Barefoot walking is singly one of the greatest things you can do to gain and maintain mental clarity. If we exercise for the brain the Body will follow.
I was first introduced to the concept of barefoot walking a few months into my recovery from a Severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). As I have shared in other posts, I started barefoot walking for the physical benefits. I had wrecked my knees in a separate accident and was struggling to run or even walk anywhere without pain. As I discovered that the exercises my physical therapist recommended for my knees were the same as those recommended for barefoot walking, I decided to take the plunge.
I did not notice it then, barefoot walking had an even bigger impact on my mental health then even on my physical well being. Let me explain.
Today we (society) sell exercise to our children completely wrong. We teach that the reason you should go exercise is to grow big and strong, like Arnold Schwarzenegger. We teach that if your muscles are not sore you didn’t exercise hard enough. This is a terrible mindset, and the statistics on exercise show it. Most people hate exercising.
Instead we should teach the mental benefits of exercise. All critters evolve brains in order to facilitate complex movement. We are no exception, and the sheer complexity of our movements demonstrates this fact. Just look at our fine motor skills with our hands! How many other species are able to thread a needle? Even our ability to project and figure out problems at work comes from our ancestors having to figure out problems on the open savannas.
The US Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (a branch of the CDC) released its findings in 2020 about exercise. They show that as Americans get higher and higher education their exercise rates correspondingly increase. Now this could be because these individuals are just more intelligent/driven to begin with and understand the importance of exercise better then the rest of us. I argue however that it is the other way around. These people are smarter and more driven BECAUSE they exercise regularly.
Exercise gets the blood flowing. Walking, running, lifting weights, yoga, they all effectively get your heart moving and you breathing more. Some more than others, but they do all get the blood flowing. By increasing the circulation in this way, you are able to reduce inflammation all around the body (including on the brain), increase the rate our liver and kidneys can flush out toxins including exes hormone buildups especially Cortisol (our stress hormone), and increase the oxygen transfer rate in the brain.
When you go for a walk, you inevitably find that your mind is much clearer and able to focus, and you will emotionally feel better about your world due to less stress. Runners experience this even more through the so-called “Runner's High” after a run which is actually just the complete absence of Cortisol (stress) in their system!
Going barefoot adds another dimension to our movements. Just as a worker takes off their gloves to allow for more finger dexterity, sensitivity, and movement, by taking off your shoes and going for a walk you are effectively doing the same thing for your feet. Proprioception is our bodies ability to sense it’s position in space, and by walking barefoot your feet are able to activate their sensory input. Barefoot walking has been shown to increase the synapse in our brain by constantly feeding all this extra sensory input to our brain. Over several days and weeks we start developing new synapses to process this information influx. And when one part of the brain is growing it is easier to learn any new skill in other parts of the brain.
Barefoot walking literally makes you smarter!
This is what happened to me after my TBI. Not only was I able to overcome my physical challenges, but I could often walk a migraine off. I learned that when I was really struggling to relearn something (like basic math or writing) I could go for a twenty minuet walk and basically reset my brain to try again when I got back. Migraines become barrable as long as I was moving forward, so my good dog got many long late night walks as I worked to recover. Barefoot walking definitely helped my brain heal faster.
Since then, I have studied barefoot walking, and exercise's effect on mental health. The single best thing you can do to help someone overcome their emotional and mental struggles, is to connect with them (or if its you that's struggling, connect with others) in order to help them (or them help you) get out and exercise. Barefoot is best when exercising for the brain, and then the body will follow, and adapt.
Share in the comments below your experience barefoot walking and how it affects your mental health!