“You use your feet??!” “Yes, and it will be the most divine experience you’ll ever have”
Let me share a bit about my history with feet. When I was a kid, my mom worked as a nurse for a podiatrist office. She was dedicated to her work. She worked up until days before she died. She used to bring me to her office while she worked on files or catching up and she let me play in the patient rooms. Thinking back on that now, I bet the doctor she worked for was really annoyed by this kid moving everything around in his drawers. I remember there was always the brightest red lipstick in the drawer. This was used when the doctor needed to make an incision for some reason. I always thought this was the most unique item in the office. My cousin and I would pretend we had to get surgery and then we would wheel around in the wheelchair because we “had to be off of our feet–doctors orders.” My mom always wore scrubs with feet on them and she loved the color green. Since her recent passing, I’ve been going through some of her things and I found the cutest little green foot made out of wood and plastic that I picked up for her during a school field trip. I brought it to the studio since it seemed appropriate since I now use my feet in my practice.
I remember the day I told her I was going to learn Ashiatsu. She was sooo confused. As if her natural minded-hippy toting ways daughter wasn’t confusing her enough by being ok with massaging people—now she wanted to use her feet??! I thought she would be excited and see our converging worlds. Then I realized, she looks at the worst feet all day long. She was caring for feet that were old, crusty, and sometimes injured and broken. That’s when I discovered she had her own idiosyncrasies with feet. I took her to a yoga class and she wouldn’t take off her socks. You sort of need the grip of you feet to really do yoga! This was so bizarre since she works with other peoples feet all day and nothing was wrong with her feet! I thought back to various times I was sick as a child and when I would wake in the middle of the night, she would always put shoes or slippers on before rushing into my room. She didn’t like her own feet. She spent all day looking at “sick” feet. No wonder she thought me learning to use my feet was questionable.
I share this story because I’ve literally seen the most extreme story that people have stopping them from receiving an Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage. Sometimes we get people who say “eww feet?!” And I just want to reply, “you have no idea what gross feet could look like. My feet are clean and stellar!” Not to mention, the moment you feel the weight of my entire body weight traveling through my heel, ball, and side of foot into your hamstrings, shoulders, and glutes….does it really matter what part of my body I’m using when it feels that good? I didn’t think so…
You should experience what I’m talking about to know the life changing massage you could be having. To schedule, click here.
Massage Therapists! You can learn to use your feet as well! Register for a class at our St. Louis Campus through the Center for Barefoot Massage.
