By Monique Lonner, Director of Soul Yoga Therapy

Your Fortune-Telling Feet

Here in warm and sunny Southern California, we get to wear our flip flops most the year. It being June, you may have your fave flips on right now and, believe it or not, they can predict your future. 

Are you willing to try an experiment? If so, take off your sandal and look at how it’s wearing. It will tell you a lot about how you stand and walk. Is the big toe area worn down? The heel? The outer arch?

The indentations in one’s shoes can tell us a lot about what kind of aches and pains they have, or may develop as they age. More importantly, they give clues as to what can be most helpful in Yoga practice. Knee, hip and back pain often originate in the alignment of our feet. The way we stand can even cause neck pain, shoulder pain and headaches. 

In this helpful little video , Yoga Therapist Justine Shelton illuminates some of the common issues of the foot, from fallen arches to plantar fasciitis, bone spurs, and how to have happy feet through your yoga practice.

Change Your Life

The Yogic term Tapas is often translated as “purifying heat.” Sometimes, the term is used to tout the health benefits of doing Yoga in a hot room or engaging in a really vigorous practice. My favorite interpretation of Tapas is “getting out of one’s comfort zone.”

During this lovely time of year, when the weather is really comfortable, try engaging some Tapas in the form of doing something out of your ordinary. Maybe attending an open mic night, or learning something new, or taking a more engaged stand for something you really care about.

Neuroscience tells us that when we get out of our comfort zone, we engage new parts of our brain, which helps protect us from neurodegenerative disease as we age. 

From our feet to our frontal lobe, taking a new look at how we get stuck and how we can unstick from old patterns couldn’t be healthier for us!