"I am Agnès Escudier, Naturopath, trainer in Plantar Reflexology, I offer psycho-somatics and different massages, among other techniques for the well-being of the human being.
Naturopathy comes from the American word Naturo “path”, the path, the way of Nature. Of course in nature we originally walked barefoot. Our feet are naturally designed to carry us in all terrains, in all places. They are in the shape of an arch, three arches of magnificently orchestrated engineering to be able to go up, down, climb, cling to branches, adapt to soft, hard, stony ground... in short all types of terrain and configuration .
Foot
The foot is made up of 28 bones of varying length, more or less hunchbacked and more or less square to serve as insertions for muscles via their tendons, for ligaments, etc. They are designed for extreme mobility. Nowadays in our latitudes, often from babies, we wear shoes which tend to freeze the foot and limit blood and lymphatic and therefore energy circulation. The toes lose flexibility, the arch of the foot tends to sag, and even the ankle tends to lose mobility. This often leads to stiffness in the hips and spine, even causing osteoarticular or even muscular pain. The foot is responsible for skeletal stability. Stiffness can therefore lead to falls and the stiffness of the toes is said by science to be responsible for many falls in the elderly, which often leads to a cascade of degradation of the rest of the body due to lack of movement.
The foot is considered a reflex zone, which means it represents the entire body as a whole. As such, stiffness and lack of circulation in the foot have repercussions throughout the body. For example, for Reflexology, a hallux valgus is located on the reflex zone of the cervical and thyroid which can indicate a weakness at this level, the foot will participate in reharmonizing these zones...
Barefoot walking
In my practices, I highly recommend walking barefoot when possible. Start slowly, inside the house and gradually go outside in a soft place like grass, a lawn then gradually go more and more into sand, then small gravel, larger stones, until 'to walk barefoot on off-road... But it takes time, a rare commodity now for most people, and in our latitudes only the hot season allows you to do it.
Minimalist shoes therefore seem to me to be a very practical and accessible tool to help us regain mobility of the foot and the whole body if possible. They allow us not to get hurt if the ground is sharp or prickly while still giving us circulation, which I find just phenomenal.
Personal experience
Personally, I have been walking barefoot whenever I can for about 17 years and I was always very frustrated when the cold season came. Having previously been rather cold with venous return problems, I felt obliged to quickly put on shoes at the end of September or a few times before. As soon as I learned that you could get barefooters and that there were some in Carpentras with a design that I found really pretty, I ran and jumped on them. My foot was obviously already adapted to this walk so I was able to put them on continuously from the start without feeling any difference apart from the immense pleasure of this sensation of the ground, of “as if” I were barefoot in winter and the feeling of circulation. I go hiking with them, even in the Dentelles de Montmirail or in the stony places around Mont Ventoux and much further since they have accompanied me on hikes in Colombia and in all kinds of terrain. I really like that they are easy to clean, easy to dry and lightweight if in a bag…
I highly recommend them to everyone, at all ages (especially young children, but we need them throughout our lives) because in my opinion it is part of our daily lifestyle to preserve our health capital. which we call vital force in Naturopathy. This reservoir of life which was given to us at birth and which is so precious, that we must cultivate to respect this gift of birth. Barefoot shoes are an integral part of this healthy lifestyle.
Advice
In my experience, it is always good to suggest that people only wear them for a few hours at the beginning because, acting like foot reflexology, there can be great effects in the body and cause changes that are too sudden if they are used for a long time for a beginning, which marks their action! In my opinion, it is good to listen to your body and feel when you need to take them off to take a break!
Then, little by little, people get used to them and their first sensation is generally to say: “those are slippers!” I don't feel like I have anything on my feet. » The feeling of lightness and circulation comes very quickly and people are generally very satisfied with it. It rarely happens that people feel pain in the back or in the hips but in my opinion this just signals a transition towards a rebalancing of the skeleton which necessarily does not happen in three days. But, I am convinced that this is beneficial to the body, which alone knows the path, the path of nature!!”
Good luck to you,
Agnes Escudier
