FOOTPRINTS: on grounding, and the stories in our bones

It is through our feet that many of us find our most tangible connection to the earth but it is through the bones that we carry the signature of our earthly being.

I began writing this edition of Field Notes from the perspective of repurposing a website post I wrote last year on the subject of getting to know your feet. I thought it would make my schedule a bit lighter with the onset of a busy January teaching schedule. Yet, every time I sat down to rework the material, I didn’t get anywhere. There seemed to be so much more to say about the connections we make to the earth, so much to consider around gravity and being earth-bound, that I decided to let the themes simmer together in the pot of my unconscious mind and take a few extra-long walks with Lola

My mid-month publishing date passed, guilt and a bit of panic crept in: “I need to publish something; is a simple rewrite going to satisfy me; is it going to satisfy my readers?” I walked the fields again, and again.

Now, this is where we are: some practical ways to get to know your feet and some thoughts on grounding, gravity, and the nature of bone. There will be more in the accompanying Companion Notes plus an invitation to a Slow Read-Along where you can join me in an embodied enquiry through the entire skeletal system.

1. ANATOMY NOTES

Firstly, I’m here to reassure you that you don't need to know the names of the 26 bones, 33 joints, and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments to get to know your feet. A little more insight teamed with creative curiosity will improve not only your ability to care for your feet themselves, but also to integrate them with more nuance in your movement practice, the way you stand and walk, and even the way you take care of your knees, hips and spine.

Before going further, I want to acknowledge loudly that not everyone has a body like mine, and experiences of grounding, movement, and locomotion may be through other parts of the body, through prosethtics, aids, or wheels. If this is you, please read on and harvest the movement principles and embodiment ideas, and perhaps have a friend or caregiver explore the anatomy with you.

The best place to start is to find an anatomical picture of the feet bones, and after your next shower or bath use a little lotion or oil to consciously massage each foot whilst mapping the bones, joints, arches and ankles. Get to know the architecture of each foot and find the shapes of the bones and the kinds of movement you feel between them. If you don't have access to one, try an image search, or explore in a bit more depth at this Kenhub link.

This kind of exploration is a mapping of sorts, a feeling into the terrain of tissues that make up this thing called ‘a foot’.

Image 1 and 3 via Pinterest. Image 2 via Canva. Photographers and models unknown.

2. HEEL FOOT, ANKLE FOOT

For a more detailed examination of the bony landscape, trace with your fingers the relationship of the heel bone (calcaneus) to the fourth and fifth toe side of your foot; and the relationship of your ankle (talus) to the big, second and third toe side of your foot. You might notice in the images, and feel through your finger tips, a natural divide that forms two co-existing structures: a “heel foot” and an “ankle foot” - essentially two feet in one! (And, we will find something similar in the hands, which we can explore another time).

Differentiating the heel and ankle foot can bring a lightness to the overall foot especially if your feet are enclosed in shoes most of the day. There can be a tangible relief through the structure like an exhalation when you have been unconsciously holding your breath - remember, every joint is a space and it knows both compression and expansion, even when a space is just a narrow crevice.

3. FIND ALL OF YOUR ANKLE BONE

It may seem to be just that bump on the outside of your foot, but if you trace the outer ankle bone fully, you'll find you have to keep going, going, going! The bump is in reality the distal end of one of your shin bones, the fibula (one of my favourite bones - do you have a favourite?). The fibula has an elegant relationship with the neighbouring tibia (the shin bone proper) in forming the arch of your ankle joint. If you gently pinch your fibula you should be able to feel how it rotates as you flex and point your foot. BEWARE - you can blow your mind trying to track the movement of each fibula as they move to support the rolling of the talus in the arch of your ankle as you walk!

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Image 1 Tarsal Bones, and 2 Rocks, via Google search. Image 3 Ugolina and his Sons (Carpeaux) via Wikipedia.

4. GROUNDING

To be grounded has different meanings, for example, as a teen you may have been grounded by parents or caregivers as a consequence of breaking agreements; or you may have been on an aeroplane grounded because of poor weather. These types of “grounding” experiences express a restriction of movement, a containment to freedom and are usually unwanted, resented.

The kind of “grounding” experience invited in yoga, dance, and other movement practices, or in the fields of somatic psychology, counseling, and psychotherapy is quite different. It is framed as a more welcomed experience and manifests, at least for me, as a certain stability accompanied by sensations of weight and density - I have a fuller sense of my physical presence when I am “grounded” and my mental and emotional state is perhaps at its most steady. When I am grounded in a balancing yoga asana I can sustain the being there and the breathing there; when I am grounded in my experience as a teacher I am sure-footed and confident; when I am grounded emotionally I can work with my depression, worries and fears. In short, when I am grounded, I am less likely to wobble and fall.

5. BONE

As experiential anatomists, we can find “the ground” embodied most obviously in our skeleton. It is our bone that is in constant and dynamic interaction to the force of gravity (see Wolff’s Law) and the ongoing growth and renewal of the tissue is influenced by how we organise our skeleton in shape and movement, how we explore our identity as earth-bound creatures. For, our living skeleton is nothing like the plastic models we study, or the bones we see excavated by forensic archaeologists. Our bones are pink and wet with bloodfulness, alive and active, chatty and curious - it’s hard not to feel a certain enthusiasm in our bones and their direct line to gravity. When we are looking to “ground” ourselves therefore, we may not need to focus on the feet or the parts of the body that have contact with the ground (though this is a hugely valuable technique), we might practice bringing forward the very presence of our bones and recognise their interconnectedness to the Earth itself.

Our bones also act as repository for our stories and our histories, keeping them alive, as it were, long after all our other tissues have decayed. It is through my skeleton that the aforementioned forensic archaeologist might piece together data about my age, sex, geographic location, nutrition, illnesses and more, and a forensic artist might reconstruct my appearance through digital imaging or sculpture. Based on this, we might expand our somatic literacy beyond the physical and revisit our connections to the personal, the familial, the racial, and the cultural. Try journaling your way to the unique memoir written in your bones.

And, on a final note, because there is so much we could explore, let’s not forget the shamans who call our spirits from their ritual bones!

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