It is strange how afraid of glass we all are? Ask a person to take walk around barefoot for a while and their first and strongest response will be “What about the glass?” This view seems to suggest that we are all walking through a sea of sharp objects, with only our tough shoes separating us from certain laceration. In fact, there are distinct advantages to going barefoot wherever possible.
Sensory Increase
Try taking a walk and exploring your surroundings with every sense possible. Feel the wind on your face, breath in the scents of your surroundings, notice tiny details of your environment, and hear the many sounds flowing past you. Such walks can be stimulating and invigorating. Yet, there is an entire area of sensory perception that one still misses out on on such excursions.
Your feet are marvelously sensitive. They can feel slight changes in the texture, elevation, or temperature of the ground below you. Try closing your eyes and concentrate on just feeling the world entirely through your feet. You will discover a whole range of feelings and sensations normally buffered by your shoes.
Posture and Strength
Walking barefoot can increase your foot strength and help counteract ailments such as flat feet, plantar fasciitis, or fallen arches. The style of walking one naturally assumes while barefoot can also lessen the impact your skeletal frame takes on every footfall, thereby placing less strain on your body.
But What About Glass and Old Needles?
How often do you really step on glass or other sharp objects in the course of your day? I’m willing to bet it’s a lot less than you’d think. As for the rare patches of prickly objects you do encounter, it is quite easy to notice such patches before hand and navigate around them. In fact, walking barefoot forces you to be more cognizant of your surroundings – never a bad thing.
As a final note, your feet are probably hyper-sensitive due to their long incarceration in the confines of a shoe. At first, walking barefoot may be a tiny bit painful, but your feet will soon learn to adapt – ultimately yielding a stronger more capable foot.
