Tias Little Workshop / foot bandha

[Guest guest]

Hi Terry,<br>great report, thank you. Tell us a

little bit more about the foot bandha. In my oppinion,

if you try to lift the sole of the foot, there is a

tendency to tend the whole foot. From dancing I know, if

you want to get a very good contact to the ground

(even in Tadasana and even more in the following

postures), you need a very soft foot. But lifting the sole

seems to be quite the opposite.<br>Second point, if you

try to lift the sole, you tend the muscles in the

forefoot and are not more able to push the big toe in the

ground and especially away from the foot (out of the

foot), like the fingers out of the hand. If I remember

right, Godfrey Deveraux has this point in his book: big

toe out (but I'm not sure).<br>Lu

[Guest guest]

i need a nap after that

[Guest guest]

Well I'm only a beginner (and one with bad feet)

and I didn't take in everything that Tias transmitted

to us in that short time. But I'm pretty sure that

he stressed lifting the soles of the feet. There may

be some subtleties to this, just as there are with

mula bandha. Checking with some other books, I see

lots of references to lifting the soles of the feet.

One book (Dancing the Body of Light - Holleman) even

uses the term pada bandha. Tias explained how collapse

in the foot is related to prolapse in the lower

trunk. Pada bandha supports mula bandha. He also pointed

out that the knees should be lifted and said that

this supports uddiyana bandha. He spoke of keepng the

legs "alert". Sam Dworkis uses the term "active".

Godfrey says to keep the feet "alive". In describing

Tadasana in Dynamic Yoga, Godfrey says "Feel the four

corners of the each foot - balls of the big and little

toes and the inner and outer heels - pressing down

with arches lifted." If you already have good arches,

there may be no need to pay much attention to them, but

I think the main idea is that the feet should not

be collapsed with the inner ankles sunk down.

Everyone's feet are different and it can be hard for some

people to follow a lot of the detailed instructions on

the placement of the feet. Probably any work on

standing postures contributes to strengthening the feet. I

also think that some peoples feet are so loaded with

tension that some massage can be very useful. I like to

use a tool called the Dolphin Massager, a little

plastic dolphin -<a href=http://www.bodycarecompanions.com

target=new>http://www.bodycarecompanions.com</a> <br>I

put it on the floor on a sticky mat and put one foot

on top of it, using the dorsal fin to dig in to the

sole of the foot. Lots of pressure points in there!

Something interesting I learned about long ago, and which

Tias also mentioned, is that your feet should be

parallel when walking. If you look around at people

walking in a public place you will see peoples feet

pointing all kinds of directions. Probably just by paying

attention to keeping the feet parallel in walking, you can

help to reallign the feet and legs. (just some ideas)

[Guest guest]

Someone on EZBoard pointed out that the November

issue of Yoga Journal has an article all about the feet

in yoga. Tias Little is the author and the ideas

from the workshop are explained in great detail there.