1. feet are meant to be used, not hidden in shoes.
-anonymous
2. INDEX
1. INTRODUCTION
2. BENEFITS OF GOING SHOELESS
3. STEPS ON GOING SHOELESS
4. SHOELESS ENVIORNMENT AT HOME
5. SHOELESS – ISLAMIC POINT OF VIEW
6. SHOELESS LEARING
7. SCIENTIFIC REASONING OF SHOELESS LEARNING
8. BENEFITS OF SHOE LESS EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT
9. BIBLOGRAPHY
3. "Humans have engaged in endurance running for millions of years, but the modern running
shoe was not invented until the 1970s. For most of human evolutionary history, runners were
either barefoot or wore minimal footwear such as sandals or moccasins with smaller heels and
little cushioning relative to modern running shoes.“
-journal Nature
Introduction
‘Old is gold’ like the saying as we as dawoodi bohra
community we have a huge historical wisdom on our living and life.
Thus keeping in mind our strong roots and following the foot steps of
our ancestors going shoeless is of high importance.
In this presentation we will see the scientific benefits
and the importance & impact of shoeless learning around the world
4. SHOELESS – ISLAMIC POINT OF VIEW
•NAJAFAT
•ADAB
•NO NOISE POLLUTION
•HEALTHY ENVIORNMENT
•CULTURE PRESERVATION
5. BENEFITS OF GOING SHOELESS
This may explain how marathon runners in Kenya are able to run great distances
barefoot with virtually no pain or injuries. Likewise, research reviewed by Michael
Warburton, a physical therapist in Australia, revealed:
•Running-related chronic injuries to bone and connective tissue in the legs are rare
in developing countries, where most people are habitually barefooted.
•Where barefoot and shod populations co-exist, as in Haiti, injury rates of the lower
extremity are substantially higher in the shod population.
•Wearing footwear actually increases the likelihood of ankle sprains, one of the most
common sports injuries, because it either decreases your awareness of foot position
or increases the twisting torque on your ankle during a stumble.
•One of the most common chronic injuries in runners, planter fasciitis (an
inflammation of the ligament running along the sole of your foot), is rare in barefoot
populations.
•Running in bare feet reduces oxygen consumption by a few percent.
• According to Zucker research has shown significant improvements in inflammationrelated disorders, chronic pain, sleep disorders, low energy, high stress, muscle
tension, headache relief, hormonal and menstrual symptoms, protection from EMF’s
and many more health-related issues all by direct daily contact with the earth.
Barefoot therapy
6. Grounding: The Overlooked Benefit of Going Barefoot
•While much of the debate between the barefoot and the shoed-foot focuses on the potential for injury, another often overlooked
aspect is grounding. The technique of grounding, also known as earthing, is simple: you walk barefoot to "ground" with the Earth. The
scientific theory behind the health benefits seen from this simple practice is that your body absorbs negative electrons from the Earth
through the soles of your feet.
•The Earth is negatively charged, so when you ground, you're connecting your body to a negatively charged supply of energy. And since
the Earth has a greater negative charge than your body, you end up absorbing electrons from it. The grounding effect is, in my
understanding, one of the most potent antioxidants we know of and may have an anti-inflammatory effect on your body. As written in
the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
•Unfortunately, few people ever walk barefoot anymore to experience the benefits of grounding. But it is very plausible that some of
the people who have converted to barefoot running are experiencing benefits not only from the lack of shoes, but also from the
increased connection to the Earth.
7. Walking Barefoot Is a Valuable Aspect of a Healthy Lifestyle
Exercising barefoot outdoors is one of the most wonderful, inexpensive and powerful ways of incorporating Earthing into your daily life
and will also help speed up tissue repair, as well as easing the muscle pain you sometimes get from strenuous exercise. A review of the
available research, published January 2012 in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health, agrees with the concept of reaping
health benefits when connecting to the earth . According to the authors:
"Mounting evidence suggests that the Earth's negative potential can create a stab le internal bioelectrical environment for the normal
functioning of all body systems. Moreover, oscillations of the intensity of the Earth's potential may b e important for setting the
biological clocks regulating diurnal body rhythms, such as cortical secretion. Throughout history, humans mostly walked barefoot or
with footwear made of animal skins. They slept on the ground or on skins. Through direct contact or through perspiration-moistened
animal skins used as footwear or sleeping mats, the ground's abundant free electrons were able to enter the body, which is electrically
conductive. Through this mechanism, every part of the body could equilibrate rate with the electrical potential of the Earth, thereby
stabilizing the electrical environment of all organs, tissues, and cells.
Modern lifestyle has increasingly separated humans from the primordial flow of Earth's electrons.
During recent decades, chronic illness, immune disorders, and inflammatory diseases have increased dramatically, and some
researchers have cited environmental factors as the cause. However, the possibility of modern disconnection with the Earth's surface as
a cause has not been considered. Much of the research reviewed in this paper points in that direction."
8. Before You Take Off Your Shoes…
Just taking off your shoes, if you've been wearing them all your life, does not mean you'll immediately attain proper barefoot running
form. Many new barefoot runners continue to land heavily on their heels -- and the result can be injury. So if you decide to give barefoot
running a try, make sure you do it slowly, progressing gradually to more and more time spent without shoes. A good starting point is to
first try walking barefoot and then begin with quarter-mile barefoot runs.
When you start going barefoot it is best to initiate on naturally softer ground like grass, dirt paths and sand, not cement, asphalt or
hardwood. When the muscles and joints of your foot become more stable and the skin on the bottom of your feet thickens, you will be
able to handle progressively more time barefoot and on a wider variety of surfaces.
One final note, barefoot running or walking doesn't have to be an "all or nothing" decision. You can incorporate as much barefoot time
into your life as you feel comfortable with. Quite possibly, you'll enjoy it so much that you will naturally find yourself kicking off your
shoes as much as possible.
9. On the way shoeless
1. Clear Your Mind
It’s hard not to pay attention to every
step when you’re walking barefoot. You
have to be on the look out for sharp
rocks and thorns. Awareness of what’s
in front of you in this moment quiets
your inner chatter and clears your mind
and helps you focus on the here and
now.
5. Get a Good Night's Sleep.
The ancients believed that
walking barefoot in the grass
was the best cure for
insomnia, and many people
still swear by it today.
4. Decrease Anxiety & Depression.
Walking barefoot in the grass can help decrease
anxiety and depression by 62 percent, and increases
the levels of those feel good endorphins. Awesome!
2. It’s Free Foot Yoga
Walking barefoot strengthens and
stretches the muscles, tendons and
ligaments in your feet, ankles and
calves. This helps prevent
injury, knee strain and back
problems. Not only that, but
because it works muscles not used
when you’re wearing shoes, it
strengthens and stretches your
core, helping keep your posture
upright, and your balance spot on.
3. It’s a Free Reflexology Session.
There are reflex points to every part of
your body in your feet. Every little
bump and rock in the road helps to
stimulate all these little reflex points.
If it hurts at first – especially in
specific areas, this means your feet
need the stimulation they’re getting
by being barefoot. Over time, these
sensitivities will go away, and the
areas the tenderness corresponds to
will be rejuvenated, helping decrease
the symptoms of whatever it is that
ails you.
10. 6. It’s Grounding. Literally.
Our bodies are made up of about 60 percent water, which is
great for conducting electricity. The earth has a negative ionic
charge. Going barefoot grounds our bodies to that charge.
Negative Ions have been proven to detoxify, calm, reduce
inflammation, synchronise your internal clocks, hormonal cycles
and physiological rhythms. The best places to get some
negative ions through your feet are by the water. Everyone
knows how good it feels to be barefoot on the beach – now we
know why!
7. Get Back to What Matters.
To be barefoot outside doesn’t just involve your feet – the rest of you
has to be outside too. You get to connect with Mother Nature all
around. Feel the sunshine on your face; hear the wind in the trees. It’s
easier to connect to a higher power when you’re in touch with Nature;
it’s easier to put things into perspective. Who knew something as
simple as a barefoot walk could be so good for you – mind, body and
soul. Numerous studies throughout the world indicate that footwear
actually causes the majority of our foot, leg, and back problems. In
fact, in countries where shoes are not worn, only three percent of
these problems occur in comparison to shoe-wearing populations.
11. SHOELESS ENVIRONMENT AT HOME
•Leave shoes at the door. Having a shoeless sanctuary cuts down on dirt and pollutants tracked into your house. Think about
all of the places your shoes travel in a day.
•When you wear them inside your house, you bring all of that into your home—including lawn pesticides, coal tar from
asphalt surfaces, lead, and even E. coli. These
•substances have been linked to cancer as well as neurological and reproductive disorders. Keep the toxins out by taking off
your shoes when you get home.
•It is custom to remove your shoes in all
homes and some other buildings.
• Some gyms have you remove your shoes
and put on a different pair that is only worn
inside. Therefore the filth of the street is not
transferred to the floor.
“Going barefoot is the gentlest way of walking and can symbolise a way of living — being authentic, vulnerable, sensitive to
our surroundings. It’s the feeling of enjoying warm sand beneath our toes, or carefully making our way over sharp rocks in
the darkness. It’s a way of living that has the lightest impact, removing the barrier between us and nature.”
— Adele Coombs, “Barefoot Dreaming”
12. SHOELESS LEARING
•We’ve lost our contact with the earth and its inherent electrical field. In discarding (or minimizing) this
physical connection, we’re forgoing natural healing benefits that previously played a significant role in our
physiological functioning. The body, when grounded in the earth, returns to its natural electrical
homeostasis as part of the living electrical matrix. It’s an intriguing theory with, as yet, little attention. Is
attention warranted though? Is it really the “most important health discovery ever,” as the authors suggest?
•Some nursery practitioners think parents would never allow their children to be barefoot in nursery. They explain
how barefoot children have a richer sensory experience. Without shoes children can feel differences between
surfaces, splash in water and squish mud between their toes.
13. Shoeless in public
•The southern islands of Japan resemble Florida in
weather and lifestyle. Warmer and more casual
than the big cities of Tokyo or Osaka. One of the
traditions is the children attend school barefoot
• One of the local medical doctors explained that
the shoe companies suggested the schools should
modernize and force the kids should wear "inside
shoes".
Case study
secondary boys at Lampton School, Hounslow, London
•A comparison study was done between schools that used inside shoes verse schools
where the children attended school and played barefoot.
• It should be noted that the playground in the schools had a soft sandy soil that was
created to stimulate the soles of the children's feet.
•The idea was if the feet were strong the ankles were strong, then the knees were
strong all the way up to the head.
• The school's playground toys (Jungle Gyms) had toe and finger holds to help
strengthen the body.
• Schools have a hands free foot washing station for when they returned to classroom.
•Since the feet were open to air there was little to no occurrence of foot fungus.
Something thought of as a foreign disease. To grow fungus you need a moist dark
warm place such as a shoe.
• It should also be noted that in the bathrooms separate sandals used only in the
bathroom were placed.
•The result of the study was the barefoot kids had higher grades, much lower
absenteeism, less frequency of colds, and enjoyed school more. Also vandalism was
much lower. It seems barefoot kids don't break things.
•They learn team work, discipline, cleanliness, personal space responsibility
14. Kids reaction
Research
One post surgical knee study found that those going
shoeless verse wearing sports shoes found the barefoot
patients did much better. It seems the shoes angled the
ten percent forward causing the faulty healing. Studies of
cultures that never wear or have worn shoes have found
no foot problems outside congenital and injuries. It seems
there is less jarring of the back and less back problems
with those raised barefoot. I often ask my older patients
with good backs if they went barefoot as a youth and they
often respond "Yes, we were poor" or "I never liked
shoes".
Shoe sole impact
Future
Although in an ideal world it is paved in grass, the reality is we
were not made to walk on concrete all day long.
However, allowing your children's feet and our own to breath and
spread out more can not hurt. More and more studies are alluding
that natural or bare is better. Obviously, there are social
restrictions but more and more companies are coming out with
barefoot technology shoes. In the future all shoes may tend to
engineered this way.
After studying the diary of a Missouri
family who travelled to California
during the Gold Rush for their history
class, the students got to spend a day
of school just like their historic
counterparts, who usually did not wear
shoes in school. The students liked the
experience. "We get to going
barefoot," Amanda
McDowell, 11, answered when asked
what she thought was most special
about the field trip.
Conclusion
Studies also indicate that children’s feet are negatively affected by
conventional footwear by the age of six. Footwear, most particularly
those with cushioning features, dampens the sensory input necessary
to stimulate proprioceptive muscle contractions. These muscle
contractions are required to align the bones to effectively manage the
forces generated relative to the activity––the more intense the
activity, the higher the arch required. Conventional insoles and shoe
inserts (orthotics) work in much the same manner as supportive
footwear; hey provide additional cushioning, support, or bracing for
the foot, which further contributes to a weaker structure.
15. Doctor’s point of view
•As a family physician, I firmly believe that children should play in their
bare feet or in activity shoes that complement natural foot
development and proper biomechanics of movement.
•As a doctor I firmly believe that the strongest support for a child is a
strong foot that is flat on the ground.
•As a parent and physician I believe that the APMA statements could
cause harm in a developing child’s foot. A foot builds its own intrinsic
support via communication with the ground, building strength and
stability through proprioception, and allowing normal force loads to be
applied to the areas that nature intended. If you change anything from
what is normal in a developing child, then you proceed at your own
peril.
B-bare feet of a child
A-shoe feet of a child
16. SCIENTIFIC REASONING OF SHOELESS LEARNING
•Here’s an important point to keep in mind
– a child’s foot is not a miniature version of
an adult’s foot.
•In early development, a child’s foot is
widest across the toes.
• If our population wore shoes that were
designed with this functional shape from
birth, most adults would also have feet
with the widest part across the toes, and
the toes would be perfectly aligned with
the metatarsals (long bones in mid foot).
•Most of a child’s developing foot is
composed of cartilage, which is gradually
replaced by bone.
• If the cartilage is deformed by badly
shaped or rigid shoes, the bones will take
on the deformed shape.
• More than 80% of foot
problems, bunions and injuries are a result
of misshaped and inflexible shoes. It’s vital
that kid’s shoes allow enough room for
natural growth, until the foot bones
mature.
•This doesn’t happen until ages 18-19 for
girls and 20-21 for boys. Simply put;
inflexible, poorly shaped shoes are
potentially harmful – they restrict the
natural movement and development of the
foot.
17. Heppell’s theory is that this shoeless learning is grounding for
students. It results in quieter students and better behaviour. The
teacher is encouraged to also take their shoes off.
In Finland and Scandanavia it is common practice for students to
always have their shoes off.
Reading the information about the many joys and benefits of bare
feet, I would be tempted to think that if kids weren't required to
wear shoes at school, none of them would. And they would all
grow up happier, healthier, stronger, and safer as a result. Pretty
soon the whole world would be better place.
-Krista
•For new walkers, like toddlers, feeling the ground beneath their feet is
essential to learning to become mobile. It’s how they learn to
coordinate the muscles from their legs to their toes to balance upright
and get where they want to go, explains Marlene Reid, DPM, a
podiatric surgeon in Naperville, IL.
•But since we all start shoving our feet into shoes by preschool, some
experts believe we’re inhibiting the senses in our feet and causing the
tiny muscles to weaken like an arm or leg that’s been in a cast. “Feet
are sophisticated parts packed with bones, ligaments, and muscles
that provide support through the arches,” says Amy Matthews, a
movement analyst. “Shoes can make the feet passive and unconscious
because they do all the work for us.”
•Reconnecting with the tiny muscles and the senses in your feet can
help you use your whole body more effectively, warding off future
injuries.
18. BENEFITS OF SHOE LESS EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT
On the global scenario the shoe less education environment concept is fast catching up
and is a globally accepted practice of high regard.
Here below are a few highlights of a shoeless educational environment :
•Children seem simply to behave better. Bullying is reduced as a pupil says: "it's just hard
to be naughty with your shoes off
•Carpets are much cleaner - and more hygienic. There is around 20% cleaning and
maintenance gains and reduced wear and tear on the furniture and environment.
•Noise is reduced - this is a mix of consequences: Carpeted floors are quieter and don't
echo with footfalls. Children move more "gently" , behaviour is significantly gentler whilst
children circulate.
•Children are much more willing to sit on floors and soft furnishings - and are much more
likely to read and engage with their iPads, laptops, etc than in the uncomfortable upright
chairs that children never read sitting on outside of school;
•Hygienic for the feet due to better breathing and freeness.
•Bare feet students seem to be more healthier and have better and stronger backs.
In China they speak of the reflexology of the foot directly onto the floor;
In India they speak of the "respect" - take shoes off when entering a sacred space;
In England we think it is "more like home“
Interesting reads:
http://www.askwithin.com/barefoot.html
http://rubble.heppell.net/places/shoeless/
20. SHOELESS SCHOOLS
shoeless children of all ages on the TK park
learning centre in Bangkok
Also in Tk Park - the shoes are exchanged for simple floor
cushions in these racks that have been copied by many
children in Hartlepool's
Jesmond Gardens Primary
School - wear and tear on
furnishings, especially soft
furnishings, is a lot less and
children are happy to use
the floor as a learning space
21. children of secondary age using the tiered seating (from
the Isis furniture calalogue) in their classroom in
London
just a strip of plastic floor to sore a
huge number of shoes and boots this in Norway's Tromso - but note
the lack of carpets and children are
still delighted to sit shoeless on the
floor
In Tasmania old library racks and sheleves are reused
outside (but under cover) as the shoe storage solution
