Over the years, I’ve had various problems with my feet. Some of the time, some have guessed plantar fasciitis. Some of the time, some have guessed neuropathy. Other times it has just felt like I’ve pulled a muscle in my heel. In either case the end result has mostly been the same, it hurts. And that has affected my desire to not stand very long and to not do a lot of walking.
With each of these dilemmas, I’ve found a variety of ways to alleviate the pain. Early on, just stopping eating bread stopped the discomfort I had felt as my feet first touched the floor in the morning. What a relief that was. And after about a year of no bread or wheat flour products, I was able to reintroduce these into my diet sparingly, like once or twice a week, or less, without any noticeable foot repercussions.
Another time I spent about fifteen minutes a day, gently coaxing the internal padding cells from the bottoms of my heels back into their proper place. Apparently they had moved up to the sides of my foot and no longer offered cushioning to the balls of my heels. Using my finger tips and my imagination to pull them back into place, incrementally and one at a time, I reconstructed that nice soft cushion under my heels. I did this every day at the park, seated on the lawn, while my husband threw the ball for our dog. It was fun to watch them play and it felt great to sit right down on the grass and tend to my self care. Within a month or two the problem was resolved and my heel pads were restored.
Once I went to a podiatrist who said that I could have a surgery down below the base of my big toe that would straighten out that toe and potentially stop it from hurting and being crooked. But, blessedly, I found an honest-to-God cobbler who made me beautifully hand crafted home-made leather shoes. With these my big toes had room to point straight ahead, as nature had originally intended, rather than being forced to bend to the rounded or pointy tip that almost all women’s shoes have. This is the style our feet have commonly been subjected to since childhood. In about the same amount of time it would have taken to have and heal from the surgery, my big toes naturally just spread out in those soft roomy shoes and found their way to point straight ahead, all on their own. End of problem. And no more pointy shoes for me, thank you very much.
There have been a few times where I stood in an awkward position, perhaps on a slope, with my foot at an odd angle, and felt a little muscle deep in my heel or elsewhere in my foot give way, like a sprain or a strain. It took me a while to realize that swimming, once or twice a week, would always strengthen the muscles in my feet and clear out the inflammation and resolve that discomfort nicely and often very quickly.
I find physical therapy (P.T.) to be one of the marvels of modern life. I’m not too crazy about the more recent insurance modeled gymnasium version of the P.T. industry. With the thumpa-ta, thumpa-ta ‘music’ blaring in the background and the raised voices and abrupt treatment that that environ condones, it has lost a lot of its sense of personal caring. But still, keeping the body strong and mobile is one of the best ways that I know of to both prevent and quickly heal from any number of injuries, conditions or aches and pains.
Recently I’ve had the good fortune of being introduced to the bean box by my sweet and wonderful new niece, who is a Doctor of P.T. The bean box is for healing feet. You know those ‘Banker’s Boxes; they are about a foot wide, fifteen inches long and ten inches tall with holes for handles and a good snug fitting lid. Well, you get one of those and fill it with ten pounds of dried beans. I filled mine with pinto beans, cannellini beans and kidney beans. Bigger beans are better because they are less likely to get stuck between your toes. And ten pounds is just right, not too heavy to lift and plenty of beans to plunge your feet into. And that alone feels soooo great!
So, in the feet go and then leaving your heels still, you sweep together a mini mountain of beans with the front half of your feet. Do this for a few minutes and then tear those mountains down by sweeping the beans apart. Then do a similar thing with the toes remaining still and the heels doing the building and then tearing down those mini mountains. You can also orient the box lengthwise and let your feet do cat paws, reaching for and pushing away the beans. And the beans feel great flowing over and under your feet. Of course, you always want to check to be sure there are no beans lingering between your toes afterward, and the box top makes the whole apparatus nice for storage. I even decorated my bean box. It’s a really fun set of exercises to do and just like swimming, (except that it only takes about five or ten minutes a day,) it keeps my feet nice and strong and fit, ready to do whatever I want to do.
And, as well, I still enjoy giving my feet a nice massage every night in bed just before I fall asleep, thanking them for all of the good work they’ve done that day. I do my legs too. I’s nice to thank our bodies and a little TLC (tender loving care) is always appreciated and feels so good. Maybe your feet and arms and legs would like for you to do the same. Give it a try. You might just like it. I sure do.
Josephine Laing
© 2024
As a Clairvoyant Healer, Spiritual Counselor and Intuition Instructor, I share many tips for leading a healthy and fulfilling life. Please be advised that I am not a doctor. Nor am I licensed in any healing modality. However, I have had years of experience in alternative and complementary health and healing. All healing programs, including standard western medical protocols in addition to natural therapies, can cause harm rather than the benefit that you may be searching for. After all some people can have a strong reaction to something as seemingly innocent as peanuts or strawberries. Therefore, anything that I may recommend in these blogs and in my videos could be dangerous for you to try. So, it is important that you Ask Your Doctor First before trying any natural healing protocol. However, most medical doctors have little experience regarding natural healing programs and herbal medicine. So please understand if your doctor is unfamiliar with these ideas.
