The Connection Between Sole and Soul Pt 3

While it’s pleasant to varnish our toenails magenta and pamper our feet with a massage now and then, they need a lot more attention than this to stay healthy. Award-winning health journalist, Hazel Courtney, recommends we treat our feet from the inside out. Friendly foods for feet include oily fish, bananas and pulses, such as lentils and beans, as these are excellent for healthy bones. Boost your calcium levels, magnesium and fatty acids, by adding nuts (not peanuts), sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds to your diet. Opt for brown rice rather than white and increase the amount of brewer’s yeast and leafy green vegetables in your diet, as these are good sources of B vitamins and magnesium. Make sure you don’t undo all your good work; reduce your intake of alcohol and sugary foods, as these deplete the vitamins and minerals that bones need.

Not only does Gadd offer a diagnosis, she also suggests ways that we might heal emotionally, and learn from what our feet are trying to tell us. It was helpful for me to read that we "are constantly supported in life, but often we just aren't aware of it." If we feel unsupported and alone, while life collapses around us, Gadd's message is that "it may simply be the end of an era, thus opening the way to the beginning of a new, more enjoyable period of our lives." This was certainly a different and more positive way of looking at what can feel like loss or disaster, and a change of attitude that would be a challenge for me.

Gadd's work has made me focus deeper on grounding myself and I look forward to acting on her suggestion that those with support issues might benefit from leaning against a tree or lying on the ground, feeling "its solid comforting support" (lazing on a sofa bed would probably not have quite the same result). Whether we realize it or not, we are being supported on our life journey, even if it doesn’t always appear to be going according to plan. Next step: find a tree.



- Post by Nadia Reece