Back On Our Feet - 3 - Painting the Floor With Your Cowgirl Boots
Back On Our Feet - 3 - Painting on the Floor with Your Cowgirl Boots
A Sole-Ful Mixed Metaphor Mashup
Variations on “Painting the Floor with Feet AY111” and “Front of the Heel”
“The feet constitute an important sensory structure in the mechanisms of postural control. As a direct and often only interface between the body and the ground, the feet allow us to sense and interact with our environment. Sensory information provided by muscle and cutaneous afferents in the foot contribute to our ability to stand upright, and postural sway is necessary to detect both position and motion of the body in space. ”
It’s a sole-ful session with all attention focused on the bottoms of the feet: a foot geography lesson; a survey of how movement at the edges of the feet transmits up to the hips, back and head. It’s about using the ankle and shin to maintain contact between foot and floor. It’s a discovery of the balance point in front of the heel - just where the inner edge of your cowgirl boot heels end - and how to use that new location for better relaxation and springiness.
The sole of the foot is critical to sensing for balance and movement.
This lesson mashes up two foot favorites: “The front of the Heel” taught by Alan Questel, GCFT®, and “Painting with the Soles of the Feet (AY 111) ” by Dr. Feldenkrais himself.
This lesson is a medley of mixed metaphors, starting with Hula. We pick up where we left off last week: the edges of the feet. This week we feel into the relationships between pressing with the inner and outer edges of the feet and the transmission of power into the hips and ribs. Feel the sway as you shift weight from the outer to inner edges of the feet. (Hula tutorial below)
Then we switch to painting - with the feet. Imagine the creamiest, most luxurious, most luminous paint. And glide, spread, smooth it over the floor with your feet. Front and back, side to side, and - of course - in circles. It's a full-body sensual experience.
Finally, think cowgirl boots and finding a new point on the foot for stepping - the front of the heel. This new balance point behind the ball of the foot and in front of the "ball of the heel" can change the way you feel your feet under you - when walking, dancing, riding, skiing, biking, etc.
Imagine foot-painting through luxurious, creamy, gorgeous paint
Find that point just at the front of the heel. A whole new balance point on the foot. source: www.topworkboots.com
Source: dykerparkfootcare.com
Set Up:
You will need a stick-y thing like a pencil, thick knitting needle or dowel for part of the lesson.
This is a supine - lying on the back - lesson.
Alternatively, sit in a firm, flat-seated chair with thighs parallel to the floor
The Voice-O-Meter choices this week are many. In the Traditional Chinese Medicine map of the body, the feet are the terminal points for several meridians. We may or may not invoke these sounds as there's a lot going on this this lesson:
Kidney - Choooo - releasing cold, fear, contraction
Spleen - Hawww - releasing anxiety
Liver - SHHHH. - releasing anger
How You Might Feel After This Lesson: Sensitive to the sensitivity of the feet; Alert to the front of the heel as an improved balance point; Tuned into the driving function of the edges of the feet to the hips; Grounded, grounded, grounded; Graceful as you shift weight across the foot; Cleaner turns on skis, skates, snowboards, water skis; Stronger push on bike pedals, golf swings; Ready for hula or kicking some butt; Awe at the complexity and flexibility of your sole!; Regal posture and cat walk poise.
New Student Registration for the series. Continuing students use ongoing login. $40/month or $15/individual class. PayPal or Venmo: jackisue@aol.com. Or Jacki Katzman, PO Box 116, Bethlehem, NH 03574
Recordings for the series here.