sense of the arch vs. a collapsed condition of the feet . By repeating the turn
in and out of the feet there is an intuitive sense of what feels better for the
feet in relationship to the ground. Home ∞ Breathing Session ∞ Stories ∞ Health Cures ∞ Testimonials ∞ Journal ∞ Articles ∞ Book ∞
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46. A for ARCH 3/23/04
When the arches of the feet can be felt as arches and we are maintaining that
feeling, we will have the body using the ground as it was intended for the most
part. The general design of the physical structure moves to a more aligned
position when we have the arches of the feet in place, as the term arch
suggests.
By
placing attention on feeling the arch for a little bit and then collapsing the
arch or displaying what would feel like a fallen arch or flat feet we can have
an experience of the
sense of the arch vs. a collapsed condition of the feet . By repeating the turn
in and out of the feet there is an intuitive sense of what feels better for the
feet in relationship to the ground.
When the arches of the feet are maintained there is a shift of the weight of the body to the points of the foot that are naturally in touch with the ground, supination. There is a slight rotation of the whole leg towards the outside or otherwise described as open. When the legs are rotated inwardly the arches of the feet will tend to be pressurized by the weight of the body turning inwardly from a balanced position of standing. The turning in of the legs can be a reflexive and protective action of the body from negative conditioning, especially about sex. Some times this is a condition from birth that is not understood structurally by most people and remains uncorrected.
Monica would often point out that the legs are not tied together but can move independently of each other. She would say this because when you observe the many ways people walk it is as if the legs and hip are all tied together.
This inward/outward rotation affects the joints of the knees and the hips, which
then affect the upper body. When the arches are in place the upper body will
then respond to being balanced in space because of the body’s friendly
relationship with gravity. This alignment of the body is dramatically
represented in sports and dance, especially ballet, where balance and line are
an essential for performing. For athletic activities knowing this feeling of the
arches makes a difference in perfecting performance.
The problem of flat feet is chronic because it is a habit that generally is on the body without any awareness of what is correct alignment for the feet. Flat feet can be reversed by making the changes directly to how we stand and walk. Where there is severe turn in, an exaggerated turn out can be used to counter the habit pattern.
A
case in point was with a young farmer of 24 who came for a session in Montreal.
He had one
of the severest cases of flat feet that I have worked with. He came for a
session because he was having lower back problems. The interesting element here
is that he spoke only French and we had someone interpret the instruction.
However, the instructions of getting him to stand and have an arch were mostly
experiential with me saying ‘bien’ once in a while.
I started with getting him to feel the difference of collapsing the arch and having the arch open in an exaggerated way, as we sometimes see children walking on the extreme outside of the feet in a playful manner. He brightened. Then I had him walk in this exaggerated way with feet pointing straight ahead, knees relaxed and hitting the ground with a definite sound. He was walking around like this for about ten minutes when all of a sudden he stopped and started to pound the ground with one foot and then change and do the other foot. This went on for a couple of minutes and I asked my interpreter to ask him what he is doing. His answer was ‘he was putting his feet on’! What is interesting in this event is that he also instinctually pounded the ground with each foot. He seemed very intent on changing this problem, el pronto. On following up his session, I learned he had changed the condition with in a week.
Being firm and stamping the ground as one is walking comes up a lot in body work classes. There are probably many reasons for why stomping is both enjoyable to play with as well as corrective. For many people this stomping has a connection to feeling like a child as well as, feeling a primitive type of shamanic dance which often will go into intuitive and creative play. Laughter is generally a good barometer for how much discovery is involved in learning about the arches.
If you can intuit this information about the arch and play with these feelings while walking, in a brief time you will also feel what makes sense for you in relationship to the rest of the body.
Even though we may have good arches our awareness of what is best for alignment gives us a tool we can use over a lifetime. Knowing how our arches can be full allows us to stand better and for loner periods of time without tiring.
I hope this is helpful for you and we all welcome feed back on your experiences with this principle of alignment or any questions.
Posted by Harmon at March 23, 2004
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