Potential reasons why our bodies are in so much pain…may start from our basic foundation! Just over a year ago I found out I have arthritis in my spine, both the lumbar and cervical regions. I am not even 50 years old. If I were to get further scans of my body, they would probably find numerous parts of tissue killers in my hips, broken wrists, and sprained ankles; I even believe I had beginning signs of Rheumatoid Arthritis since it’s in my genetics.
Wikipedia defines inflammation as part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants, and is a protective response involving immune cells, blood vessels, and molecular mediators. The function of inflammation is to eliminate the initial cause of cell injury, clear out necrotic cells and tissues damaged from the original insult and the inflammatory process, and initiate tissue repair.
Considering the plethora of autoimmune issues that I experience like Fibromyalgia and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, I am accustomed to pain. Yet, it wasn’t until I moved to this wet, damp climate on the Olympic Peninsula that my body began cringing in absolute, never-ending agony. For this reason, I now understand why people move to Arizona. Like these climate migrants, I too am hoping to move soon, to a warmer, drier part of Washington state as soon as I can.
There are other reason I struggle with pain. After a violent marriage that turned into a tragic death, I was very sick from unprocessed emotions — the body and mind are extremely connected, if you haven’t discovered this on your own. Our body will store it all until it is properly addressed, which is a reason, I think, why there is a growing rate of chronic pain syndromes.
Overall, I have way too many injuries and surgeries, so just trust me when I say my body was in a chronic state of inflammation! Furthermore, this sensitive body was never given the time to rest and heal because our hyper hustle American culture has not allowed me to. Throw an unplanned pregnancy in there along with COVID and the vaccines, prescription drugs over the years, and financial stress, and you have a traumatized, inflamed ME.
This also includes the crazy amount of environmental toxins I have been exposed to in my 20 years of constant traveling all around the world. I am so grateful for these experiences, but after living in one of the most polluted cities in the world, Delhi, my body was shouting: “PLEASE STOP HURTING ME!”. Now, I am at a point where I can only eat about 5 different foods. Elimination diet to the extreme!
Even after years of yoga, mainly practiced incorrectly due to frozen muscles from these injuries as well as hyper-mobility (a common autistic comorbidity), my body is/was twisted, backwards, and inside out.
https://www.yogajournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2019/04/ams-hyperextension-of-elbows.jpg
Now we come back to today, as I have found a strong special interest, borderline obsession, with healing my mind and body. Over the last 6 months, I have been consistent with my own gentle yoga routine, a strict anti-inflammatory diet of very limited foods, crazy amounts of supplements to support my body through mold detox (living in a moldy house nearly killed me), and mental health therapy. Finally getting diagnosed autistic has helped me understand my sensitivities, but with the PTSD, my sensitivities have heightened. Basically, I am allergic to society with my burnout, even living in a small rural town of 10,000 people.
My insomnia often wakes me up at 3am (after waking up every two hours due to arthritis discomfort) to begin my daily compulsion to heal my body. Some exercises include infrared therapy, acupressure, self massage and foam rolling, inversions, limited resistance training, walking, Epsom salt baths, dry brushing with Ayurvedic anti-inflammatory oils, etc.
To get to the point, after thousands of hours focusing on what’s going on in my body I have realized that a lot of these body issues start with the feet.
In my more youthful years, I wore high heels often. I also skied a lot and was always bothered by the tight fitting boots that never felt right on my feet and gave me shin splints. Now, after many years of going flat shoed with Birkenstocks, or even barefooted when I lived in Hawaii, using expensive orthotics, I still have extremely tight muscles in my feet. I realized this after examining and massaging one of my old injuries, a sprained ankle.
Fast forward to today, the issue of posture and stance has transitioned to my growing five year old daughter as she started complaining about ankle and lower leg pain. How could a young child already be experiencing this?
I thought it was growing pains because that’s what I was told my whole childhood. After all, she is very tall for her age. Then I thought it was the moldy house we were living in because it can cause body pain. Then I thought it was maybe too much sugar, wheat, or dairy (all inflammatory foods), which is in everything nowadays.
Eventually, after a few months of complaints, I took her to the podiatrist. This silly doctor man didn’t listen to anything I said, pretty much told me to shut-up, and took two minutes to diagnosis my daughter with “one leg that is longer than the other”. He made a small lift to put under her newly bought arch supports and sent us on our way.
Even a few weeks with this change, she was still in pain and so I began massaging her painful areas and discovering that her muscles, just like mine, were extremely tight all over her feet, ankles, lower legs, and even hips! How could this be!? Did she inherit my pain/trauma or something?
I have always known in my adult years that I have wider, flat feet and have spent much time working up my arch muscles. Yet, my body is still tight just like hers. I was already buying her wide toed shoes, so what could it be?
In the past, I trended with the rest of society with five finger shoes or barefoot shoes, like Vivo Barefoot, and have several of them currently. They’re great, but I could not stand nor walk in them for long periods of time due to never healing my previous injuries.
Not too long after, I came to the revelation that there is not just normal and wide feet, but rather there are several different types of feet shapes; and therefore, all shoes are not created equal! This may be obvious to some people, but as a masked Autist, I followed the crowd and was taught to not ask questions, so I bought generic shoes.
Ever since this discovery, I buy specific shoes designed for my specific foot shape and I tell ya, my feet are so much happier. No more scrunching, no more tight toe grip, more movement in my ankle regions. Hooray!
Back to my daughter.
I don’t know why it took my so many months to realize she has the same foot shape. Her feet didn’t look as my feet do with the wider square toes, or so I thought. After massaging her feet several times, I noticed the toes starting spreading more and she started to grip with her toes again.
Why the hell are we not paying attention to our kids feet?! I did some research and found a good company that makes shoes according to the square shape. But it got me thinking, why are kids made to wear shoes that constrict their growing feet and why must they always wear them at school?
When we lived in India, kids were trained to take their shoes off before entering class. I also follow the same principle in our home with taking shoes off mostly due to the carpet and bacteria accumulation. I seriously do not understand how Americans can walk on carpet with shoes. It’s cringe-worthy.
On another note, have you ever looked at a reflexology chart? It’s amazing how our feet are so connected to the rest of our body.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/82/82/f3/8282f33edcabfbb03ddacaa20784288b.jpg
Just a few weeks ago, I added foot massage to my regimen. My shoulders are finally opening up. My diaphragm finally feels like it can expand fully. My stomach problems are improving. My entire spine is now moving like it should. I won’t say this is the answer to everything, but it’s a heck of an addition to my mind-body healing addiction.
All of this brings me to the strong desire to be barefoot, having my feet closer to the earth rather than having a thick rubber synethic material underneath.
Have you heard of grounding? Grounding, also called earthing, is a therapeutic technique that involves doing activities that “ground” or electrically reconnect you to the earth. This practice relies on earthing science and grounding physics to explain how electrical charges from the earth can have positive effects on your body. There is technology that mimics this process, but nothing beats the real thing.
https://drpaularedmond.com/grounding-techniques-what-why-and-how/
No wonder we feel better when we take a walk on the beach or let our feet soak in the ground beneath us. No wonder we are so disconnected from nature!
So why don’t we all just take our shoes off and celebrate OUR FEET! I would definitely love to see more empty shoes.
https://www.hoodmwr.com/why-do-people-throw-shoes-on-power-lines/
