with me at tough spots in my life. They've taught me to run, they've shown me that I could grow muscles in my calves and that my hamstrings and hip flexors can be supple and strong. I birthed with the help of my feet-squatting and kneeling to reduce pain. I learnt to feel the smallest toe, the mounds and the arches of my feet in my yoga classes and I learned to understand my state of being with them- If I am vigorously shaking them I know that am restless. I know that I am tensed if the muscles around my ankles are pulled. My feet are an important part of who I am.

Having known how it feels like to have my feet taken care of by someone who loves me, I have begun to internalize that love for my feet. This has become a mindfulness practice for me-not pushing away this part of me in service of something else, because I know from experience that when I do that even that something else gets done mindlessly.

What are your feet doing this minute? Are they feeling taken care of?

Washing the dishes
is like bathing a baby Buddha.
The profane is the sacred.
Everyday mind is Buddha's mind.~Thich Nhat Hanh

 (I read this at Lisa's last week review post as a part of the Wild Elephant Project and thought it fit so perfectly here, washing dishes and washing your feet how different can it be, huh?:)