656 thoughts on “From Low Self‐Esteem to True Self‐Care: What My Feet Reflected to Me”

1. Our feet tell us not only how we carry things, but often when we absorb things too. The amount of abuse I placed on my feet during the years of running and continually disregarding them, was beyond me. Like yourself, it is only through esoteric practitioners I understand how self-care is an aspect of our lives did it unfold to how it is today.

   Once self-care was introduced, it went into further depths to now currently focusing on my feet. How I walk every foot step is important, and this makes a difference to how my feet are left at the end of the day. I nurture them, and pay extra attention to them like never before until it is part of my daily rhythm.

   Every part of our body needs self-care and once we take the first step towards it, more is revealed unto us. There comes a point we only need that confirmed in us and the rest will follow.

2. Thank you Jo. I have recently been observing pain and tension in my feet that has been signalling areas of life where I have been dishonouring of myself. It is beautiful how our body speaks to us. I love how you presented that your feet prefer it when you are in your body and not your head. A great take-a-way for me.

   1. That is gold, ‘your feet prefer it when you are in your body and not your head’. I will observe that for myself more, the difference, another depth I need to take self-care now…

3. I just remembered how I used to go running barefoot on concrete and I would pride myself for being that tough that it did not bother me. I used to call it ‘princess feet’ when someone could not walk barefoot without wincing. How judgemental can you get? Crazy that – thank God that I have come around so some common sense now and wear proper shoes and look after my feet a lot more than I used to.

4. Looking after ourselves means looking after the physical body, being honest with our emotions and how we feel and looking after our thoughts too. And then there is the connection with Soul building that relationship continuously so…and the results can certainly blow us away.

5. When we interview the body and the organs, we get an amazing response and it is so much fun investing the dialogue too to really play out the scenes of how we can so blatantly abuse or love up the body. We can do this with so much more than just the feet – the liver (when drinking alcohol), the digestive tract (when we eat too much), the lungs when we smoke … and the list goes on.

   1. Our body is very wise, yet we still sometimes choose to override its loving messages, ‘My body guides me all the time; it’s my choice to listen or to override it … and though I thought I “wanted the truth” and I was committed to searching for answers, I was overriding a lot of the signals my body was giving me.’

6. Awesome blog Jo – I love how you have shared your experiences in life and also your quirky sense of humour with your feet speaking up. We are indeed blessed to have come across the Universal Medicine Philosophy, science and religion – all three rolled into one gigantic blessing indeed. There is so much to understand in life and Universal Medicine has certainly played a pivotal role in my life which I am superbly appreciative of.

7. The spirit has an amazing ability to flip around and take part of truth and have a relationship with it as another ideal. It really hates to get out of the way of the inner-most, and likes to think it is in charge.

8. It makes perfect sense to me that if I go into my head my feet are going to get cold. Being present with my body, my body responds with a flow of warmth in my feet and legs.

9. “With self‐love there can be love in all that I do.” And every step you make leaves an imprint of love on the Earth.

10. Heavens, I don’t know if I clocked the other times I read this blog that you walked in snow barefoot! We listen to our parents and trust their beliefs so much that we learn to override our inner conversation at such a young age. But it never actually goes anywhere.

11. I have also found that one of the simplest ways to build my self worth is to connect with and listen to my body and honour what it is telling me by making choices that support it and avoiding things that don’t.

    1. Connecting with and listening to our bodies really is a wise choice, ‘Now I respect that my body shows me how to make more loving choices, and as I choose more self‐love I am more open to my body’s loving ways.’

12. Jo, this article is really interesting to read; ‘I was idealistic about being barefoot’. I can feel how often we put our ideals and beliefs above the practicality of caring for our bodies.

    1. The body is the real marker of truth, and when the head with its ideals gets in the way, it does not stop to consider the body which has to bear the consequences.

13. Jo, this is super cute. So cool you have got to feel how lovely it is to deeply care for yourself.

14. From young we are robbed from our connection, the expectations and norms within families place us in boxes which we have to comply with in order to fit in and survive. Some parents are more open and let their children explore what feels right for them, others are very set in their ways and think they have to control their children in order for them to become something, not realising how damaging that actually is.

15. I am participating in an online class at the moment about connecting to our feet and although I worked as a feet reflexologist I am amazed how sensitive our feet are and how everything in our body is connected. If we disregard or ‘forget’ one part of the body you could say we do the same with the rest of our body. Also I found it very interesting to feel how my bones came alive, as in breathing into my hands when I was gently palpating the bones of my toes and lower legs. We could appreciate our feet much more than we do now, they have an very important part to play.

    1. Being present in our bodies supports us to feel all of our body, ‘I have come to realise that self‐love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world, which is crying out for real Love.’

16. I saw my Podiatrist yesterday and it is beautiful to feel how dedicated and how caring she is about my feet, it is time for me to bring more appreciation to this part of my body and how valuable my feet are as they consistently walk me throughout life.

17. Jo, I can definitely relate to this; ‘Looking back, I can see how stubborn I’ve been, wanting to do things my body was savvy not to do.’ Reading your article makes me realise how many ideals and beliefs we hold – such as being bare footed or opting out of society and all of the other variations. I have experienced many and I can feel how stubborn I have been and how I have ignored my body. I listen to my body now which I love.

18. Gosh barefoot in snow!!!! 😶 Absolutely there is nothing loving about that and hiking 10 miles without shoes!! 😐 and walking on cactus spines 😩 I love the chat between you and your feet .. very cute especially now you are listening to them ❤️ And yes how ironic that now you take care of your feet and wear shoes after all that time of walking barefooted is only now that you actually feel more connected with the ground. This shows the power of the relationship we have with our body when we truly start to re-connect. I have and continue to learn loads from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and reading your blog reminded me that after doing years of loads of different therapies and courses etc I was not ‘better’ but actually had to go on antidepressants. However, through the teachings of Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon I now have an absolute understanding with regards to energy, am more empowered and have healed so much.

19. “I ‘wanted the truth’ and I was committed to searching for answers, I was overriding a lot of the signals my body was giving me.” You got to really want the truth 100% of the time to have the truth.

20. Jo, it is beautiful that you are now cherishing not only your feet but all of you.

    1. Cherishing and honouring our bodies wisdom can only support all of us, ‘As I support myself with true and consistent care I feel more steady and loving in all areas of my life. Now that I have slowed down and become more aware of how I feel I can know what I need in each moment! ‘

21. The truth (hence the only one truth) is that there is nothing like feeling the beauty of a pair of feet well taken care of, soft, tender….

22. I love the fact that at 4 you knew to sit down and who “why???” We should ask this question stubbornly more often because we follow blindly far too often to the detriment of our own health and wellbeing.

23. This link between caring for ourselves and our levels of self worth and regard is so huge but rarely discussed. I used to think I was pretty healthy but since focusing on feeling what’s going on in my body, and being less in my head, I realised I was living in a lot of disregard. Our external lives are an absolute reflection of how we treat our bodies, so looking after one affects the other.

24. I wonder if low self-esteem goes hand in hand with struggle and a solid foundation of self-worth is more attuned to abundance. I am not talking about wealth but an attitude that permeates everything.

25. My feet are a long way down there, and its easy to forget that they take the brunt of how I am moving and so act as brilliant bell weathers for what is going on, how I am moving. It does not take much to pay them a bit of attention, give them a bit of love… and feel that feedback into the whole body.

26. It feels very important to me to simply allow myself to feel whatever I am feeling – the good, the bad and the ugly and not go into any judgement about it, but simply observe it and learn from it.

27. Wow reading this blog made me not only realise but confirm how my feet have been signalling or communicating loudly to me more and more.
    I’ve not been the biggest fan of walking barefooted but to find the most decent loving shoes for my feet has been a challenge and is still ongoing. I’ve learnt now when my feet outgrow shoes, the soles ache and it’s not only time to move to a new pair but observe the way I have been walking, with presence or not.

28. ‘Ironically, for the first time in my life I feel like my “feet are on the ground.” It’s ironic because now I’m rarely bare foot but I feel more grounded (centered).’ How we can be tricked by our mind to think it is good to be barefoot to come in contact with the earth, yes we need to be grounded but only to feel our whole body (including our sensitive feet) and to know what we are here for.

29. I can very much relate to listening to only a part of what the body is saying. In that I think to myself ‘at least I am doing this’ without admitting to myself that I have already disregarded myself and got myself in the way of the movement my body has been impulsed to go along.

    1. And the opposite is also true, in that we can give ourselves a hard time for the part that’s not working well, or that we haven’t mastered yet, instead of appreciating what is flourishing and already amazing.

30. We are all Sons of God, so it makes sense that thinking we are less or faulty somehow will cause us pain. It doesn’t match and marry with our true divinity. To heal, all we need to do is hold ourselves as equal, stop our self-abusive ways and walk tall knowing who we truly are.

31. Love the sharing from the perspective of your feet – it is a great exercise – if your feet could talk about how you treat them – what would they say. This makes me consider how we can disconnect from our bodies and just focus on what we think we should be doing when really, our bodies have a lot to say.

    1. I used to hate my feet, so much that I thought I had a foot phobia, I really couldn’t stand them anywhere near me, which is very funny when you think they are always with me. As I started addressing the unkind way I spoke about my body I found my attitude and relationship to feet also changed.

32. We often forget the importance of how our feet walk us through life, we would never ignore the tyres on our cars if they were worn or needing air so why do we feel our feet are any different?

33. Hiking 10 miles without shoes…ouch! Your poor feet would have felt every step and no doubt would have missed the protection and support that well-fitting shoes bless them with.

34. Reading this has reminded me of how sensitive our feet are and the extent of the override that has to take place to numb out or ignore the messages from our feet.

    1. So sensitive that we are often quick to place some moisturiser on our hands but have we stopped to offer the same level of respect to our feet?

35. Living life barefoot is something of a dream that some of us in this world have adopted as perhaps a rebellion against the cruelty and corruption of civilisation, and, linked to this, an idealisation of nature, or Divine Creation, making it more than us when in fact the opposite is true. Thank you for this great blog!

36. This brings another dimension to the expression of having cold feet when we mean that someone is apprehensive or shy abut doing something, when we are holding back our commitment one way or another it is because we are not connected to our inner knowing, to our inner heart. This makes total sense and great to see how this literally pans out in the physical. There is also the scenario whereby we have physically cold feet and yet appear to be very confident. I can see now how this could be just an outer facade, a way of keeping things together and not actually coming from a true confidence where we are connected to our divinity, the true quality of our being, where a love for ourselves is missing.

37. This is so gorgeous Jo. To walk our love or to not walk our love – that is the question. We have a tendency to make life arduous when the truth is we have all the lightness on offer at our fingertips (toe tips?) by virtue of how we choose to move and be moved.

    1. And to walk lightly! Our feet (and the world) would treasure us enormously!

       1. When we walk lightly, we heal the scars that we have scourged upon the surface of the Earth by not walking in connection with all that love that we are. This does not mean we are to walk around in an ethereal and spiritual manner, far from it, but to walk in a very grounded way that does not shy away from showing the world the lightness (divinity) we are and come from.

          Put simply – when we walk with presence and love, we ground Heaven into Earth. This is healing for us all.

38. Our feet support us in every move we make.

39. Wow Jo, you had this real connection to your feet when you were four – you could feel the stones getting pointier and pointier as you went along. It is one of the worst thing to be unable to walk steadily and with your own authority – this barefoot regime was destabilising, especially when you were not listened to when giving feedback from your sensitivity. How wonderful that you have reclaimed your feet. Thank you for sharing the deep meaning of what could in some situations be considered not important – going barefoot.

40. My feet is a great marker as to how I have been moving. The more I am present and connected to my legs and feet in my day the more warmth I feel inside them. Abandon my legs and feet and they abandon me by letting me know how cold and numb they are.

41. I love how we as a child are very honest with what our body can and can’t do. I remember that when I had to go to the toilet as a toddler I had to go and we could not wait until we were home, or when there was a little stone in my shoe we had to stop take my shoe off and get it out before I would take another step! As adults we wait to go to the toilet and I have been walking along with a little stone in my shoe when I was in a hurry getting somewhere or simply just when I didn’t want to put all the effort of taking off the shoe… Yet it is actually still as uncomfortable as when I was a child. As adults we learn to override our bodies with ideals and believes of why it is good what we do but in the end there is only the truth of the body. When we listen to this truth there is less tension and more ease in our body and thus also life.

42. On re-visiting this blog today, I was reminded of an old song ‘These boots are made for walking’ – and how the quality of our self-care and awareness of our feet that supports the we walk within our boots – a movement that brings either harmony or disharmony to our body and to others.

43. We make decisions very early on in life that shape our lives afterwards. Go bare foot is a clear decision to not pay attention to your movements and stop feeling the consequences of them. Yet, numbing your body does not mean not experiencing the consequences you do not want to feel.

44. All day long I walk up and down corridors yet I often forget to appreciate the role my feet have in being able to do that. Thanks Jo for the reminder to appreciate and love my feet more.

    1. As such the importance of the shoes we wear that hold and nurture those feet and therefore the rest of the body become so important don’t they?! If we are not appreciating the role of our feet we can find ourselves not appreciating that how we walk up and down corridors has a ripple effect.

45. I remember growing up thinking “am I the only one that feels this way” the disillusion, low self-esteem and no confidence were part of my everyday. As I grew older I managed to mask this, to pretend that life was great but still felt empty inside. Fast forward to today and through developing self care and self love I’ve transformed my life and in that show to society what is possible when we start to deeply love ourselves.

46. I have to admit that reading this blog made me cringe as I have always had super sensitive feet, and can remember swimming in lakes and rivers years ago where even walking on the slightest amount of rocks or pebbles would kill my feet. But what is amazing about what Jo shared here is how we can learn how by shutting down and toughening one area of our body (in this case our feet) it causes a protection, hardening, and numbing in other areas of our lives and can affect our relationships deeply in a negative way. So what a turnaround indeed Jo has made in so many ways!

47. It’s true isn’t it… I find it quite shocking really when I see people walking on hard gravel roads with bare feet… And I do remember that I used to do the same.

48. Thank you for sharing Jo, a very insightful article that many can relate to no doubt.

49. ‘I used to automatically shift into fast gear, pushing myself and staying distracted as a way to not be aware of uncomfortable feelings’. I can so relate to this line. It is something I have to be continuously aware of. The faster I drive in my body the the easier it is to zoom past what is truly going on and in turn avoid the evolution on offer. So is the case when we make choices that override all our body is telling us.

50. This was hard to read as I have super-sensitive feet. But I have been super-hard on myself in other ways. Different, but same-same.

51. Jo I often find that when I walk now without the right footwear, or without any if I am quickly taking the rubbish out, that it does not support me and your blog jumps out at me. It’s great to see how the care we take in all aspects of life grounds us and what we may think is grounding is actually far from it.

52. “I have come to realise that self‐love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world, which is crying out for real Love.” – Yes I agree, taking care of ourself and honouring what our whole body is communicating with us lays a foundation for us to bring more love to all that we do and all whom we meet.

53. Committing to consistent presence and tender loving care has a big impact on ourselves and the world as you share in this blog, ‘have come to realise that self‐love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world, which is crying out for real Love.’

54. It really is interesting observing when people go barefoot… Especially when you know that the road is rough uneven and has sharp stones in it.

55. It’s a great reflection to read your article and consider my life, consider the parts where I am perhaps not taking care of myself, my body and therefore my the quality that I am in the most loving and caring way. I’ve noticed presence is another big thing, and the more I allow space and don’t rush things the more I complete, In the same way as you feel more grounded now and you are wearing shoes.

56. Jo,I wonder if you would have had a different relationship with your feet if your parents had picked you up and helped you at that moment knowing it was not loving to walk on stones especially when children’s feet are so delicate and sensitive?

57. With my job I walk up and down corridors constantly so I find it is so important that I appreciate my feet and their role in allowing me to do a job I love.

58. Jo this is so, so beautiful to read again, thank you. “Looking back, I can see how stubborn I’ve been, wanting to do things my body was savvy not to do, and in turn not feeling very loved or supported in most of my life situations.” It’s amazing to consider the power we have to support ourselves, that the love, harmony and joy in life was there all along inside ourselves, and it activates from the way we choose to be with and treat ourselves everyday. We are our own untapped resource. The stubbornness is such a relevant point, how willing am I to surrender to my body and to the honesty that will surface as part of listening to it? It’s so worth it though to return to our own love, and let go of that which we stubbornly hang onto which blocks the love.

59. Ideals and beliefs can bring a lot of harm and abuse to our bodies, great that you now understand when they are running you, so that you can make new loving choices, ‘ What I can feel now is that I was living out my held ideals without considering if it was loving to do so for me, in each situation.’

60. This was such a fun read, I could see very clearly how looking after our feet could have an impact on how we nurture the rest of our body. The number of times I have stubbed my little toe and in that moment I realise how little I have cared for, or thought about, my feet yet they do such an important and valuable job.

61. And it’s not just our feet that can ‘talk back to us’, our whole body does this at a constant rate, in its own language, it’s just a re-learning of how to pay attention and live the way the body knows how.

62. I loved the way you have written this Jo, with your feet doing the talking, so simple so honest with no idealism. Our bodies know 🙂 How our minds can trick us when we disconnect from the very loving impulses our body delivers… same in many areas of life.

63. Absolutely, our body does guide us all the time, its like a wise best friend, ‘By listening to my body I have become so much more aware of my choices; how they shape my life and affect my body and this has been a major turning point for me. My body guides me all the time; it’s my choice to listen or to override it.’

64. Although I haven’t been a committed barefooter, I have spent most of my 48 years pretty much ignoring my feet and just not really being aware if they were tired or cold. This has changed with the level of self-care I now give myself so now I feel the messages from my feet really clearly. They ask for connection, care, love and of course comfy shoes!

65. I love the way you have written this blog with your feet having a say. I imagine lots of our body parts and organs would be complaining quite a lot if they had a voice, given the way we can be very disregarding with ourselves.

    1. Great point Debra, imagine what a liver would say to an alcoholic or what our stomachs would like to express when we overeat?

66. self love – one step at a time… your feet will love it!

67. I loved how your feet were chatting with you and that is in fact the messages we receive all of the time but try to ignore. ‘…we feel far away…’ I agree feet can feel far away and are treated like that too, showing your feet to someone else can feel very exposing as the disregard comes out a lot in our feet and toes. This is said from my experience as a reflexologist, clients could be embarrassed by the look of their own feet and touched by the level of care and love I treated them with and how this felt in their body.

68. Thank you Jo, I loved reading your blog. I smiled as I recognised some traits in me, a stubbornness to want to do it my way and a practical streak which while very very useful means I often subvert what I truly feel because I need to be practical; and this later one is quite subtle, practical is great but if at any stage I’m choosing something because it’s practical but not what I truly feel then I’m choosing less, and as I write this I can feel what a huge pattern this one is, so some exploring to do here. Thank you.

69. Amazing to read all kinds of things you have listed as no longer part of your life because of the way you now listen to your body and take loving care of yourself. What a powerful medicine self-love is.

70. Yesterday I was reflecting on how far I have come and how I have changed, how much more honest I have become. But there’s the sense too that this process never stops, and on this journey there are always new steps to take. The key is as you show Jo, to make the new ones truly you, to go deeper and with more Love in every move you make. There is no way to stand still or ponder which path to take – just the truth and a sassier, sexier, simpler step to strut. The walk of life is ours to embrace and celebrate, not begrudgingly vassilate.

71. I love the irony – you now feel more grounded than ever before. I can completely see the allure of the ‘at one with nature’ story, which more often than not separates us from our very nature as we look outside for it and forget that we in fact are very much a part of that nature.

    1. Yes me too, nature is such a glorious reflection which I very much appreciate every day, though this is always reflecting our own nature, a reminder that we are so much more and it is inside of us.

72. I have never really liked walking around barefoot especially outside, many years ago I was in a lot of pain with my feet as I had very painful bunions that I ended up having them operated on and removed. After going through this experience and years of painful feet the operation was a success and I began to treat my feet more lovingly and with greater care and to appreciate just how important our feet in everyday life truly are.

73. I remember as a kid and teenager thinking that I needed to toughen up my feet. As if somehow this was a good thing and proved how resilient and strong I was. As I write this I realise what a belief I took on until only a few years ago about tough feet. Being able to go barefoot gave you kudos in my mind. But why? It feels far better to care for my feet, protect them from hard surfaces and cold tiles and love them. What nonsense I lived!

    1. Yes, what is normal one day can seem like absolute abuse the next. So much is about how much we are prepared to see and feel.

74. The story you share Jo is such a perfect metaphor for our passage in life. For we step forward every day, so often without a thought for the possibility that there might be a more tender, loving way. We rush on to ‘get somewhere’ forgetting that like foot steps in the sand it’s the quality that we walk in that remains not the prizes, medals and things we achieve. When we walk with Love we are glad at heart to strut our stuff, safe in the knowing that there is nowhere to get to and nothing to prove – only a quality to live and get into the groove.

75. I am constantly amazed by the number of people that walk barefoot particularly in summer but the evidence of disregard is clear particularly in the hardness and dirtiness of the feet themselves. It’s amazing what we put up with as human beings when simple self love and care is so common sense!

76. A great and simple story about feet that brings us so so much more. I know it’s obvious but our feet are hugely important, they walk us everywhere and with that respect how much respect do we give them or how much attention do we bring to them. I think it’s great to have a conversation with our feet all the time and ask them how they are, not to be silly but to genuinely care for a part of us that is doing some hard yards at times. This care, a deep care is how we need to hold every part of ourselves and doing that to the best of our ability anything that doesn’t match that care will be seen and felt and dealt with in our step. It’s a way of living that takes care of ourselves but in equal part takes the same care out in everything we do, who knew a story on feet could bring us so much.

77. My feet are unhappy at the moment often sore, I have taken to massaging them and bought inner soles to give some cushioning. I am sure they are sharing a level of disharmony being lived that results in the pain. Our bodies really can be the marker of truth.

78. This reminds me of the pride I used to have in being hard with my body, being bare foot, getting cold when outside or swimming, going numb and getting through things. Yes I also love to be bare foot some times, but I now honour much more how I feel and care for myself, it feels like this choice made regularly really supports my whole life and how I feel about my self.

79. ” My body guides me all the time; it’s my choice to listen or to override it .” It seems so obvious to me now – nearly ten years after I have been made aware of this concept. Why aren’t we taught from an early age to listen to our body and be guided by its messages – and then act on them? Who ever took their first puff of a cigarette and didn’t cough? Yet not so long ago many more people smoked than do today. If we had all listened to our bodies the needless deaths through lung cancer etc would have been avoided. The list could go on…….

80. Love it. Thank you Jo – there is so much here.
    “By listening to my body I have become so much more aware of my choices; how they shape my life and affect my body and this has been a major turning point for me.” Realising that how and what I experience in life is a consequence of my choices is revelatory. I no longer need to believe that I am a victim to life or be the ‘boss’ but instead can live in harmony, in co-creation, with the Universe and God as you have with your feet.

81. Feet are fascinating things actually and reflect a great deal about the way we have ‘trodden’ our way through life, if not lives. They, just like the body, do not lie about the disregard, self-abuse, hardness or separation from our deeper truth we have chosen throughout life. Treating them lovingly and with great care is always a reflection of the love and care we take of ourselves.

82. ‘I was always disregarding what I felt I really wanted (soft flexible and supportive shoes) in favor of what I believed was practical’ Thank you Jo. I often take the practical route and now I am looking more closely to see if this ‘practical’ is a belief, an excuse and/or a justification. Sometimes practical may not be true at all.

83. a most interesting reflection – thank you Jo

84. Its amazing what our body will reveal, and feet and toes are an interesting one, they are funny things. For instance I didn’t realise how much I harden my feet, and not feel them a lot of the time. It then makes me question what is going on with the rest of my body when this is happening? And what level of detail in life am I connecting to not not?

85. Meeting life constantly from our heads will configure our bodies to move in a certain way that makes us rely purely on nervous energy to get things done leaving us feeling exhausted, it is only through our connection to the sensitivity of our bodies that once again we live from sensing what is needed at any specific time creating space and true joy in our lives.

86. It is amazing how little we care for our feet and see them as a functioning tool that gets us from A to B but when we truly stop and appreciate all that they do for us, and how lost we would be without them would we treat them with the disregard that we so often do? This goes for any part of our body, when we segment it we loose connection with the rest of the body and make demands on it that we would not otherwise do. It was lovely to read your conversation with your feet Jo and get to feel what they were reflecting back to you, I feel every part of our body has a story to tell when we choose to live in separation to the whole

87. It is through being aware that we see our ill-behaviours being carried and it can be quite exposing to face those behaviours that once upon a time I did not think twice about doing them. What I thought was love has certainly not been love; the falling in and ignoring what was true for me, listening to others carrying out behaviours in situations to please has time and time again come back to haunt me, bringing with it feelings of bitterness and resentment. How could this way of being be love? Discerning what is true for me in every moment can only bring about true love but this way of being has to be built on a foundation of self-love.

88. Learning to listen to our bodies is one of life’s key things. I know for me, it is still a work in progress, it is like I can listen my body, then I forget. It can be a convenient forgetfulness, one that I usually suffer for and then berate myself for having forgotten. It is a really old pattern of not having really self honoured when I was younger and find that I can drop back into that pattern very easily. I know it is always about coming back to my connection and making loving choices from there.

89. I love how our bodies never give up in letting us know how to live, even when we don’t pay attention to the smaller messages they don’t stop, but simply get louder until we stop. And it’s amazing how each part of the body, when listened to can tell us so much.

90. Once we start becoming more aware and caring for ourselves it can be quite shocking looking back at our earlier life and wondering where was I when I behaved like that?

    1. So true, and how out of touch with ourselves we were. Yet there is so much more unfolding to continue to discover every day.

       1. very true – initially I looked back and said “where was I” but now I know where I was and also know where I am going and how soon what is my current highest expression of love will be superseded 😉

91. Amazing how we often know or sense just how sensitive we are and that to deeply care for our bodies is such a natural thing to do, but then we come up against generally held beliefs by the world which constantly tells us that it is a weird thing or abnormal thing to take care of our selves and so we assume we have got it wrong. However these days I am convinced I have not got it wrong and that to take care of my body is one of the greatest things I can do in my life.

92. When we do not honor our body we can let in ideals and beliefs that not only bring abuse to the physical body but makes us also think that life is as such, that we have to harden ourselves because of the harshness of life. How complete opposite is this when we are living to the way we naturally are. We are from love and when we reconnect to this inner strength we do not allow any abuse anymore whatsoever but instead make our lives the love that it can be and in which any harshness or unloving act will have no place anymore.

93. Once upon a time I was idealistic about going barefoot. I subscribed to some belief that it was cool, meant I was connected to nature and my body and that I was free. What rubbish! Going bare foot always hurt and was uncomfortable and if it ever wasn’t I was either hugely disconnected or had previously been so that my feet had toughened up. I now have a pair of slip ons at each door so that I don’t have to go barefoot unless I truly want to.

94. Staying still enough to connect to what the body is saying to us, and not constantly overriding it, is actually life-changing, when we start to respond to those messages and treat the body with the care and love it is asking for.

95. It’s interesting the way we can live in total disregard and never stop and ask our body the way it feels, developing a true relationship with ourselves is the first step on our way back to reconnect and express the love that we are.

96. I absolutely adore this idea of our body literally chatting with us. Wow, if it could really speak what would it say? And not just about how we use one part but everything? I feel like my body has strong feelings about all of life, and as you show Jo, all jokes aside it really is communicating with us every day. All we need do is to stop blocking it out.

97. Loved reading your blog Jo, as a child I hated walking barefoot on the pebbles on the beach or even the sand, I always insisted on wearing my shoes, and even now many years later I rarely walk barefoot. Beautiful to read how you are now making more loving choices for your feet and yourself.

98. I loved hearing from you and your feet Jo! You have reminded me of the connection I have felt between my feet and my heart in the past. I often walk on cold surfaces barefoot and it always feels really harsh and unloving. I’m realising that this is possibly something I have used to shut down my connection to myself. I will be much more conscious of my feet and my connection to me now.

99. What an awesome marker to walk through our day with, sensing the delicateness of our feet. I feel as though through all of life ups and downs I have trained myself to walk through regardless and not pay attention to every little detail as it reveals its self.

100. I love that in the consistent care you now offer yourself in each moment there is not a part of you that you ignore. Listening to and honouring your body has clearly had a remarkable effect on your life and how you feel about yourself…. no longer feeling confused or unsupported, but deeply loved by you.

101. Thank you for your heartfelt blog Jo.

102. “My body guides me all the time; it’s my choice to listen or to override it.” We are offered choices frequently through out the day – what energy have we initially chosen to guide us to one particular choice – spirit or soul? Do we choose to harm or heal ourselves?

103. Jo this is massive, it’s huge – to go from the level of self abuse and disregard to where you are now, and also to be willing to call out the barefoot ‘natural’ thing when really our feet want loved. I love the playfulness of the part where you share a conversation interview style with your feet, that’s a playful way to be honest.. But honestly from healing ” chronic depression, harmful food cravings, physical pain, anxiety and sorrow, financial inadequacy, memory problems, harmful and empty relationships and the relenting loneliness” this is massive, many people live with this or accept they will be like this / have these issues, illness and disease their entire life. hey spend thousands on counselling, remedies etc, when what you have shared shows us that yes with support, it all comes down to self love, and the loving choices we make, and the fact we are worth loving, every tiny little bit, even the stuff ups and the blips, right down to our feet and toes.

104. When we only open our eyes to the ‘particular truths’ you speak of Jo we are blinded to and totally miss out on the whole dynamic of what is at play.

105. For every step that we take that is unnecessarily challenging and hurtful why would we not think that the accumulative damage this causes would not force not only our feet but our whole body to harden to protect itself?

106. Let’s face it, walking bare foot on a road is one of the most horrible experiences. The feeling of the feet getting hard and dirty and the pain when we step over something that has volume (stones for example or little things) is just tremendous; a bit of a torture we inflict upon ourselves if we do it.

107. ‘Looking back, I can see how stubborn I’ve been, wanting to do things my body was savvy not to do, and in turn not feeling very loved or supported in most of my life situations.’ When we afford our bodies the care they ask for it is felt as deeply nurturing love. We must love ourselves first, and confirm our precious and sensitive nature.

108. The deep sensitivity from our feet is registered when we choose to let go of more things which numb us from feeling the deeply precious and sensitive beings we are.

109. Thank you for sharing your self-caring journey Jo and love how you say ‘Ironically, for the first time in my life I feel like my “feet are on the ground.” It’s ironic because now I’m rarely bare foot but I feel more grounded (centered).’ I too was idealistic about going bare foot but now choose to lovingly care for and massage my feet taking special care that they never get cold and I can relate to feeling so much more grounded since attending Universal Medicine presentations because I am now open to the connection to my inner essence and the communication that is always there to guide me.

110. ‘I have come to realise that self‐love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world, which is crying out for real Love.’ This is so true Jo and by choosing to listen to our bodies and introduce more and more self-love we have the opportunity to reflect this to others as well as bringing more love into our own lives. I know that my feet and the rest of my body appreciates the greater care I now take and also speaks loudly when this level of self-care drops.

111. “Now that I have slowed down and become more aware of how I feel I can know what I need in each moment! This is amazing to me after feeling so confused and unguided for so long” . . . . I can so relate to this Jo. In fact slowing down in a way that takes my body into consideration has meant that I am a lot more efficient with my time and really get things done.

112. When we begin to consider that we need our body to do what ever it is we want to do, why is it that we disregard it and treat it as a problem, rather than the most important part of our life?
     I know that when I walk without feeling my feet, that I am hard and my walk is hard. The moment I consider my feet, I become tender and I move tenderly. My feet are my gauge in how I am choosing to move my body.

113. At four years old you felt the truth Jo. A great reminder that it never truly leaves us, we just learn to override it and are also taught to do so! Love how you have shared the coming back to ‘you’.

114. As children in Australia we went barefoot most of the time and one of my most powerful memories is at about 4 years old I stubbed a big toe and it was excruciatingly painful but I blamed the path not my choice to go barefoot. When we moved to England I continued to go barefoot for quite some time until I finally accepted that going barefoot in an English winter was no fun. Sometimes we take a long time to listen to what our feet are so lovingly telling us.

115. I love the dialogue between you and your feet, very playful and fun. Also, what is so incredible is how you have managed to drop all the symptoms you used to live with. They are very common in most people’s lives and what you’ve shared will support and inspire others to know that they too can choose to live and care for their body in a way that brings back love, joy and vitality. It is all possible, by simply making more and more loving choices, and learning to listen and honour our body. This supports us on so many levels.

116. We are taught for a very young age to override our feelings and it becomes a way of life to some degree for all of us. I know for me my life got that way that I wasn’t aware or capable of feeling much at all I had shut down from feeling my body and my emotions. I still struggle with the voice of disregard sneaking in at times am are very aware that the more I deepen my love for myself what was loving yesterday may not be loving today as I discover a deeper and deeper depth of love and appreciation for myself and others.

117. Jo I remember how in my teenage years I would pride myself on the fact I had hardend up my feet so I could walk on gravel and not get “too” hurt by it. Today after deepening my self care and way I look after myself I’ve noticed that if I stepped outside without shoes I’d instantly felt the physical pain. To me this is a great reminder that my body always knew what was true and what was not and it was myself that overrode those feelings.

118. I clearly remember at the age of 9 purposely walking on the hot bitumen and broken glass on the side of the road in order to toughen up my feet – I saw it as all part of preparing for manhood.

     1. I also prepared myself for life as a woman. By walking on hot bitumen, specifically near Lake Ainsworth so that I could cross the road in a bikini in bare feet – thought sandals very unfashionable and in fact ‘naf’!

119. Beautiful blog Jo, your commitment to self love was inspiring to read. It definitely exposed another layer in me that I can lovingly work on. It’s a never ending process self love, but one I know immense joy comes from.

120. ‘And though I thought I “wanted the truth” and I was committed to searching for answers, I was overriding a lot of the signals my body was giving me’. This was a massive realization for me too. There are so many layers we hide behind in order to not see the full truth and over riding my body is one of these layer for me.

121. I recall my friends and I down at the beach competing with walking on rocks with periwinkles (sharp tiny shell fish) with bare feet, wincing and bracing in our bodies while pretending that it did not hurt. Besides a few short lasting bruises it seems as if this kind of behaviour did not do any harm, but it set us up for being ok or even championing being insensitive later on in life affecting every aspect of life. It is sobering to feel what we chose even though we did know better and if children were encouraged to honour their natural body sensitivity, what a different world it would be?

122. Having a blog that addresses the whole ‘bare foot is better’ consciousness is awesome. Our feet need just as much love an attention as the rest of our bodies, if not more considering they carry the rest of our body around for the majority of the day. Most of us would feel shame if we used our face so roughly that it was bruised and then got in muddy and dry and didn’t bother to wash it off.

     1. Great point Sarah, in fact if we did this to our face the abuse would be very obvious.

123. How wonderful that you feel more grounded in life, all from how you have taken care of yourself. Your wonderful feet have paved the way for you.

124. What a dear little girl, so lovely, so huggable, and so tender. No wonder you sat down and wouldn’t go any further barefoot down that stony road Jo! Just amazing that you have re-surfaced from that negligent way of life to re-gain the wisdom you were born with. Amazing!

125. Like you Jo many of us ‘are committed to searching for answers’, that missing link that is gnawing away from deep within telling us that there is something more to life that what we see. Simultaneously our human body is crying out to be loved and asking us to do exactly that according to the symptoms of tiredness, stress, pain, illness and disease etc that we experience. Maybe listening to our body and understanding its symptoms rather than overriding or ignoring them is far more important than what we think it is.

126. I have noticed in my job just how many people ignore their feet and do not care for them. It is as if their feet do not exist. Could this be telling us that we do not want to walk in the responsibility of the fact that we are here on earth and by that very fact need to commit to life?

127. The way you have a conversation with your feet is beautiful Jo, what if we started this kind of relationship and dialogue with all of our body? Perhaps then we would find that relationships between people, between you and me, would flow in a totally new way. For it must be hard to communicate and reach an understanding when you ignore and block out the words and feelings of those closest to you – like your feet.

     1. Oh I love your point Joseph… as I choose to honor myself & my body more and open my heart to myself I am definitely able to have the open loving and real relationships with others that had always eluded me before! Now I am sure that understanding and love must start for one’s self before we can bring that to the world or en-force it with laws or policies.

     2. That’s a great point Joseph about conversing with all parts of the body. It also showed me how little I truly say what I feel to say in relationships, which can lead to allowing difficulties and abuse in various forms. There is a lot to be said about truly conversing with ourselves and others, freely and truthfully, with listening an equal part of this.

128. Interesting Jo, a small disregard of the feet on a walk when you where 4 years old. It’s incredible how it formed the basis of disregard that followed for many years to follow. How many of these little snippets of happenings have now been the basis of other ill serving ways?

129. Imagine if we listened to every part of our body in the same way …. What our wrists would tell us , and our neck,… an enormous volume of awareness would be open there for us.

     1. Yes… what about the rest of me?…
        I am still working on getting my mind out of the way so I will listen to my body more.
        I know now that when something feels ‘bad’ it is a message that I can correct it if I make the intention to understand it and then just pay attention!
        For instance my neck has really been hurting while I work lately and I’ve discovered that all I need to do is make a small effort to breath more gently and the pain instantly melts away. (I know I have discovered this before but my mind gets amnesia when it comes to deferring to the bodies intelligence!)

     2. Thankyou cjames2012, it’s a joyful and playful way you have presented in listening to the various parts of our body.

130. “I kept going barefoot and getting myself into tons more unloving situations for another 34 years” what an accurate description of how we trail our way through lives, often carrying loads of unresolved hurts and conflicts from our past and all we had to do was get a pair of shoes and walk without all the baggage!

     1. Yes Harry, so simple really but did take ‘digging deep’ to get past all I had accepted which was not loving. I am still letting go of many old ways and ways of thinking that have held me back, kept me ‘safe’ and small for so long and I feel lighter with every step toward Myself!

131. Your relationship with your feet is a great example of how the ideals and beliefs that we hold can sometimes drive us in their pursuit to some extreme and self-abusive behaviours.

132. What a great blog Jo, I very much enjoyed reading it. I was never someone who liked to go barefoot but that does not mean that I treated my feet with care and love. I work in a job where I am constantly on my feet and it is only fairly recently that I have allowed myself to sit down from time to time to support my hard working feet. It has made me appreciate the great job that my feet do every day and that they deserved to be cared for.

133. This is such a precious blog Jo and a delight to pop by and read again. I actually could feel my own body’s communication in a similar way to the feet expressing their view of your choices. For someone that has been kind to others and to animals, I have not been kind to my body or myself. Your blog has helped me to connect to my body’s natural appreciation of kindness and consideration. I seemed to have learned to live with self neglect and self abuse, as if it is a normal experience, instead of truly allowing myself to feel how terrible it is to experience. Being “tough” or rough with ourselves really does not work, no matter how expected or accepted it is.

134. Jo this is truly beautiful to read your journey from self-abuse to true self-care is deeply inspiring to read. Universal Medicine offers us self-care principles that are truly amazing and support us to make more loving choices that can change our lives in miraculous ways.

135. Jo I have just finished reading through your blog again and throughly enjoyed your loveliness. This blog has a lot to offer me, and I really connected to today the level of disregard I live in because of how I dismiss or ignore my body. Our body is definitely ‘a body of truth’ and as you write “I have a very reliable guidance system within me as I am getting the messages my body sends me.” For me I have really revered the mind at the expense of the body, not realising what a loving navigation system the body truly is if I listen.

     1. I am with you on that, Melinda. Have been mentally driven for the majority of my life. Even when I discovered the connection of mind and body it was from a very mental place where I used my mind to override what my body was telling me (which was usually something along the lines of “Stop!”). What I have now learned is that there is a deeper wisdom to my body than I had ever appreciated before, and that it always knows more than my head does. I still don’t always listen, but the conversation with my body is getting deeper all the time.

     2. It is wonderful to hear that you are discovering that you don’t need to ‘revere the mind at the expense of the body’ and in fact are finding the loving navigation system that the body is. I know what a difference it is to live this way so I say Hurray to that!

136. Thankyou Jo, I’m delighted to come by and read this supportive blog again today. Wow, this line is something I can relate to

     “I was also aware that I rarely made my own choices about people, jobs or situations: I repeated a pattern of just going along with what presented itself instead of discerning if it felt right for me and I focused more on other people than on myself. I had recurring pain in my sacrum and neck; I was moody, lonely and terribly sad.”

     I am currently working on accepting and expressing how I feel, I also have a block in this area to do with speaking up about what I want or need. Going along with others needs (as if I have none) and accommodating others to be ‘polite’ are particularly harmful ways of being that I am examining. I know I have had a very strong block in this area since early childhood, even though it may not seem like a big thing to others, it feels like it’s big to me. I look forward now to exploring this with my Universal Medicine practitioner to gain more understanding. Thanks for the inspiration.

137. Your statement – ‘Ironically, for the first time in my life I feel like my “feet are on the ground.” It’s ironic because now I’m rarely bare foot but I feel more grounded (centered’), has reflected to me the way of being in our body that makes us ‘present’ in the moment and not only feeling our feet on the ground. It is a ‘whole’ body way of being. Living in the total disregard you have lived in Jo, confirms that the choice is ours and the depth that we feel ‘truth’ is ours. Thank you Jo for sharing.

     1. Well said ch1956,
        the choice is ours to be in disregard or to what level of truth we are aware of feeling.

138. Walking bare-feet and feeling the stones underneath them is one of the most unpleasant and unloving experiences I came across. I may have done it by necessity a couple of times and only for short distances. Definitely, not an option for me and not even for five straight minutes.

139. Jo thank you – you bring up a very valid point of reflection which is the fact that when we override our first feelings then it becomes easier to override the many more that follow. This is the slippery slope of disregard that we can slide down. A simple example can be that I am walking to the car from work and am loaded with bags, and taking the time to ensure that the bags are placed in a comfortable way on my body (if I don’t have too many) or making the decision to leave my bags behind whilst I go fetch the car, can make a world of a difference in how my body feels and gets treated. But each and every time there is still this little voice of disregard that says ‘it’s not that far to the car, you can do with with all the bags!’…But the more and more choices that we make that are respectful and caring for the body, then the fainter the disregarding voice gets! And soon you can’t hear it anymore and it has no sway over you! And then you discover another area in your life to bring more care and regard to and you start again in this part of your life. It is an on-going game till every part of your life is filled with care and love and respect.

     1. Such a great point Henrietta – each moment we choose to experience being in our body at a certain level, that becomes a maker we are willing to accept. If that marker ‘sits in’ disregard then we will go to that marker and live it but also allow our selves to go more deeply in to the disregard. When we make the choice to bring more ‘self loving’ choices into our lives, they then become the new marker and an opportunity arises to change our way and deepen the ‘self loving’ choices we make.

        1. What a great way to describe the process of how we can either build patterns of disregard, or patterns of self-love, which each build on themselves to confirm the markers in our body, which is in fact… The marker of all truth.

        2. Spot on ch1956 and Angela! So the question to ask is what are we building – disregard or self love? And it is never about beating ourselves up about what we discover as this is another choice to be disregarding….but the key is to observe and to keep that which works and to ditch that which does not work!

     2. I have recently experienced similar to what you’ve shared here Henrietta. The more I come back to being aware of my body it is becoming more obvious how each disregarding choice impacts further and further, it’s like I am looking back at the path I have walked. Beating ourselves up only pushes us further down along that path and I am seeing more and more now and understanding that each loving step sends us down a different path. The more we love the more there is love in our lives, the more we disregard the more that is also there.

        1. Awesome Leigh! One choice feeds the next or sets the stage for the next choice. So life is really just a series of choices, and could it be that our quality of life is simply governed by the quality of our choices?

        2. It is really important to look back and appreciate what was offered and how we can extend this to offer more to others.

     3. It is almost necessary to bring self regard into our lives in these incremental steps, especially if we find ourselves in a state where we want to change things but we feel overwhelmed by the amount of disregard we find ourselves faced with. From that place it is so important to bring in simple things that will start to change things on even just a small level, and what is more, to appreciate the fact that we are making those choices.

        1. Spot on Narren – such small incremental choices and changes are the key. And as you have said appreciating these choices no matter how small. For when we look at the bigger picture we might well have behind us a mountain of poor choices that are calling for us to repeat that pattern, so there is a strong ‘pull’ to do it all again…but we can also keep our focus on the changes, on the fact that deep within, no mountain of choices is bigger than who we are, or that this mountain behind us is really only a perceived mountain and that each choice that is loving, erodes the mountain of disregard little by little till it no longer is there and holds no sway or influence on us.

        2. We so often look at our choices as an insurmountable peak which we cannot possibly let ourselves get over. “Look at the time that I did that! And look at that other time when I did this! I can’t possibly ever even deserve to get over that mountain and put it behind me! I’m much better off piling some more rocks at the base to shore it up and make it a bit stronger so it does not fall on top of me.”
           Choosing to make the choices to love ourselves is like removing a stone from the mountain, in order to allow a stream to begin to flow. The continuing small choices increase the flow of the stream until it becomes a raging river, wearing down the mountain into nothing.

        3. Beautifully said Narren, it is so worth it, every stone moved, is a blessing!

        4. So very true Naren, every step counts when we are introducing self-care, self-love and self-regard into our lives. The small steps that we take are actually very big steps and make a huge difference to all areas of our life.

     4. This is a great conversation about new markers or new foundations and standards we can set ourselves with self care and self love, thank you.

140. ‘I was also aware that I rarely made my own choices about people, jobs or situations: I repeated a pattern of just going along with what presented itself instead of discerning if it felt right for me’ I can see how I have also done this in the past and recognise what a commitment to myself and thus to life, in truth, I have been missing. I have also chosen to not commit to jobs offered because I made excuses that it was too difficult or not convenient or just did not follow these offers up. As I respect my body more I also respect more what comes to me and find my responses to life situations are changing also.

141. What is only just becoming apparent is the deep deep level of disregard and over-riding that occurs with our bodies, either through such beliefs, or through wanting to numb to not feel something that is hurting us on a deeper level. Now in the process of becoming aware of what the body is telling me and starting to treat it more gently, more lovingly and listening to its guidance, only now am I gathering the true extent of the constant abuse and maltreatment that it was being subject to. – and how much the body can thrive if we give it half a chance.

142. “I had always carried a deep‐down feeling that we humans have forgotten a beautiful way of life we once knew and looking around I understood that there had to be a more fulfilling and balanced way to live…” I agree Jo we have forgotten but we all remember and we all know what we want that deep down again.

     1. I agree too Vanessa, and as we stop the everyday general abuse, that feeling of what we once knew as a small child, grows so much stronger, and now I can feel the pull towards returning to that simplicity and beauty rather than get so tossed around by the craziness of what life tries to throw at us, and what we also buy into. With that remembering comes also a great joy.

143. Jo, I beautifully felt my feet very warm and alive during reading your and your feet’s blog : ). And realize more in the last time, how my feet are cold and like “far away” (because I am) or very warm and with me. I can relate to the “I am going on and through everything” attitude and to ignore how my body feels during what I have decided to reach. Feeling strong in a false way, that leaves me sad and empty afterwards. On my way to become more aware and self-loving, I recently have discovered my feet as a beautiful reflection and marker of where I am at. They give me true feet-back so to speak : )…

144. Just reading through the comments I was struck by the power of expression. By you sharing your (miracle) story Jo, and then everyone reading it and adding their own sharing to the story – it builds into such a living and real conversation – and it allows such healing to take place. People can appreciate and find out more about themselves and others or be inspired to take deeper care of themselves – or many other different scenarios. But if you had held back Jo and not expressed this, then this opportunity would not have even existed!

145. Thank you Jo, this is a beautiful reminder of the power of our bodies, and what they communicate to us. Also an important reminder that we need to check in with them and listen to them ~ until such time as we can live in connection with them always, as we are but one whole. Living in parts takes a lot of energy, so coming back to our essence and the ‘oneness’ that we come from of course makes sense, and does feel so natural.

146. Self-love and self-appreciation are words that I had no true understanding of until I met Serge Benhayon. In fact celebrating yourself was not on the menu at all!

147. One of my earliest memories aged about 4 is when I was walking barefoot and stubbed my big toe and the intense pain I felt. I too forced my feet to toughen up and be able to walk on hard and rough unforgiving surfaces and now, many years later, my feet are telling me loud and clear of this mistreatment and I have to pay very close attention to the shoes I wear to support my feet so that they can support my body as I walk.

     1. I have been paying extra attention to my feet too lately – when really the ‘extra’ attention is really just attention as they have been ignored and mistreated for so long. It is an ongoing process that is symbolic of how I live my life as a whole ~ do I allow myself to truly honour my body or do things that compromise. Examining the reasons I compromise has been key, and a beautiful process to unfold.

148. Yes, I have feet issues as well, two ingrown toenails-this is a very strong sign for me to look at my ideals and beliefs and my spirit which loves drama, and running on anxiuosness-they are alerting me to the fact that I have deep ingrained behaviours that need to be addressed as part of taking stock about the quality of my livingness. Anything else from anyone? All further insights are most welcome.

149. Jo need to repeat this over and over to myself right now…”I know we all have this ability, because when you think about it we are all the same; we have just lost the awareness – but we can get it back!” It resonates as a truth-we get so far away from ourselves and blogs like these are god-sends to remind us that we have it within us-it’s our choice!

150. That was a very interesting blog for me to read Jo for I had never heard about a person who was idealizing to be barefoot. Thank you so much for being so honest and not holding back your won experiences. It gave me the possibility to feel deeply how awful ideals and believes could be because what you share was easy for me to understand. It helped me to commit to be more aware even for the tiniest ideal und believe in my life and that is wunderbar.

151. I know the idealization of being barefoot Jo, it goes along with the alternate lifestyle’s rebellious attempt at freedom. But like so many of the ideals of that lifestyle, is there really freedom? there is no freedom to love and care for oneself, it is full of harmful doctrines.

152. Thank you Jo! I have also always had a thing for soft, comfy and flexible shoes, which always felt very honouring. You have written pure gold in how you now truly listen to your body. It is important to have this dialogue with the body and to ask how we are truly feeling.

153. We have indeed forgotten what true self-care is and it is this is the foundation that must be restored for humanity to evolve.

154. It makes great sense Jo to link the experience of depression, self-esteem and self-care together, as if we don’t value our bodies and its messages why would we bother caring for it other than to get it to do what we need functionally. What a playful way to understand the impact we have on our bodies when we ignore what it is constantly communicating to us, thank you Jo!

155. ‘my feet are on the ground’ This part stands out as does much of your blog Jo. Every time we move, stand or take a step we have an opportunity to feel our feet. It is a great marker of conscious presence.

     1. I agree Matthew, each time we walk we can be aware of our bodies through the feeling in our feet – walking is such a powerful way to reconnect to our bodies and develop an awareness of the messages it is giving us.

     2. Oh yes I agree Matthew! – what a great reminder to how we can feel our bodies practically.

156. Super sharing Jo. I love this: “Ironically, for the first time in my life I feel like my ‘feet are on the ground.’ ” Living on the beautiful north coast of NSW Australia, I have seen my share of ‘bare feet’ – there’s quite a cultural statement in it, often accompanied by staunchly held thinking that this choice keeps one more grounded… Yet, what I’ve observed has actually involved a lot of self-abuse, as you describe here so well.
     Just letting our feet get cold weakens our vitality – it depletes us. How is this ‘grounding’? It can be absolutely lovely for sure, to feel our feet on warm sand, and in the thickness of lush grass or moss, yet I agree totally with your own feet here Jo 🙂 If we listened to our bodies, we would find our feet hurting to the point of hardening and numbing from abusing them with rough surfaces, etc.
     It’s really no different to the self-flagellating monk, thinking that punishing oneself might somehow bring us closer to God/ourselves… really?

157. After reading this blog the new saying came to me: to walk barefooted or not, that is the question! There are two tastes: am I caring for myself i.e.feet or harming them? Just a check-in into the body, feet or other part, and it will tell you what is the case.

     1. Great Caroline, Can you just imagine if we grew up with these kinds of questions being asked all around us by our mentors? Imagine a parent pausing before leaving the house and saying a-loud “Am I caring for myself here, do I have what my body may need today?”. or “Please give me a moment, let me stop for and feel if this is loving or harming for my feet/body”.

158. Jo, there is so much in this article that I feel I will keep coming back to it to read it over several times.
     On my first read, perhaps a couple of weeks ago, I read it from beginning to end but did not appreciate in full the depth of what was on offer.
     Today I re-read the early section and the words “I was also aware that I rarely made my own choices about people, jobs or situations: I repeated a pattern of just going along with what presented itself instead of discerning if it felt right for me and focussed more on other people too” resonated very strongly – this is a pattern I have had also and continue to unravel.
     In the past week I have become particularly aware of a struggle in certain situations to openly express and clearly voice the choice I would like to make for me and observe now how in these moments I am not choosing to discern for myself and putting others ahead or above myself.
     It is beautiful and rich to feel the honour and care you now bring to your life. I look forward to coming back to your article for future reading 😉

159. I really enjoyed reading this blog because it is s great example of how we can override what our bodies are telling us. I can’t even image going bare footed to that extent, especially as I remember as a child burning my feet on hot sand at the beach or walking over gravel – that was enough to cure me of going bare footed. Of course I found other ways to abuse myself and put my body through endurance tests thinking it built character. Thank you for sharing Jo, I am sure your feet are thanking you also.

160. I loved having your feet tell their story. Let’s face it all of our feet could tell a thing or two about the bodies they cart around every day. At least more and more feet will begin to be able to tell a similar story to yours Jo, that they are now being deeply cared for.

     1. My feet are talking to me already…thank you Jo..

161. Joe thank you for the beautiful gift your blog has given us. To follow the path of self love and self nurture is with out doubt the way, to sure footedness and, to truly keep both feet gently and tenderly on the ground. In life, Its not about if the shoe fits wear it, its about, does the shoe truly suit me, does it feel true in every sense, does it support me to stand strong and tall as who I am, does it bring a steady, balanced, harmony to the way I walk me through every day and, does it then encourage others to find and slip into their own amazing shoes?

162. Jo thank you for sharing your blog, our body is a great maker of truth, and we can make different choices that support us. I find if I make the wrong choice about something it is not long before it is reflected in my body, to bring my awareness back to the truth.

     1. Yes Sally, I find that the more I listen to me/my body the quicker and louder it communicates to me. I “get away with less” un-loving behavior/choices and this is what I want!

163. I remember as a young child, whenever we went to the beach I disliked walking on the pebbles, and my mother bought me some soft plastic sandals, and I would wear them with little white socks. As I grew a little older, I refused to wear them as no one else did, and I didn’t want to be seen as being different. So easy to see how disregard starts.

     1. It seems such a huge need in us after age 3-5 to ‘be and do like others’…but this dosn’t work in the long run! I’m finding that I’m actually working on getting back to that place before I felt the NEED to be accepted by what I did; getting back to remembering that I am enough and all I need to do is honor where I’m at and what my body is telling me.

        I am starting to feel the truth that I am enough just as I am.

164. Thankyou for sharing your story Jo. Low self-esteem seems to lurk below a façade that many of us have presented to the world in order to hide our insecurities. My life has turned around since coming to Universal Medicine presentations and I agree, “It is a way of living based on our inner knowing. Everyone’s same and equal Truth.”

165. A beautiful blog about choices and self care and truly appreciating our feet and entire body. Thank you Jo.

166. I can so relate to the part about always thinking that you wanted the truth but overriding your body Jo. This was me too! When I first heard Serge Benhayon present that the body is the marker of all truth it was a light bulb moment for me. I had been living in an illusion of searching for truth but had never wanted to take responsibility for the fact that my body was showing me truth every day. It was just not a truth I wanted to know about. Now it is the first place I go every day. Checking in with my body and what it is saying to me. Great blog Jo, thanks.

167. Your blog was so loving and tender Jo, and deeply touching. It was beautiful to read the conversations you were having with your feet. I have begun a new relationship with my feet and at long last, now that I do not ignore them, they are beginning to tell me so much about myself and the way I live life. When I go for walks I am so joyous when I can feel the tenderness on the pads of my feet – they feel so sensitive and so alive at long last, now that I no longer ignore them and include them more fully in all of my life.

     1. Thank you Susan Lee, It is a surprise for me to find that the pads of my feet are actually full of tender wonderful feeling. It is as if I have removed a hard shell off of them (self imposed) and found an entire sense I had forgotten all about.

168. Jo when I read your line about putting your bare feet in the snow I was shocked.This line in particular made me realise the courage and commitment you have made to follow more loving choices.Thank you so much for sharing.

169. How could I have ever abused my feet after your sharing Jo and the healing you have shared I am appreciating the reminders my feet give me and the support they offer my entire body.

170. Hi Jo, thank you for your sharing. There is nothing so lovely as a foot massage or walking on soft grass or sand. I cant imagine walking in gravel for too long or snow with bare feet. Your feet have fully appreciated your nurturing them from the sound of your blog. After years of no shoes I guess it would have been quite an adjustment and definitely an act of Love.

171. I remember when I was young, feeling proud that my feet had toughened up for summer. It was crazy that we lived like this and none of us questioned it. Now there is no way I would do this. It is great to listen to the body and bring love and care to it. It is essential that we live like this and inspire others to love and care. If we don’t, why would we ever care for another? Why would we ever treat anybody better than we treat ourselves when we have not laid any foundations to do so?

     1. Hi Amanda Yes it was seen as an accomplishment to have tough feet over summer. But at night didn’t they feel sore and hurt? We entertained ourselves with harming our bodies.NOT ANY MORE. 🙂 Now the choice is to care for the feet and appreciate them like never before and this feels amazing.

172. It’s mad to think that as a kid it was almost expected of you to run around in bare feet, I remember making fun of a cousin that had come to stay on the farm from the city who needed shoes on the whole time. Looking back he was far more onto it. I mean we used to run around in the frost with nothing on our feet. How loving is that? Well Jo, it looks like you have dealt with a lot of stuff and come a very long way from that little barefooted child sitting in the dirt, great commitment and great wisdom taken from Universal Medicine.

     1. I have tears reading your confirmation how far I have come from the barefooted child with wisdom from Universal Medicine…I feel so much appreciation.

        …and I do think we humans are quite mad, when I really get honest about who we are and how we behave other-than-who-we-are…one problem I see is that our madness is so common place and we so like to think “eating this or doing this must be normal because ‘everyone’s’ doing it”…but we do know better inside…

        Gandhi said ‘what is truth, I know what truth is, it is what that little voice inside you says’.

        1. Yes I know what you mean joabillings it is all so common to normalize unloving activities that the ones making more loving choices seem odd. 🙂

173. What struck me in reading your blog Jo is how you take the reader into a clear connection of why being self loving is important, how it makes us more loving in our interactions with the World and sensitive to what we and others truly need.
     I also loved how you shared about how you are now able to stop and feel what you need in each moment having been so confused and unguided for so long.
     What a gift awaits us all if we begin to choose the magic of the Livingness.

     1. Emma, It is still very challenging at times to simply stop and feel what I need, as it is a long held pattern to keep pushing through & over-riding, but I see I have come a long way, it has made a huge difference and it is starting to feel more natural.
        I love how you say:
        “What a gift awaits us all if we begin to choose the magic of the Livingness.”
        …So true…the whole Universe unlocked with the little key of self-love.

     2. I loved how Jo’s body knew she was being unloving from the age of 4. It goes to show how stubborn we are and how habits can run us for a lifetime if we do not make different choices.

     3. It is such an important point that we reconnect to that natural sense of how to respond in life by stopping and feeling what is happening. We are truly lost without a compass when we disconnect from our inner hearts and our bodies and are left looking for direction for what is right for us outside of ourselves.

        1. It is a retraining of how to be with ourselves. My body is telling me more and more by how I feel at the end of the day if I have failed to stop and connect throughout the day, by feeling way more tired than it need to be. I feel the more I give myself this space, the more natural it becomes as a way of being.

174. I love these stories, that paint a picture of life prior to meeting Serge Benhayon, and one of several years later, after witnessing the way he lives and expresses in life and once we have started to approach life with this inspiration and support. So many of us are at the start completely oblivious to or are deliberately and proudly dismissive of the messages we receive from our bodies, and we end up like you deeply cherishing our bodies and returning to a playful, loving and expanding relationship.

     1. Well said Golnaz. Thank you.

175. There are many therapies around that encourage people to walk barefoot as a way of grounding oneself, yet what you have discovered Jo is far more self-loving and empowering that shows our feet, elbows, hands, knees, all parts of our body inner and outer are all connected and deserve the same level of appreciation and love as any other part. This includes how we are feeling in ourself. And may I add that all the ailments and conditions that “…dropped away and are no longer part of my makeup. This feels like love.” is huge!

     1. Love it Aimee, So many therapies wanting to and claiming to help us get more grounded…We all want to feel centered and we all want love…and what we (students of our own inner heart) are finding really works is stop ‘trying’ and seeking someone else’s way and just start listening to our-self and taking tender care of our own bodies… and as you say it is “huge” that so much of my heavy mental illness and life struggles have dropped away…simply by choosing to love myself.

        Isn’t it the oldest cliche, LOVE is the way?
        I never wanted to face the fact that waiting for someone else to love me would never work…that I need to Love ME…
        I hold infinite appreciation for Serge for reminding us of this simple eaqualifying Truth.

176. Jo- this is a great contribution pro listening to the wisdom of our bodies in a world where mind over matter is running the show until perhaps we are called to a stop and a calamitous stop at that when I consider this very topic of feet and what they do for us. A few years ago collagen injections for the feet became popular as the height of high heels became more vertiginous and not surprisingly foot discomfort increased. There has been a rise in the highly risky practice of foot surgery to alter the cosmetic shape of the foot to make it easier to fit into fashionable shoes and recently I heard of a medical doctor that had decided to get permanent implants into the balls of her feet so she could continue to wear high heels to work. It is said that as we age the fatty tissue on the ball of the feet reduces and can cause discomfort so perhaps there is merit in this medically if relief can’t be sought from good shoes but I am left to ask where are we headed if the personal practice of our esteemed medical doctors are not first looking to apply common sense? I too love a shoe with a heel but at what point do we stop and question the height of a heel or the kind of shoe we might be choosing to wear when our work requires to be on our feet all day?

     1. It blows my mind Deanne that people and even doctors would have surgery on their feet in order to wear shoes that are unnatural to walk or stand in (without altering them)… What I see are many levels of self disregard and self loathing…

        I’m always working on being more accepting of where I am in life… (I’m often met with my comparison and jealousy when I see others being so lovely in ways I want to be…) but the more I do accept that “this is me now” the more love I feel for myself…

        What if we could celebrate exactly how our feet are now? …Perhaps we would be more open to what they need and not feel the need to force them against their will to do or be something else?

177. Your story about your feet and how things have changed for you since you connected with Universal Medicine and started listening to your body is worth being on the front page of newspapers around the world. How many people could relate to ‘I have lots more to work on but the chronic depression, harmful food cravings, physical pain, anxiety and sorrow, financial inadequacy, memory problems, harmful and empty relationships and the relenting loneliness that ran through all of my life have dropped away and are no longer part of my makeup.’ and want to know how you did it. Universal Medicine inspired, guided and supported and I suspect there is even more than what is shared here that details how you did this – notwithstanding what is written so far is marvellous. How much you have been prepared to listen to your body and then honour this is key. Books could be written about the merits of listening to our bodies – I know it would have kept me out of a lot of strife if I had trusted my body over taking on the milliard of thoughts and beliefs that were going and continue to cross my mind today. The difference today is I am prepared to give more credence to my body – one of many gifts bestowed by the teachings of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.

178. And your photos are classic – they sure do paint the picture!

179. I love it! – another ideal and belief busted! As a child I used to love running barefoot at every given opportunity and remember the countless times plucking out bindies (small prickles) and the pain from small sharp stones but the sense of freedom was calling and over-riding any REAL sense. What a load of NON-SENSE! Love your style of writing Jo – deeply intimate, very real, and with a great sense of humour.

     1. Thank you Tamara, It is incredible to get so much feedback from you and others who understand my experience and confirm to me how much sense there is in working towards being a better listener to this body in which I live.

     2. Thank you Tamara, It is incredible to get so much feedback from you and others who understand my experience and by sharing their own, confirm to me how much true and loving sense there is in working towards being better listeners to this little very organic little space we live in; our dear body!

     3. I too had a chuckle thinking of my partner spending endless hours picking our bindies from the lawn rather than putting on some shoes

180. It was very heart-warming to read you story Jo and feel the depth of loving work you have done to support yourself, it was beautiful to hear that you feel more grounded now and that your life has become more loving, thank you for your gorgeous blog.

     1. Yes Thomas, lovely isn’t it to read someone’s journey back to love and back to themselves.

181. A very truthful and incredibly honest account of the depth of how our beliefs and Ideals affect us and hold us in negative patterns, that holds us in destructive behaviours. Thank you Jo for bringing more awareness and light to something we are all affected by.

     1. Agreed Thomas and an amazing account of what happens when we work lovingly with our bodies and make different choices. What Jo has healed is a miracle, she is a living miracle.

182. AMAZING how much you have learnt about yourself..from your feet.

     1. I agree Abby, isn’t it amazing how much we can learn from one part of the body? I am drawn to my feet at the moment as well, as I have to stand a lot and my feet hurt a bit in the evening, so I massage them and stretch them and they get a lot more love and care than they have before. Sometimes body parts have to call out to us loudly with aches and pains before we stop and consider them.

183. ‘Now that I have slowed down and become more aware of how I feel I can know what I need in each moment!’ I like this because it accentuates how each moment is different and may require different responses from us. There are no rules. There is no right way or wrong way – there is a gentle unfolding to a deeper wisdom if we are willing to listen, if we are willing to feel.

     1. It is so beautiful for me to re-discover this inner guidance and even when I am not “feeling it”, hitting bumps and dealing with issues I know that this truth is in me and that my intention is to get back to ME and feel this… so I know I will and this is VERY different than the very lost anxious way I spent so much of my life. I’m getting stronger.

184. Each of us has their own way of punishing and to avoid feeling the hurt we carry. Barefoot walking is part of the catalogue, no doubt. Walking barefoot, in particular, is not something just about physical hardening-numbing, it is also about walking (on) an ideal that makes sure we will never question what we do, or relate what we do with what happens in our life.

     1. Thank you Eduardo for expressing how we can use ideals in order to ensure we don’t question what we do or the consequences of it.

        Looking back I can see more and more of the ideals & beliefs I used not to feel what my heart was telling me… in order to be part of what was going on around me AND to avoid the responsibility of making my own choices and taking loving care of the one person I am ultimately responsible for; myself…

185. “I have come to realise that self‐love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world, which is crying out for real Love” Awesome Jo, it amazes me how far we can go to override our body and put ourselves into such disregard. Your blog shows us it does not have to be this way and that there is another way filled with self love and self honour.

186. It’s interesting how we repeat over and over again, rather than stop after the first time we moved ahead with a choice that didn’t feel right. It’s like the more we repeat something, the thicker we drop into that cloud, but conversely, the stronger the reflection of how much it hurts to do so is present at the same time: “I was also aware that I rarely made my own choices about people, jobs or situations: I repeated a pattern of just going along with what presented itself instead of discerning if it felt right for me and I focused more on other people than on myself.”

     1. Yes Oliver, Why is it is so “human” to repeat things that don’t work for us?

        I find that when I get really honest there is usually (always?) a reason; in other words, doing this thing I do, for example focusing on other people more than myself, serves me by helping me avoid dealing with my OWN responsibilities (taking care of myself & feeling/dealing with my own issues)…

        Once I bring understanding to my actions I find them far easier to let go of!

     2. Discerning and feeling into each moment without automatically going to what is familiar or what belief you hold around situations in life is a totally different way of living. It allows the possibility of dropping patterns of behaviour and ongoing momentums we may be stuck in that are are truly honouring and self-caring for ourselves and our bodies.

187. It is so true that when we come back to ourselves we can more clearly see and feel the beliefs and ideals that we are living through and which we use to over ride the simple and powerful wisdom from our body.

     1. Yes Sarah, Re-gaining self awareness is so much about ‘..coming back to ourselves..’ . I feel I’m more with myself all the time and yet more and more aware of all the ways I’m STILL ignoring what I know from my body and inner self, simply from all my old habitual ways of living in self-disregard.

        1. True we all know and can feel the awareness, yet the disregard plays out stronger than the feelings.

     2. So true Sarah. The body is so powerful in sharing what does and doesn’t feel right and the level of self care we all truly deserve.

188. Wow Jo, this was entertaining to read as well as warming. I could sense as I was reading that there are times that I could adopt a more loving approach to myself and my feet or any part of the body for that matter. I love what the feet shared here with us.

189. I used to enjoy walking bare feet and did feel a little ‘proud’ that I could tolerate rocks and mud and gravel, told myself I was more connected to nature…I do still enjoy warm sand and warm grass under my toes, it feels great, but I would not ask my feet or my body to endure cold and rough surfaces as a way to be closer to nature or to ‘look’ stronger and more ‘resilient’ to other people… as I once did. I am learning to truly care for my body and part of that is learning to honour how I feel when I put my body in certain situations and conditions.

     1. When I feel into it it really is just common sense to be be respectful of my body in all situations and it amazes me how often we all use our beliefs and ideals to over-ride this sense.

     2. When I was growing up, I always had good quality protective shoes and this pattern is something I have continued to do for myself and my family. But when it came to playing competitive sports, I would ignore the pain of blisters in certain areas of my feet (sometimes resulting in bleeding), which would then become hard calcifications from pushing my body and feet so hard. These days are long gone, with bringing self-love and self care into my life. I have for a long time now worn something on my feet where ever I am and take more notice of if they are cold or hot or need more cushioning underneath.

        1. You’ve reminded me Aimee of some of the women’s heels I used to wear – absolute torture, and for me, the only time I’d ‘put up’ with damaging and painful blisters, crushed toes and the like. Until I got to the point of finally listening to my feet and ending the punishment.
           It’s interesting to observe the patterns here that we often took on and accepted as ‘normal’ from a young age (I watched my mother do it) – so frequently without questioning if such choices are truly loving…

     3. I recognise this ‘proud’ feeling too Samantha, of being able to walk along a pebbly beach without shoes on, and I would do it to impress my friends and also to appear a bit ‘out there and different’. When I feel how this would be for my feet now it hurts just to even consider it. It’s incredible the lengths we will go to to override what the body is telling us despite the wisdom it has, as Richard so beatuifully shared. I too am learning to listen more and more to these messages and in doing so am taking much more care of my amazingly intelligent body.

     4. As a child and young woman I often went barefoot, it felt so free, and I liked to feel the spread of the earth under my feet, without the confinement of shoes. And in summer i adored my flip flops. Now I only go barefoot on warm carpet or grass, and I can’t wear flip flops at all, they hold my feet in tension, and disturb the feeling of my foot moulding to the ground that comes even with shoes on. I love my feet, massaging them, putting cream on them, wearing shoes that support them. I also used to have hard skin (that often split) on my heels and the balls of my feet, all gone now without scraping or filing, showing me how my body responds to loving self care.

        1. I loved reading about your appreciation of your feet Catherine. I often use a scrub on my lower legs in the shower and each time I get to my feet, I can’t believe how sensitive and delicious they feel. After being the freedom seeking, barefoot type for so many years, I now feel a cold shudder when I see people with bare feet on cold surfaces, knowing how sensitive my/our feet are.

        2. Catherine I too went through a stage when I thought it was cool to be barefoot. My family would say ‘how can you walk on dirty pavements’ and I just ignored their commonsense comments. I had hard cracked skin on my heels from my feet getting wet in the summer (wearing flip flops) and from too much sugar. But now that I care for my feet by wearing supportive shoes and have stopped eating sugary foods and am lovingly taking care of my whole self my feet are naturally soft and lovely.

190. ‘My body guides me all the time; it’s my choice to listen or to override it’ – I so agree with this Jo. Our bodies are full of wisdom, if we take the time to listen.

     1. It’s universal isn’t it Richardmills?
        I am still constantly redirecting my old ways of overriding and ignoring how I feel (the wisdom of my body) but it is great re-enforcement when I don’t take the care to listen and make poor choices without my whole self and when I do stop and FEEL what I need, how lovely it can be and clear and supportive my decisions are.

        1. I also still often override my body, but I am getting more and more aware of it. What I realize is that it´s very often comfort that makes me do this, for example the comfort of wasting time, overeating etc. In the situation I then often have thoughts like “It doesn`t matter.” But it DOES MATTER. Everything matters.

     2. I too agree with this Richardmills363 and yet sometimes I can override my bodies feelings, but I always remember that the choice to come back to my body is a simply lovely one. The body is the master of truth and wisdom just that sometimes the head takes over when we are not fully present within our bodies, this is when chaos and disregard reign free.

     3. Absolutely Richard and Jo. This is all very straightforward and simple, common sense, isn’t it… And yet, I have to say, that before coming to the work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I was paying lip service (if that) to truly listening to my body. The understanding and practical application of what this means has deepened – and continues to deepen – beyond measure. What an enormous blessing this is, and to feel how our bodies DO actually respond, most frequently with increased vitality and clarity… let alone the depth of Joy that can be a known reality when we do truly listen, take such care and are thus afforded a deeper connection with the richness of who we truly are.

        1. Great reminder Victoria that paying lip service to a concept is VERY different to living it.

        2. Victoria, I would have to say that before Universal Medicine, I really only listened to my body when I had to and that was very begrudgingly! We often have magic pills to make the voice of our body go away. For instance, tampons so we can still go swimming and do all our normal activities, caffeine or sugar when for when I am tired, music to change the way I am feeling or heavy, carby foods like breads, pasta and chips to dull any uncomfortable feelings that may arise. The strange thing is that when you face those feelings with honesty, they are nowhere near as big or strong as you are!

        3. Well spelled out Fiona – the devices we use to deny what the body is telling us are a ‘mastered art’ we have become so adept at employing whenever it suits us. And yet, as you’ve said, bringing honesty and truthfulness to our situations and choices can shift the whole game – this is true self-liberation and honouring in practice. Ongoing learning, but we are so definitely worth it.

        4. Great point made here Victoria. Playing lip service sounds “good” but that is literally the extent of it!

     4. This picture of Jo at 4 yrs old says it all, ‘are you all crazy where are my shoes?” Indeed it is a constant choice to be present and listen to what our bodies are constantly communicating to us.

     5. So true Richard. I am beginning to realise the depth of my body’s wisdom-long before my head gets it.

        1. Agreed Irene , and you can feel how quickly we can let our mind skim over and override feelings as we.make choices whether to listen to our body , or not.

191. I have observed when I fall back into disregarding my body, going into functioning and walk around not being present my feet hurt and reflect me the unloving way I have choosen to walk with them around. Our body actually reflects us very loudly how we live once we start listening to it.

192. Yes Jo, we were looking for truth everywhere but right where we already are, in our body: ‘By listening to my body I have become so much more aware of my choices; how they shape my life and affect my body and this has been a major turning point for me. My body guides me all the time; it’s my choice to listen or to override it … and though I thought I “wanted the truth” and I was committed to searching for answers, I was overriding a lot of the signals my body was giving me’. That the feelings and communications from the body is where true truth resides was a complete relation to me when I first heard presentations by Serge Benhayon. This simple piece of knowing is life-changing.

193. “I have come to realise that self‐love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world, which is crying out for real Love.” This is a great observation Jo and something that the whole of humanity has access to and could benefit from.

194. Isn’t it absurd that we exactly know what would support us and instead go for something different, just because something or someone from the outside seems to suggest this. Why do we not trust ourselves?

195. Feeling my feet throughout reading this made me smile as i realise the care i now take of my feet from how I lived before and this is reflected to me in everything in life. I love soft new socks and slippers this gives me a joy to put on and feel . Comfortable soft shoes supportive for walking delicate and feminine are also beautiful to feel as are the protection and support of Wellington boots for walking in the wet and fields and are very much part of my life also . Thank you Jo for sharing your lovely reflection on your feet and your loving journey with them.

196. “What I can feel now is that I was living out my held ideals without considering if it was loving to do so for me, in each situation.” What we do to abuse ourselves because of our held ideals and beliefs is quite astonishing whether it is going ‘au naturel’ or not wanting to wear comfortable shoes in high school because they didn’t look ‘cool’ as in my case.

197. I used to distract myself consistently mainly by keeping myself busy as I didn’t want to feel the uncomfortable feelings in my body. I have come to realise that making space in my day to feel my body and what comes up is such a loving thing to do. I feel so much clearer, committed and present when I have let go of whatever is there that is not true to my body.

198. Jo, I love your sharing about your feet and since I have read it I got more aware myself of them and due to that got more awareness of other parts in my body as well of some unloving patterns I am still repeating. Thank you.

     1. Kerstin, I am still finding unloving patterns…there are so many and some so old… but I am encouraged when I see how much has shifted for me already, just from the small consistent choices to self care that Bina Pattel has suggested.

199. It was such fun to read your article, Jo. I loved the dialogue between you and your feet. And I especially loved this comment from you that “I was only open to hearing, taking on board particular ‘truths’.” There is so much we shut out, don’t listen to and override based on our ideals and beliefs — the particular ‘truths’ — that we hold on to. I’ve always loved the idea of going bare foot, but my feet don’t always enjoy it. They want to be warm, and they want to be protected from hard and rough surfaces, especially stones and pebbles!

200. Jo what a truly inspiring story about your feet. When we choose self love we start to see the world through different eyes. We feel more in our body, and how our body is always telling us what is needed. If we but stop and listen.

201. It is always a bit shocking for me to realize, when my intention of doing something is driven by an ideal. Something very sweet like walking bare-foot or supporting a friend etc. can become the most self-harming deed, when the action is not my true choice in that moment.

     1. Brilliant Felix, So often our intentions & deeds are not what they seem and it is so important to have an honest look to know if it is really true and loving or not in that instance.

        I still catch myself out often, (making a choice before I have felt if it is true/loving for me at the time) but understanding that its not about perfection, I know I want to continue developing my awareness and self responsibility.

202. I can remember walking through snow with sand shoes on as a child and my feet being so cold that I couldn’t feel them and yet there was pain coming up my legs. I wondered when it would possibly end. And now, how gorgeous it is to immerse my feet in a warm lavender foot bath, how my whole body lets go and enjoys the love and care I choose to give to myself.

203. Imagine a school yard of kids declaring they have a relationship with their feet! School kids all caring for their feet instead of stepping through life as if they could get a new set, it would make a big difference to how kids relate to one another and respect one another. A really great blog Jo.

     1. Yes I absolutely agree Suzanne. I can always remember when out teacher in primary school got us to go bare foot on a cold and hard floor. This was something I was not used to and I felt confused by it at the time. As I ran around I could feel the hard floor under every step I made. It makes me feel sad now as I reflect on this. It goes to show and as Jo clearly points out in this blog we all know when something is not right for us and as Jo says “it’s my choice to listen or to over-ride it… .” Thank you Jo for sharing your story; it is truly inspirational.

     2. Love your comment Suzanne: ‘Imagine a school yard of kids declaring they have a relationship with their feet!’ Great way to get kids into a whole-body relationship and a whole-body intelligence, and all kinds of fun on the way.

     3. I love to envision this Suzanne; a schoolyard of kids so naturally and playfully claiming a loving relationship with their feet. Role models come along, we have work to do!

204. Jo, your ‘chronic depression, harmful food cravings, physical pain, anxiety and sorrow, financial inadequacy, memory problems, harmful and empty relationships and the relenting loneliness’ have now dropped away because you made a choice to love your body??! That is so amazing. Mental health issues are sky rocketing these days, and to imagine that making choices that love ourselves more can help make a difference is just mind-blowing. It’s definitely worth looking into scientifically.

     1. Absolutely Suzanne. There is a direct correlation between mental health issues and choosing to stay fully in the body, instead of withdrawing. A ‘new’ mental health illness has just been written about in the media – Depersonalisation Disorder, which is involves a disconnection and withdrawal from the body into a state of total non-feeling. This is where early education in body awareness and presence could be such an amazing form of preventative medicine and truly nurturing children.

205. Wow this is a gorgeous blog- I love how you considered things from the feets point of view.
     I love how you gently made changes and found a new step for life !
     It’s amazing how such long held patterns can shift suddenly, when love for ourselves becomes the focus.
     Beautiful!

206. Great blog Jo. I love the conversations from your feet, bringing home to us what our feet might actually say if they could speak to us. Our bodies willingly share all with us, we just have to be willing to listen.

207. Your ‘interview’ with your feet is so sweet, funny and revealing. It is like putting the dialogue our bodies are having with us really out there, really real. My hands are chatting away to me right now, as are my shoulders, sitting bones, lower back, neck, legs…and the simple act of listening opens up a depth of relationship that is always waiting in the wings. I feel that this relationship is profoundly deep and ever expanding and my simple job is to care enough to have attention. Thank you, Jo.

     1. I have certainly realized that our body is always talking and telling us just what is truly needed… I love how you say, “…my simple job is to care enough to have attention” .

        As I feel and live more in this way I am AMAZED at how much our bodies offer us.

208. A visit to a podiatrist a few years ago taught me that 80% of the shoes I wore did not support my feet. He talked of the need to cushion the soles of our feet from the constant pounding they get from walking on concrete pavements and gave me detailed guidance on the type of shoes and soles that give maximum support. I threw out most of the shoes with thin soles, bought more supportive ones, and I walked without discomfort or pain.

     1. That is amazing K., to find you only needed more supportive shoes to walk without discomfort or pain.

        How often we blame our body or condemn it as hopeless when all it wants is for us to listen inward and honor our own wisdom!

        1. Thank you joabillings. It was transformative. Loving my feet and wearing correct shoes supports my whole body.

209. Jo the title of your blog says it all. The degree of self care we give ourselves is reflected in every part of our bodies and feet often get neglected. A few years ago, I experienced pain in the ball of my left foot next to my big toe when I walked outside, a consequence of a developing bunion. I went to see a podiatrist, who asked me to bring a selection of shoes with me. I found out that 80% of my shoes were the wrong shape and offered no support for my feet and condition. He talked about the need to cushion the soles of our feet from the constant pounding when walking on concrete pavements and gave me detailed guidance on the type of shoes and soles that give maximum support. This was the beginning of a new and more loving relationship with my feet. I occasionally break the rule and buy pretty shoes, wear them for mainly indoor activities and when I know I won’t be walking long distances outside.

210. Oh Jo, I so love this: ‘Feet: There is a lovely warm flow that comes from Jo’s heart – it makes us feel cozy and keeps us together with all the rest of her. Sometimes she still goes up into her head… when this happens she is not with us then and the warm flow is gone; we feel far away and it gets so cold! Now she knows what to do when this happens and so quick we are toasty warm again and singing the song with her.’
     This could definitely have music put to it – the ‘Song of the Feet’. One for children that adults would love to sing too!

     1. I love it Lyndy; a song of the Feet…who wouldn’t enjoy and benefit from a song celebrating our feet!

211. The ideals about pursuing the ‘natural’ have come in from the side somewhere to spike the world like an arrow. It is brilliant that you have exposed the ideal of barefooted-ness being ‘natural’ Jo. As you say, it might be fine to go bare-footed on a soft rug or a beautiful piece of lawn or soft sand on a warm day, but there is nothing natural about stepping on snow. So many ideals about ‘natural is best’ have flooded our thought-field as a race – looking ‘good’ but actually not true. Universal Medicine has helped us get sensible again i.e. ‘sense-able’ – able to feel the senses and listen to them, as you have so beautifully done!

     1. I love your break down of “sensible” able to sense.

        I realize that many of us (myself included) had idealized general Native American culture as more “natural” but I know that many of their practices were very harsh too. One thing some tribes did to purposely “harden up” in preparation to be warriors was to have competitions who could sit in the frozen river water the longest. I feel that running in the snow barefoot served to make me less sensitive, less “able to sense” myself and live as the tender loving human being that I am…

        I’m VERY happy to be returning to myself and all my senses!

212. I love how you’ve expressed the simplicity of choosing whether to listen to your body or ignore it. That it really is that simple is inspiring.

213. Great to read how you went about with your feet and chose to totally ignore the signs they were sending, it is incredible to think about how we could choose things that we can clearly feel are not good. I feel it is an ignorance of how we naturally are, and as I can feel the way I am living now is much more supportive then 6 years ago, it is great to care for my body and get to love myself.

     1. So beautifully said, Benkt. ‘It is great to care for my body and get to love myself’ – the world tries to make sense of not doing that, but it doesn’t make any sense (our health stats reflect that back) – so yes please to a collective commitment to take loving care of ourselves.

     2. It is incredible how we can choose to ignore things which our body says are not good for us Benkt. And beyond ignore so many of us force an over-ride of the bodies loving common sense; like me and my brother having bare foot races in the snow…knowing we had to get back to the house too…not fostering gentle loving care!

     3. It is uncomfortable at first, but self care & developing self love has been the key to breaking free of all my woes and it does feel increasingly wonderful and, of course very natural too, even after all the beliefs to the contrary…because we are sensitive, loving beings.

     4. Yes – Benkt it is amazing what will be ignored for the sake of an ideal. This is a very cool blog for directly exploring the bare foot ideal. In the name of ideals I have done all sorts of unnatural things to my body, especially with food and exercise. A lot of shoes are worn from an ideal too of how we should look – how many women are willing to say their shoes are uncomfortable but wear them because they look good? I have even known foot specialists that deal with the problems caused by ill-fitting shoes and in full awareness of the consequences have admitted to placing the look of a shoe before foot health and comfort. In recent years the gap between comfort and fashion shoes has narrowed significantly and the two no longer need to sit at opposite ends of the spectrum.

214. Your story brought back memories of the bare foot feral summers of my youth. Our body is the greatest ever device created for detecting truth and then someone decided to put the head in charge instead of the heart. We all still have both trying to run the show… we but simply need to listen with our heart again.

     1. So true sjmatsonuk, I am constantly working on putting my heart back in charge as my head is SO used to being in the driver seat…but it is a horrible driver and I will not allow this to go on. It is a process but can be done!

        Bina has given me many “tools” (exercises) from her Simple Living Program which help me get back in my body by bringing my mind back to ME (and be able to sleep!!).

        1. ‘I am constantly working on putting my heart back in charge as my head is SO used to being in the driver seat…but it is a horrible driver and I will not allow this to go on.’ I’m with you, choosing to be with my body and honour what that is saying and less and less being run from my head.

215. Great article Jo . I love how the story of your feet represents so much more and encompasses a way of life that we can all relate to – Years of disregard and disconnection that I can certainly relate to. So great to hear how your feet are now firmly planted on a deeply loving foundation build on love and connection. Gorgeous.

     1. As I look back, from my current more self honoring ways, I am blown away by the neglect and abuse I used to put up with (from self and others) simply by being in a level of disregard and disconnection so I was not aware of how things Really felt for me; so I was able to ignore what I needed and not say NO to abuse!

        This seems to keep the world going around in a way which is very hard and unnatural for us as loving human beings…but we can make a different choice and it is a simple one.

        1. So true Jo this level of disconnection and disregard keeps us so numb and our awareness dumbed down…but saying that during the times and years when I treated my body with disregard there was always still a knowing within me that how I was being was so much less than who I truly am. This beautiful and profound knowing that we all possess leads us all to our light and the source of many miracles. The profound effect of simple loving choices just being one.

216. I loved reading this. I used to take great pride in having soles the thickness of leather so I could walk along tarmac, beaches, rocks etc. Now I wear shoes that support me and notice if my steps are hard and the force reverberates up my body, so re-balance myself taking steps with presence that honour my whole body and the ground I walk on.

     1. I love that detail you have put in there Karin, about honouring the ground you walk on: ‘taking steps with presence that honour my whole body and the ground I walk on’. The earth loves to feel the footsteps of someone walking, without imposition and with honour, across her beautiful ground. When we all walk this way the earth will flourish.

        1. I love what you say Lyndy, when we walk without imposition and with honour across earth, she will flourish. Beautiful and true. Earth is a great reflection for us, for how we often choose to live, instead of walking with absolute love for ourselves and everybody else.

     2. I can really picture the different ways you describe walking Karin. I feel it in myself too; the not-paying-attention-to-who-I-am-walk and then choosing to walk-as-who-I-am, with a much lighter, more harmonious stride. A big difference for me and I know it has an effect on the ground and all those around as well.

217. Great blog Jo, I really enjoyed you sharing your personal experiences of how you have been with your feet and how that played out in the rest of your life. A great analogy which feels very purposeful as we do all need to be firmly grounded in order to have love in our lives.

218. Thank you Jo for your inspiring sharing, I really enjoyed reading about your experiences. It’s a great example of how we know as children what doesn’t feel true, but then learn to give our power away and make ourselves wrong, to fit in with what and who is around us. You clearly didn’t feel this was loving to walk barefoot as your family did, but you still adopted the same way and belief as an adult. How awesome to have come around to wearing supportive shoes and feeling more grounded than ever.

     1. Great point Esther, that I knew better, I could feel that I didn’t like being bare foot on gravel…but I felt I needed to learn to be the way my family was. As you say ‘I made myself be wrong’ and forced myself to adapt to fit in. Imagine if children felt safe to hold to their own truth, it would show their families another way…

219. Just the other night my daughter gave me a foot massage and I her, like all areas of our body they love to be loved! I could feel the different tensions of how I had lived that day, in push or drive, I could feel the surrender to the massage it really is so much better than checking out with tv or computer or social media.

     1. What great way to spend some time together with your daughter Vanessa – giving each other a foot massage. feet just love this. As you have said, so much better than checking out with TV or social media. It has even encouraged me with a glimmering feeling of moving in to live with another person.

     2. That is lovely, so yummy, what a great idea.

     3. I love how much you are able to feel about how you lived your day just by receiving a foot massage…all that in our feet! …And it is a wonderful reminder that you say how much more nourishing that felt than the usual ways we ‘cope’ at the end of the day.

220. I remember toughening up the feet to ready for summer, and how tender my feet would feel -noticing every rock and stick and sharp edge it was very painful.I have really changes the way i care for my feet now as they are the foundation that holds me and gets my body through the day. I even wear bed socks now – where as before my feet were an afterthought.

221. Loving the conversational style Jo. Just bringing this kind of light hearted approach to checking in with various parts of your body gives a significant sense of “ownership” over the ALL of you. A responsibility of taking care of yourself as if you were taking care of baby versions of you, priceless. Great inspiration, and although today I will perhaps choose to go “old skool” barefoot on my surfboard and across the rocks to the beach, I absolutely will carry this blog in my awareness and let me feet do a lot more of the talking.

     1. So true Phil. I love how you say that checking in with various parts of our body gives us ownership over all of us. Feeling the connection to the seperate parts of the body and how they are connected to other parts gives us a true sense of the whole.

222. Jo, your conversation with your feet was beautiful and fun, enjoyed it – thank you. For me I could relate to this being the case for all of my body and know that it has been talking to me for years but I was ignoring it. However my feet also in particular have often been ignored, I feel some of this came from a disconnection I had with my feet being way down the bottom of my body away from my ‘head’. Connecting with my ‘heart’ and letting go of the ‘head’ being in control has enabled me to connect much more with the rest of my body. I have also found Esoteric Yoga to be deeply supportive to build this connection. Recently I have been feeling my feet more, in the way I walk and in the way they feel, they feel more alive. I have been saying ‘Hello feet, how are you going, what have you got to share with me’. Our body shares all we require if we listen.

223. Respecting and honouring what our body tells us is so important. Having ignored its messages to me for many years I now listen and at least then have a choice to respond, whereas before discovering Universal Medicine I was so numb I didn’t even realise my body was talking to me!

     1. Me too Sue, Before Universal Medicine I was, as in my head and out of my body as can be, and it was heading me into big trouble.

        I am continually amazed at how wise my body is and at how foolish my mind can be when I’m allowing it to run me without considering my body!

        I still make unloving choices when I don’t take the care to check in and see where I am really at; I’m learning to feel into my body and ask myself “Am I up for this task just now? Do I need a nap or a walk? Is this feeling natural for me at this time or not?”…and this makes a huge difference in how my day goes.

     2. Sueq2012, I was the same – “before discovering Universal Medicine I was so numb I didn’t even realise my body was talking to me!”. However, now looking back I realise that my body was always saying something but I was not aware enough to stop and listen!

224. Jo your first photo of you as a child says a lot. You look so confused that the world could be so hard and unloving when you know otherwise in your heart. And understandably so, how often do we not listen to the wisdom that comes from children and instead impose on them our own ideas of how life should be?

     1. I feel that way too Andrew… Children are so wise, sensitive and aware of what loving beings we are…perhaps the reason we so often discredit or squash them is so we don’t have to consider how far we have moved away from this tender loving awareness that they still live and show us…

        1. Yes I agree Jo. And so it goes on through each generation but it only takes one generation to realise this is going on and put a stop to it. As a parent today I am committed to getting myself out of the way and taking responsibility for my own issues and healing them to the best of my ability and not imposing them on my children. Time will tell when they grow up and write blogs about their childhood!

225. I love the fact that you still have the photo of you as a little girl. It represents the time that you stopped and sat down and said ‘enough’. Your body knew then and your body knows now. It is always wise to listen.

     1. It is exposing for me to see this moment in the picture, so long ago, when I did sit down and say “no more abuse”…when I was still so open to what I was feeling…but I’m coming back to myself now, thanks to Serge and Universal Medicine and nothing could feel better that getting back to honoring the real ME!

226. This is an absolutely gorgeous sharing, its time feet get the attention they so deserve. Our feet play such a big part of our lives, they walk us everywhere and they are actually very sensitive sending signals to us, but often we override that and ignore our feet….thanks Jo, for bringing my feet back to me too! A foot massage tonight!!!

     1. Karoline, I agree that it is time feet get the attention they deserve.
        Sometimes there are still moments when my feet are hurting in the shoes I am wearing. Your article, Jo, inspires me to bring a second pair to change them if needed. Thank you.

227. “My body guides me all the time; it’s my choice to listen or to override it … and though I thought I “wanted the truth” and I was committed to searching for answers, I was overriding a lot of the signals my body was giving me.”- I too was doing this, but now if I do so my body is very loud and let’s me know very quickly if I am in disregard. The more I honour and appreciate my body by self-nurturing more, the ever expanding love I feel for myself. I then feel more love in all my relationships.

     1. Yes, it is amazing to me to find that the very wise personal guidance I have wanted for so long is all here in my body and it is much quicker to re-learn listening to it than was the process of over riding it until it was all-but-buried which left me so lost.

     2. Yes, I am amazed to find that the wise personal guidance I searched for, for so long is all here in my own body…and remembering how to listen to it is much quicker than all the years of denying it until it was all-but-buried and which left me so lost!

228. How great is it to nurture our feet! The beautiful feeling of getting a foot massage, or doing our own self loving routine with our feet is one of the best feelings!

     1. I totally agree, I love to care for my feet lovingly and having a foot massage is amazing, especially if it’s done with love and care.

        1. 🙂 the love and care part definitely makes it ..

        2. Especially, and only if its done with love and care as you say Esther.

     2. Yes, it’s great how just a little bit of attention to a part of our body can make it feel so good and it brings us back into the body so we are present with what we are doing and therefore we do not override the messages that the body gives us when it knows it has done enough.

        1. A little bit of attention goes a really long way !

     3. I agree, my feet and myself love a foot massage, either by me, or even more when given by someone.

        1. To get supported with a foot massage is so very healing as the feet carry us through so much in life.

229. My feet have gained a lot more attention over the last few years and they appreciate it by not producing what used to be the consequence of abuse I put them through, I now have a relationship with my feet and they are part of my self nurturing.

     1. I love that Merrilee – “I now have a relationship with my feet ….” I find that quite endearing and a great reminder to me – thank you.

230. Jo; I like what you have shared here that low self esteem leaves you with no foundation to stand in. with self acceptance and self love you have built a lovely foundation to stand in for yourself, and to engage with the world from.

     1. Yes Bernard I really feel how my self esteem is connected with the condition of my personal ‘foundation’.

        Uni.Med has helped me realize that I live in my body and so it is my ultimate responsibility…and that the more I love and care for my body the more able I am to be ME and express what I am here to express AS me. This has made all the difference.

231. Jo I love the way in which you wrote this blog, sharing the perspective of your feet. I truly felt the voice of your feet and really got a greater sense of how much we override this natural communication we receive moment to moment from all aspects of our body. Beautiful to feel and read your words, and the new level of love in which you now reside.

     1. I agree Jade, Jo’s blog reveals so much about how the body communicates to us loud and clear, and the feet are just one part.

     2. Jo, the way you write from ‘the perspective of your feet’ actually mirrors how the body does speak to us and it lets us know what is going on in any part of the body. But we often do not listen and so we subject ourselves to many an unloving situation which we tolerate.

232. I love the conversations you have shared here between you and your feet Jo. They are very sweet but also very personal and even intimate. I used to punish my feet too. I could never go barefoot, but would wear thongs (flip flops) all year round – even in winter when the temperature would be in single digits. It took for me to get pneumonia to realise that something had to change in my life. Pneumonia and a man named Serge Benhayon.

233. I now so many people who do not like their feet. The thing is, it is not the feet’s fault, as we are the ones who walk with them. We are the ones who treat them with care or not. So especially the feet who carry us through all the day reflect how we are ‘running’ through our life. I wonder if those people who do not like their feet, have ever pondered why it is so and with what attitude or how they move all day?

     1. Great point Sonja, it’s amazing how we can choose to focus on the aesthetics and decide our feet are ‘not up to scratch’, so to speak; totally ignoring the amazing work they do for us every day – until we are stopped in our tracks, maybe then we start to just appreciate them and treat them lovingly and with consideration, just like Jo!

     2. I never thought of that Sonja, that perhaps there is a relationship between people who don’t like their feet and people who don’t like themselves because of the way they are walking through life?

        1. I never thought of that either. Many years ago I trained in reflexology and the amount of people who didn’t like their feet – even the instructor never let anyone see her feet, let alone practise on them. When we stop and look at what our feet do for us, it’s truly amazing and for the best part we take them for granted.

     3. I used to be one of those people who used to not like the look of my feet, but now I do appreciate them a lot more as they are lovely and slender. I used to try to squeeze them in smaller shoes.. They have carried me my whole life, so I should start to give them more care.

234. Amazing to feel the beautiful reconnection with yourself Jo. I went through a pretty brief phase of walking barefoot around the place but I soon realised anything other than a smooth pavement or grass, was torture. I can’t imagine walking in snow!! Your sharing is so powerful in its simplicity and honesty. Thank you.

235. Isn’t it amazing that we have one part of our body almost screaming out to us but we can continue to override what it is trying to bring to our attention. Over the years I think my body has just shifted the same pain to another area always trying to bring my attention to something that wasn’t right. But I would chose some quick fix solution like going to various so called ‘healing’ modalities which only ever gave me short term relief but didn’t change anything or pop a pill to take away the pain so I could pretend it wasn’t there. Then I found Universal Medicine (or it found me) and the rest is history.

     1. Universal Medicine found me too and before Universal Medicine I was at a loose end to understand when I had pain what it was about. I lived ignoring many of the small health warnings but when I had pain that stopped me dead in my tracks rather than take a pain killer I knew there was something for me to understand. I would wrack my brains and grit my teeth through the pain but I could not get to understanding the cause of the pain while I was not truly prepared to take responsibility. I still have my resistances to responsibility but Universal Medicine has supported me from every angle, offering so much understanding and through the Universal Medicine healing modalities I am now enabled to choose to be responsible for my part in illness and how my choices have contributed to it. The choice was always there but I don’t think I would have ever made this choice to the extent I can today if it were not for Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon…… even if faced with my own death!

236. I can relate to the ideal of going barefoot and how it was “freeing”. Once upon a time I somehow subscribed to a belief that being barefoot meant I was liberated in some form. I was a cleaner and I used to take my shoes off before I went into anyone’s house. Once I left my shoes at a house and it took me days to realise. Nowadays, I barely manage to get my ugg boots off for long. They’re so cosy and warm with fur soles. My other shoes don’t have the fur soles, I’ve tried to put fur soles in some pairs of shoes but it didn’t really work. I have slip on shoes at the door for when I’m outside and barely even step on the tiles without something on my feet. I now have happy feet and the rest of my body feels it.

     1. That’s funny Nikki, forgetting your shoes….I used to leave my shoes at peoples houses all the time without even realizing it. I knew someone who used to literally walk out of their shoes without noticing, as a child, and one time I watched them louse one shoe without noticing as an adult!

        For me this all feels like a lack of awareness of my body; a learned way of not being present with self.

237. Stories the feet could tell…I feel we all have some amazing reflections of how we live with our feet. You offer some insightful ones here, Jo – thank you. I love how you learned to differentiate between the idealism of going barefoot and being barefoot just to earth yourself or to enjoy certain textures, and how you are now into a way of living based on an inner knowing rather than an external expectation – I’m finding it much more enjoyable too, and definitely much more self loving and honouring. Interesting how you understood the truth of barefootedness at 4 but were asked to override it!

238. I have never read so much on feet before. Our feet, like the rest of our body, tell an intricate story about the life we have walked. They have so much to say for they have been with us every step of the way.

239. “My body guides me all the time; it’s my choice to listen or to override it “. When one comes to this realisation Jo, it is a revelation and true healing can begin. Thank you for sharing your story.

240. In looking back at the choices I used to make that went straight against what would be loving and nurturing for my body I am astonished at how easy it was to disregard the messages my body was giving me and to go by an ideal or believe I held in my head. It shows that if we do not stop and connect to our body we will be deaf and blind to what it is telling us. Yet if we connect to our body and adhere to what it is telling us we will naturally make more loving and supporting choices.

241. Jo isn’t it great how our body reflects our relationship with ourselves? As you said you were feeling lonely and not cared for because of the choices you were making. What a powerful revelation that blows out of the water the idea we have that the feeling of being loved has to come from outside of us.

     1. Yes and I also see from the blog and from your comment that there is only so much we can blame others for. In the end, what are the choices we are making for ourselves now?

242. The conversation from your feet and your head is supersweet. I can relate to a lot you are sharing, although I have never been a barefoot type, because I have very sensitive feet. I didn´t take much care of them my whole life though aswell…They carry us everywhere and are pretty reliable, but we don´t honour them as much as they deserve. Your blog inspires me to care even more about them…

243. I regularly give myself a pedicure as way of looking after my feet, but I feel the benefit of it throughout my whole body.

     1. Now that sounds awesome!!!

     2. Jinya, I too regularly give myself a pedicure and afterwards my feet and body feel amazing. It amazes me that when we do something loving towards the body, the benefits are so nourishing and very energising… the impact is remarkable.

244. I was smiling reading your lines about the fact that you had rather listened to someone else looking for answers then listening to your body and how you felt. I smiled because I had done exactly the same, and the smile was my bodys expression of you that we are back in connection! A very beautiful sharing- and with that the living proof, that anxiety, depression etc. disappear when we start re-building the connection with ourselves! Ain’t that a truth worth bringing to the all!?!

245. I am loving paying attention to my feet as I read this. What a reflection. When I take the time to gently rub cream into them, I feel so nurtured. My feet are often freezing cold even in 30+C heat – something to look at here after reading this article. So many congratulations Jo on discovering self love and opening up the dialogue with all of your body.

246. Loved reading your blog Jo! It made me remember all those years I went bare foot as much as possible, citing getting connected with what was around me/with nature as the main reason for doing so. The reality was that despite the lovely moments when it was the right place & time to go barefoot, most of the time it wasn’t fun at all for my feet.
     When I started to listen to what was presented to me by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I started to look after myself from a new angle, part of that was to pay more attention to the signals my body is giving me. So when I got this splinter stuck in my foot and even with a lot of ignoring it was there it still wouldn’t come out, I realised that going barefoot had it’s time and place and everywhere all the time isn’t it.
     Now when I can feel all the signals my body is giving me I feel simply amazing, and when I choose to listen to my body life is beautiful.

     1. Yes, our body never lets us ignore it for too long. We may look like we ‘get away’ with something but there is always a correction that needs to happen to ensure homeostasis in the body.

247. I love the conversation you have between your feet and yourself. Our feet are such an important part of our body, they are a great indicator of how connected we are to our bodies and how much we are willing to listen to our bodies.

248. We can be searching for answers but even when they come along we do not listen. I have found in life many people want some form of truth but not the truth that will actually remove them from their current patterns in life. We don’t like what we have but also the strength and responsibility to make changes is all too hard too.
     Our body is a marker for our life and the more we connect back to it the more wonderful a guide it becomes for us.

249. This is a beautiful and humourous blog Jo, and so true of so many of us. I look at childrens’ feet when I am in the showers at the swimming pool and marvel at their delicate perfection, and the fact that they are certainly a part of the whole body, and the toes can be sucked or chewed! As we grow they become a long way from our heads, and I love how you point out when we have retreated to our heads so we don’t have to be fully embodied and face our feelings, our feet become very neglected and cold. As I was reading your article my feet became “toasty warm” as you describe and they loved it! So did I.

     1. Yes Joan I too love how Jo points out that when we go into our heads our body gets cold. This certainly happens with myself. I can be in a conversation go into my head and suddenly my body becomes cold. It ceases to amaze me the way in which the body communicates with us.

250. Thank you Jo, awesome way of developing a true loving relationship with your body and the way you are now honouring and nurturing is inspiring.

251. I love how our feet can talk to us and offer a reflection of how we are. My feet speak a lot after eating certain foods. When eating sugary foods I get these itching red spots on my feet telling me my body doesn’t want that. Part of my daily rhythm is to put a nice creamy foot cream on my feet every night before I go to bed. If I go too late then I skip that and my feet reflect the disregard the next day.

252. Isn’t it funny that we desperately want the truth and search, sometimes at great cost, for it outside of ourselves and yet completely ignore the truth that is within us all along that our body is constantly telling and sometimes screaming at us. It is beautiful to read that through choosing self-love and beginning to heal your self-worth that you began to appreciate yourself and became prepared to listen to the lessons and beauty your body unwaveringly offers you.

     1. I agree Samantha it does seem like a strange thing that what we all want most in the world is right under our noses (in our inner heart) and yet we insist it must be ‘out there’ somewhere!

     2. Yes so true Samanatha, ‘…we desperately want the truth and search….’ yet ‘our body is
        constantly telling and sometimes screaming at us.’ It actually is right under our nose…building a loving relationship with ourselves and walking that with our feet…

     3. I love this comment Samantha because it re-iterates that it is through building the relationship with self-worth that we can listen without defending and feeling like we have been bad. It is all simply a conversation.

253. At first the idea of “listening to my body” seemed ridiculous… What did that even mean? Nowadays a sore neck, a tight tummy or cold feet all speak, and I often have to stop, get the slippers or the socks, and then go on. The body does indeed speak.

     1. Great point Heather, same here ‘listening to my body’ seemed ridiculous’ and only that it actually took some time to feel some of the messages I had previously ignored, because I was not so interested in my body and how simply it supports me and improves my quality of life.

        1. Yes Karoline, I too had ignored my body and it wasn’t until I heard presentations by Serge Benhayon that I began to realise that the body was registering the feeling of every emotion and thought passing through me, from myself and others, and it was speaking back loudly to me about what was happening: for example, I realised that if I spoke and expressed appreciation of someone or something my body glowed; if I went into self-doubt I could feel my body begin to shut down. If I now feel any anxiousness or apprehension about something I am immediately aware of this emotion in my body and that alerts me to come back to my centre again and not to magnify that emotion or let it go untended to. The body is an extraordinary registry of the way we live.

     2. Yes Heather, at first I also wondered “what is this listening to my body.” It was a completely foreign idea when I first heard it, but I have learnt the more I listen, the easier it becomes to hear and lovingly follow through with whatever is needed to nurture and care for myself. I agree, the body does indeed speak!

254. Wow Jo, the list of ailments and inadequacies you have overcome by making more self-loving choices is truly impressive!
     “I have lots more to work on but the chronic depression, harmful food cravings, physical pain, anxiety and sorrow, financial inadequacy, memory problems, harmful and empty relationships and the relenting loneliness that ran through all of my life have dropped away and are no longer part of my makeup. This feels like love.”

255. Jo, I loved your playfulness and awareness your shared re your feet. What a wonderful transformation you finally experienced by introducing selfcare, selflove, and selfnurturing into your life.

     1. ….the 3 secrets to true healing, true love, true living…self-care, self-love, self-nurturing.

256. Loved the lighthearted conversations with your feet and great to do this with any part of our bodies! An inspiring read as it demonstrates again how it is possible to bring change for ourselves no matter where or what has been in the past, once simply paying attention to our body – thank you, Jo.

257. This is beautiful Jo, feet tell us so much of the way we have walked through life/lives, it is fascinating. Yours will definitely thank you for the changes you’ve made and the willingness to listen to them, and in years (and lifetimes) to come you will see the changes you have made reflected in them.

258. This is a warmhearted and beautiful sharing of your connection to yourself and your feet. I enjoyed so much reading it and it brings more awareness also how I handle my feet. Thank you Jo.

259. Wowzzers. Barefoot in snow. I too have an evolving relationship with my feet and looking after them it is one of the things that I find most powerful and self-nurturing. Special foot cream, wrapping them up in warm socks, supportive shoes….or most simply, just connecting to them when walking. As I write this I have a sense of the fact that because they are at the extremity of my body (it’s the same with my hands), if I am to ‘send’ them love and care, then that love and care has to travel through my whole body to get there, which is why it is so nurturing.

     1. mmm, mmmmm, love the way to care about your feet, thanks for some tips…but yes love what you have shared ‘……if i am to ‘send’ them love and care, then that love and care has to travel through my whole body to get there, which is why it is so nurturing’, Absolutely, love in the body is very nurturing and its simple to bring this to our bodies.

260. I too have always loved my feet deep down and knew how much wisdom they had to share with me. I have been very far from expressing this love though and this blog and everyone’s comments are inspiring me to go deeper in honouring a loving relationship with them. It’s also amazing to know that though making different choices, this relationship can be grown with every part of the body as I begin to listen to what is being communicated. Looking forward to massaging my feet today. They absolutely adore that.

261. ‘I consciously stop and pause with the intention to “simply allow myself to feel” I find that it is OK to feel what is coming up and not supplement it with abuse or an “effort to fix” or another distraction.’ It is amazing the efforts we go to in order to not feel. This is a great reminder to allow ourselves to simply feel. This feels so loving and so accepting when we make this nurturing choice to simply listen to our bodies and sit with what is being communicated. This choice is like listening with all our love to a delicate, beautiful child expressing from their heart.

     1. Oh Simone! This is exquisite what you have expressed: ‘This is a great reminder to allow ourselves to simply feel. This feels so loving and so accepting when we make this nurturing choice to simply listen to our bodies and sit with what is being communicated. This choice is like listening with all our love to a delicate, beautiful child expressing from their heart.’ You have touched my heart like a dewdrop forming on a rose petal.

262. I remember one of my first sessions with a Universal Medicine Practitioner and she commented on my feet. They were very dry, hard and severely cracked at the heels to a point of being quite painful at times. I had ingrown toe nails that also caused me loads of pain, I often had tinnia and I constantly picked my toe nails, the picture you see is not a pretty sight. I thought this was just the way my feet were. The practitioner talked to me about taking care of them, at the time this was revolutionary, now I see tending to my feet as an every day part of my self care ritual. My feet have transformed into normal healthy feet.

     1. Woe Mary-Louise, I wish everyone could know that they can have happy feet too with just a little love and care.

263. To hear the messages our body is telling us we need to reside within our bodies. This takes a commitment to not checkout. This is a major problem in society and why many people end up with a debilitating disease including dementia. They have lots of signs along the way that something is wrong but because they are not present in their body they do not hear the messages until it is very loud and has become a serious illness.
     We would have a lot less Illness and disease if we listened to our bodies and heeded the messages

     1. I love what you’re saying here Marylouisemyers, so straightforward and easy to understand. ‘listen to my body and heed the message’.

     2. Yes – and its interesting how the feet, which are at the opposite pole to the head, which does the checking out, are so supportive in bringing us to the truth of our bodies, and back with our bodies: this is what I have been finding. In my life, I have gone from holding my feet as a kind of ‘pretty object to be decorated’ to seeing them as integral in earthing my walking the earth in presence – presence being one sure fire antidote to checking out.

     3. I love what you have expressed here marylouise – and I agree with your words “We would have a lot less illness and disease if we listened to our bodies and heeded the messages.” – That’s interesting really, don’t just stop at listening to our bodies, but take notice of what it is telling us, yes indeed as you say heed the messages.

264. I recall being so proud of being able to walk over ‘periwinkles’ at the beach and rock hop faster than my brothers and friends in bare feet. A cut or stubbed toe was nothing. I also remember many years later how much it hurt to walk on rocks and wondering why this was so. This blog also reminded me of another experience of kicking a soccer ball. It was some years following Universal Medicine healing sessions and changing my way of living because of hardness in my body and feeling empty in my heart. In earlier times I was a championship soccer player. I was walking past a soccer field, the ball happened to come rolling up to me and as a reflex I went to kick it, but I kicked it with such tenderness in my leg and foot that it really hurt and it rolled a few feet, instead of traveling the distance back to the field as I intended. Besides being a little embarrassed, I was shocked at all those times I have kicked and scored goals and what hardness I must have put into in my legs in order for that to occur. I also understood on a deeper level just why my knee dislocated at the height of my football career and all the hip problems I have suffered. I agree Jo we can return to our naturally deep sensitivity and awareness – we never lose it – and become very tender human beings again. At the same time, we can live with great inner strength and share immense love with others by choosing it in our own lives.

     1. It is so beautiful to read about how you and others are coming back to the deeply sensitive and tender human beings that we are simply by choosing to be more gentle and more aware of what is really going on.

265. I also notice how many people don’t wear gloves in the winter. My husband and I go for early morning walks when it is still quite dark. We each have a pair of battery operated heated gloves that heat all the way through to the fingers – a bit like an electric blanket for our hands. They are really lovely and have a little light so other people see us coming and they often comment on them. Regularly when we are walking along with our heated gloves, scarves, hats and many warm layers of clothes all cosy and snug we pass other people lightly dressed with no gloves or hat and sometimes even in shorts – their bodies do not look as if they are enjoying the walk.

     1. Oh I want a pair Nicola! I used to have chilblains on my feet and since then have always taken good care to keep my feet warm but have tried so many different types of gloves but never found a pair that keep my fingers really toasty in the depths of winter. Thanks for the inspiration.

        1. You have just reminded me Helen of the chilblains I used to have as a teenager. I used to do karate and we were barefoot in a cold hall and often had to run outside in winter barefoot. My toes were regularly purple and painful. I had forgotten! These days my feet barely get cold for a moment. I have rugs laid out in the bathroom so that even when getting out of the shower I need not step on cold tiles. I heard about Nicola’s battery operated gloves and I have looked into battery operated boots. I still like the idea and it’s an option for next winter, they’re just not cheap!

     2. Battery operated gloves??!!! Oh my goodness. I thought my heated blanket was gorgeous. You’ve just taken it to a whole new level. Please tell me where you got them.

     3. So true Nicola, I used to be one of those people jogging by in shorts and t-shirt. Now I have joined the hat, coats and gloves brigade and am so much cosier and healthier for it. l’d like to know where to get those heated gloves though 🙂

     4. Heated Gloves?! I want a pair of those! Winters are very cold here in Germany! So far I only have come across self-heating soles, which you can place into your shoes if you need to spend some time outside. The heat is generated through a chemical reaction, which is activated when you put pressure on them. Will look out for the gloves now!

     5. Nicola, I want some high tec. gloves like that! I too am amazed at how skimpily many people dress in our bitter winter cold. It really hurts to be so exposed and I am really feeling how unloving it is not to take gentle care of my body on many levels of my being.

     6. I love your feetful cheekiness Nicola. I have found too that when I really listen to my body I layer up much sooner then most other people, but in them I can feel how they contract their body to try and stay warm. It almost seems as if that is the most accepted choice and that staying nice and toasty is a bit strange but oh how I have loved being strange in this way. And of course now I can’t wait to add a pair of battery operated light shining gloves to that!

     7. Wow the gloves sound amazing Nicola 🙂 These are quite simple gestures of love and care to ourselves to stay warm and snug and the effects are felt beyond just that moment.

266. Oh how I would love to greet your feet, they sound so sweet and what a treat that they could help you de-feet those unloving ways.

267. As I was reading your blog I connected to a sadness that I often feel for all the suffering people go through… the knowing there is another way, the longing and the missing for a loving way of life that we remember from somewhere long ago but have not experienced this life. Then I suddenly thought “thank God” literally that we have that angst, for imagine if we didn’t? It is that tension that allows us to see through the miasma of the accepted and unloving way of living that is considered the “norm” and discover that there is indeed another way and that way for me is “The Way of the Livingness”. More about that way can be found here and in all these blogs.

268. “though I thought I “wanted the truth” and I was committed to searching for answers, I was overriding a lot of the signals my body was giving me.” This is so true, Jo, we fall for this a lot.

     When it comes to feet, mine have always been very special to me – they are one of my sensory organs! They feel everything and tell me what’s going on with my connection to the world and myself. If my feet are not happy, I’m not happy, so they get listened to. However they sweat a lot and are unusually large and broad for female feet, thus finding suitable shoes has always been a big problem and I like to go barefoot as it’s more comfortable than many shoes. I seek very soft, flexible shoes made of natural material that give my toes and feet plenty of room, and will hunt high and low and pay whatever is required for them. No spike heels, plastic, sharp straps, or crushing pointy toes for my darlings!

     I once did walk barefoot for the 9 miles around the base of Ayers Rock however it was all on soft, warm, red sand that felt amazingly yummy! My feet were happy, dry, unchafed and I could feel and enjoy my walk and the beautiful scenery. Had I worn boots, my feet would have been sweaty, chafed and sore. When I’ve gone barefoot, I would walk in conscious presence, with every step considering the comfort and safety of my feet. If I lost that presence sometimes due to being in my head over some problem or other, my feet paid the price, so I increasingly ‘learned the hard way’ and committed to conscious walking. In the days before I met Serge Benhayon, walking barefoot in conscious presence was one of my main ways of getting ‘out of my head’, staying connected with myself and present with the world. Nowadays, in some situations a surface, eg a carpet, might look fine, soft and clean, with nothing sharp, etc, but it just doesn’t feel right and then I wear shoes. I have several kinds of shoes in my car all the time, so I can change into whatever my feet want. They always get cleaned asap, kept warm, and never go to bed dirty. I’d be lost without my beautiful feet and I love them very much!

     1. I love hearing about your relationship with your feet Dianne! It is phenomenal and highly confirming for me about just how much more we can pay attention to our feet/bodies, how much more loving and present we can be within ourselves and the world.

     2. What a beautiful comment Diane, loved reading about your love of your darling feet, made me want to love my feet to the point that I will feel about them, and refer to them, as my darlings!

     3. Since having an operation on one of my feet in my twenties I have to be very careful what shoes I wear as many seem to trap a nerve and make the joint unstable in the area operated. So, like you Dianne, ‘I seek very soft, flexible shoes made of natural material that give my toes and feet plenty of room, and will hunt high and low and pay whatever is required for them.’ So, although the operation was not completely successful, it has been great in the sense that I have had to honour my feet and what shoes to wear.

269. Jo I enjoyed your interesting and thought provoking blog on feet. I too have been interested in my feet, and at times, I used to draw them for sketching practice . Just recently I have taken to giving them a gentle massage when I put cream on my body after a shower or in the bath I give them some gentle attention, and they respond gratefully. In warmer months I like to go barefoot in my home or at times feel the grass under my feet or sand at the beach. They complain if I’m on them all day and don’t change my shoes. It is lovely to know that through Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayons teachings you have been able to heal so completely.

270. Everything matters, every movement sends a message. Jo, your account of what self love is highlights the path to healing the seemingly un-healable. It is remarkable what changes within our body and mind when we give ourselves love and self care.

     1. The body is remarkable Matthew, you are so right, it is forever responding and giving us messages as to how we are living in it and treating it. What I have learned along the way from my body and those of hundreds of my clients in my physiotherapy work is that no matter how old you are or how diseased or degenerated your spine or bones are, the body will always benefit from more self care, love and a more gentle way of moving.

     2. I really feel the truth of your words about the remarkable changes that are possible in our mind and body when we give ourselves self care and love. So powerful because I know now how true.

271. And what a beautiful feeling that is to have both feet solidly on the ground. I really love your comment that states ” I have come to realise that self‐love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world, which is crying out for real Love. “

272. Jo, Your story is like a ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ that is a reflection for all of us! This photo of you says it all! Here am I, this tender adorable little girl, whose feet know how much it hurts to walk on a rough road. She felt her feet, she knew how they felt and expressed that by sitting down and holding her feet in her hands. Then she continued to walk with ideals and beliefs about bare-footedness and then what was the ‘practical’ thing to wear – the hard boots the late flip flops . . . never feeling how her feet responded to these dictates. This describes all of us in every aspect of our lives! How beautiful that we are now on ‘the Way’ walking in as much love and care as we presently choose to do. Thank you for this gorgeous blog.

     1. Lyndy, Your comments brought tears to my eyes; tears of deep appreciation for the tenderness and self love I had in that first picture and also feeling the hurt of, as you say, all my years of listening to my head instead of walking with real care & love. I feel completely understood. Thank you.

273. Jo, I love, love, love this blog. Reading the conversation between your feet and you brought tears to my eyes. It was those tears one feels when something is deeply recognised and true love is there. I too have been a barefoot one. We,as kids, prided ourselves on our ability to walk across a tarred road in an Australian summer! My mother used to sing this popular song to me:
     ‘Put your shoes on Lucy, don’t you know you’re in the city, Put your shoes on Lucy wherever you go. But Lucy leaves her shoes off wherever she goes, because the likes to see the wriggle of her toes’. I now, like you really love and care for my feet, and mostly wear shoes. But also, like you, I still enjoy taking my shoes off and standing on blue cooch grass, or on the soft sand, paddling in the beautiful sea, or walking across a fluffy rug. I love how you say you like to give yourself a foot massage on sun-warmed rocks!

     1. The only time I like to be bare foot is on my thick carpet in my bedroom otherwise I am strictly a shoes on person as I feel shoes support my whole being as long as they are comfortable and the right size. In the past I would often buy shoes that were too small obviously I was not present when I tried them on in the shop, then I went through a phase of too big , now I am buying them just right!!!

        1. Yes – I recall all the ridiculously high heels I used to wear in my teens, Marylouisemyers: I have two misshapen toes who bear witness to the fact that my need to look taller, sexier and fashionable had a severe effect on my feet (not to mention my lower back!). Now I am strictly a very comfy shoe person and I respect and honour what my feet tell me THEY need to support me back.

274. I use to pride myself on going barefoot as much as I could. I had the ideal that I was closer to nature. Or if it wasn’t barefoot, I would wear flip flops as much as I could. It is only recently that I realised that going barefoot and flip flops are often not the most supportive thing for my feet and body and I consider now what is going to be the best footwear on any given day, whether that be for comfort, practically and for warmth.

275. I love the photo Jo, the face, the body posture says so very much – perhaps he is feeling “I know I am an angel, why don’t they seem to see that too – if I am an angel, then why is it that my feet hurt?” How beautiful it is that you are unfolding the truth and now loving your feet and revealing the way to love and live who you truly are.

276. I love the playful way you present your blog Jo. It’s very telling how something so small in childhood can develop into a disregarding pattern for many years. I’m feeling inspired to take more loving care of my feet, they take me many places and are equally worthy of my love as any other parts of my body – thank you for sharing.

     1. I’m with you Shelley, I loved Jo’s refreshing fun way of letting her feet do the talking, not just the walking!!! There is so much richness and lived wisdom in this piece. I especially loved the last part of how Jo often has shoes on now but as she has cared and loved herself more she feels more centred – as she says:
        ‘ It’s ironic because now I’m rarely bare foot but I feel more grounded (centered).’

277. Our bodies are great markers of the consequences of our choices. Our mind can convincingly think something e.g barefoot = natural and healthy but our body shows us the truth!

278. What a sweet blog, even though we as people have feet which is quite obvious, I feel like you have touched on a very personal topic… Who really has this type of relationship with their feet like you do now? I don’t feel like it is very common. I am starting to become more aware of them and how I walk with my feet but really only just starting. This blog is inspiring though and especially you showing a picture of your feet it’s like your letting us in to your heart. So open and honest on a topic that is not talked about.

279. How gorgeous to read your blog Jo! I loved the areas where your feet talked. This gave me more perspective on really understanding my body and respecting what it’s telling me. I will be listening to it more deeply now. My own feet are very delicate and require a lot of care. Going barefoot is not an option for me but if I do disregard something simple like popping on shoes for a short trip inside my house, my feet with reflect this within 24 hours by feeling quite calloused and sore. I often look upon these moments of disregard as “taking it easy” or “taking a break” from responsibility, instead of whether I am choosing love for myself or not.

280. This is a wonderful blog Jo. I too remember a time when I was in such disregard of my feet I would walk bare foot over a pebbly beach, and although it hurt a bit, at the time I thought it was really cool. I would drive bare foot, squeeze my feet into platform shoes that were 2 sizes too small so my school mates would think I was ‘in with the in crowd’, but would change them before I got home so my mum wouldn’t find out. It feels awful now to think about how I treated my poor feet, but they are now showing me what I put them through all those years ago. Now I take great care of them and they thank me very much! How we take care of bodies is so vitally important, and the damage of the disregard we put it into even from an early age cannot be underestimated.

281. I used to wear flip flops a lot in the Summer and my feet would get very dry and cracked at the heels. I also had a problem with Athlete’s Foot and had painful cracks between my toes. I’m now careful to avoid eating yeast, fermented anything, and mushrooms, and the Athlete’s Foot has not returned. I also used to have a verucca or two, but they have gone. I have regular visits to an experienced foot lady and I use a daily moisturiser just for my feet and, apart from a few hard areas caused by wearing safety boots (Steel toe cap), my feet are in good condition. I don’t wear flip flops any more and I’m careful what shoes I buy.

     1. It is amazing what we put up with when it comes to our feet. I had some shoes custom made and they looked gorgeous but they were a size too small. They were excruciatingly uncomfortable but the shoemaker said they would get bigger – they did but not by enough. Still I wore them for two years because they looked great and I didn’t want to waste the money. Today my conversation with the shoemaker would be very different and if I was unsuccessful they would end up in a shop that takes used items.

     2. I like the idea of a moisturiser for your feet. What beautiful care and attention.

282. I greatly enjoyed the conversation with your feet Jo, humorous of course, but also a deep allegory that reflects how you have been living and the changes in you now. While not as extreme I remember my barefoot experiences, the pride in being able to put a cigarette out on the calluses and not feel them! Ridiculous in hindsight, and so much more pleasure now in looking after them, and they support me in return.

283. ‘I have come to realise that self‐love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world, which is crying out for real Love.’ Jo, I have come to this realisation to and am constantly amazed how much unfolds when you commit to these two simple choices.

     1. Fiona I completely agree with you that self love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world. I would also add that they are pivotal in not only understanding the mechanics of life but of living harmoniously within a harmonious world. It is not pure coincidence that from a very young age we are distracted from staying present and from taking care of ourselves.

284. Aren’t feet fabulous!? They have always fascinated me. It was the thing I always noticed about people. It was so gorgeous to read about you and your feet, Jo and the transformation that has occurred in your life by building a loving relationship with them.

285. I love your blog Jo. Your conversation with your feet is so playful and inspiring. You are reminding us to love, care, nurture and listen to our body. It is constantly communicating to us and when we do listen, it feels very loving. When we are loving towards ourselves we are naturally loving towards others too. I agree, we need to express more love in this world. It is incredible to read how you have turned your life around and your choices definitely feels like love.

286. It is amazing how we can heal ourselves such as in your case Jo of being depressed, anxious and not truly living life, to now loving yourself and being really steady in yourself.

287. Supporting ourselves is the key to unlock a whole universe, one where true love, care and harmony can be found in simplicity.

     1. A powerful truth Michael, I have found the same; that it is as simple as you state; “Supporting ourselves is the key to unlock a whole universe, one where true love, care and harmony can be found in simplicity. .”
        It seems to me that in our modern world we have come to de-value simplicity though we can still feel it is vitally important and we long for it.

288. Your blog beautifully shows that in pride and in being idealistic there is no true self-care as we don’t listen to what our body is telling us. We are looking for attention and recognition in doing something differently, but when there is no love for the body, then were is the truth in all of this?

289. In England in the sixties I had two friendsI who had surgery for something known as hammer toes. This is caused by wearing shoes that don’t fit properly and over time end up permanently deformed with the toes scrunched under somewhat like a claw.
     The surgeon makes a cut on each toe and wires each toe straight then puts the lower leg and foot in a plastercast for six weeks.
     I have never heard of it in Australia. My kids went to school in Brisbane Australia, shoes were optional and half the kids went bare foot. We became “a bare-foot going family” and we all have beautiful straight toes and healthy feet. Fortunately we stayed in the tropics so it never got cold.

290. How sad is it that we get lost so early on in life and start to compromise ourselves in so many ways until we think it’s normal. But here you are back walking the path back home albeit a different one than you took as a four year old with an appreciation of the feet that are taking you there.

291. This is an incredible story to read. At times I found myself wince as I imagined how my feet would feel like in the situation you explained. I recall when I was little having to walk along what seemed a massive stretch of sand between the resort cottage my family were staying at to get to swim in the sea. I attempted to brave the hot sand like the adults and did not insist I wanted protection for my feet- and as you explain in your story with your sharp stones, with each step the sand felt hotter and hotter and by the time I could not bear it any more I was stuck in the middle – regretting putting myself in such a predicament. I was touched by the honesty of the 4 year old photo. How bizarre is it that we can abandon that honesty and honouring of our body and develop an arrogance of ‘I am tough and I can cope’ when it is clearly abusing ourself and the world tends to celebrate that. Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and many esoteric practitioners have indeed been a blessing to so many of us that have learned to turn our lives around and bring more love, honesty and appreciation into our lives.

292. Jo, I absolute love your blog. It is so refreshing and brilliant that you are now giving your feet a say. I liked the playful nature of your writing and that we dot to hear directly from your feet too!

293. I love that you allow your feet to have their say here Jo. I am inspired even more to listen to my body now and all it has to share with me.

294. What an extra-ordinary journey to self care. I love the way you gave your feet a voice and an opportunity to speak to you and for you both to heal together.

295. “What I can feel now is that I was living out my held ideals without considering if it was loving to do so for me, in each situation”. In my arrogance I used to feel so self-righteous keeping to my ideals. However like you Jo, having been introduced to listening to my body and being guided by its wisdom “how much gentler, sweeter and more harmonious my whole life is since I began taking it into account”.

296. Our feet are the point of contact upon the earth on which the quality of how we choose to move is imprinted for all to feel. Do we walk what is love or do we walk what is not? An important question to ask for the answer will determine the nature of the footprints we leave behind for all others to walk in also.

297. And thus the illusion is laid bare: “It’s ironic because now I’m rarely bare foot but I feel more grounded (centered).” Thankyou Jo for this playful and insightful exposure of our body’s ability to know the truth of all things. Our minds may well tell us we are grounded but unless the bearers of this truth (our feet!) speak it so, then these words are simply props used to fool ourselves that we are living what we are not.

298. If we stop and ask our body how it feels when we walk in bare feet or what we eat, just how we treat it there will be a response. I love how you added this in your blog Jo. We now need to stop and listen.

299. In Holland we have some barefoot paths to get all kind of sensations. I never felt to go there because I donot like some of these like hot, cold, stones etc. sensations. I always have had and still have very sensitive feet. I love feet, find them very interesting and they are telling us a lot about how we live and if we honour our body. Far from our head people tend to forget them or take them for granted. I have seen a lot of feet during my work as a reflexologist and just like in this blog feet talk to us all of the time. The love we give ourselves is returning via our feet. To read about your turn around which includes no more chronic depression, harmful food cravings, physical pain, anxiety and sorrow, financial inadequacy, memory problems, harmful and empty relationships and relenting loneliness is incredible. Sure this feels like love. Thank you Jo for showing us your way of life and your feet.

300. Incredible Jo, to have lived a life fuelled by depression, struggle and self abuse, and to be able to say I no longer live with any of this anymore…. absolutely incredible. Certainly something to be written about. So many people are turning their health around in this way with Universal Medicine. And not as a bandaid, but really getting to the bottom of why these ill ways of living were running the show, leaving them behind for good with the absolute understanding that we are worth so, so much more.

     1. I agree Kate, I have never seen so many people turn their lives around (including myself) and as you say get to the true energetic root cause of the illness and dis-ease. There are literally thousands of people who have had dis-eases from depression, asthma, chronic fatigue, endometriosis, heart problems, weight problems .. the list goes on; that now no longer have these but instead, with the reflection, courses and support from Universal Medicine have a vitality, love, joy and commitment to life. It really is incredible and a story to be told and shared with others in that there is another way to live.

     2. Yes Kate this is incredible. It is unheard of anywhere else that these symptoms and struggles can be healed. Universal Medicine is offering a profound way of living that empowers us to heal and to start truly living again. We are definitely worth it.

301. This is gold
     ‘I have come to realise that self‐love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world, which is crying out for real Love.’

     1. I know when I am completely connected as my feet become warm at the centre of my sole and emanate out, its the most delicious feeling!.

     2. That is powerful. And these points are foundational… I recognise I can sometimes forget them but they are a great basis if we do want to live as a loving human being in this world.

     3. Crying-out indeed. I sat next to someone on a plane yesterday who was reading a blog like this who then said they wanted to get in touch with someone who would help them get ‘in touch with themselves’. Anywhere and everywhere people are crying-out silently.

302. This is a fabulous sharing and I loved reading it. Definitely one to revisit and share. I can relate to ‘just going along with what presented itself instead of discerning if it felt right for me and I focused more on other people than on myself.’ In my younger years I even said yes to dating certain boys without discerning if I truly wanted to and if it was right and true for me. Very lost and not listening to my inner truth which I now know is never lost. Always there and now I lovingly listen.

303. Jo, I absolutely love how you have let your feet talk to you! A gorgeous blog that I will come back to again. You clearly show for all of us, how we can be in disregard, hurt ourselves and ignore the discomfort, or even pain because of fixed ideals and beliefs we want to live up to.

     1. I found that really playful and insightful also Rachelmurtagh1, how often do we ignore what our body parts are feeling and communicating loudly but we just carry on regardless. Smoking is one of these for me my lungs told me with no confusion that they did not like it one little bit, yet I smoked for 15 years. How the mind can override the body is what causes so much pain for our bodies and for the general state of quality we interact with each other in.

304. Thanks Jo. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog. Walking miles barefoot may seem odd for me but the themes you write about are all too familiar.

     1. Yes well said Helen, there are a lot of the examples in the blog that I did not experience either, as I have always been someone to make sure I have the right shoes and always protected my feet, but like you have said, the themes are so familiar, the disconnection from my feet was still a huge theme for me even though I have always been one to have something on my feet to protect them.

305. Loved reading this thank you Jo. So interesting that we champion abuse in the way we do but when we choose to be tender, deeply love and honour, there is no turning back as its way too yummy.

     1. Yes that is true Katechorley, I know I have championed all sorts of abuse that I now would never dream of putting my body through, having made the choice to be tender and loving towards me and my body. It is quite unbelievable what we put our bodies through in pursuit of some our idealistic fantasies about life.

306. Kind of quirky conversation going on with your feet Jo but I love it…its a conversation we could be having with so many parts of our body…how would our stomach respond to some of our food choices, our legs to how we walk through life… I can see cafe’s of the future with us all in deep dialogue with ourselves 🙂

     1. You could have different sections of the Cafe for different conversations – heads on the 1st floor, feet in the basement, and stomachs everywhere else!

307. Jo I love how you share your experiences here and the creative element of your feet talking about how they feel. I can relate to living with lots of sadness and how the more I self nurtured and listened to my body, the more I could heal those hurts and let it go. There are many times where I still override what my body is telling me, especially when it comes to over eating but in that awareness I am open to asking myself what I am feeling before I put the food in my mouth. Sometimes this works and the craving goes away. At other times it doesn’t but I am committed to working on it – with your lovely foot analogy I shall be open to asking my stomach to tell me in words how it feels to be have food in it it doesn’t want!!

308. In the past I have walked bare foot because I thought it was cool or because my feet were in so much pain from the shoes I was wearing that I had to take them off. I have done it at weddings where there was the possibility of standing on glass and for hours in nightclubs. My feet survived unscathed from glass thankfully but very dirty worn and tired. As I read your blog and write my own comment I can feel the extent of disregard I was in with my feet, something I had entirely forgotten. I now wear the most supportive trainers I could find much of the time and wear heals for short periods when I know I don’t have to walk far. I also moisturise and care for the skin of my feet and can feel them saying a big thank you in response.

309. Imagine if all of our body parts and organs were interviewed and what they would say?

     1. That’s a really good question Deborah. Mine would have a bit to say! Our body is always teaching us. We just need to stop and listen.

     2. that would such an interesting conversation… wow

310. I can relate to the not listening well to my body and being stubborn about it. It tells me what it needs, specificaly with food but I keep eating the things my mind want and the litte tricks it uses so I’ll just think I only eat it once more. By now I can see it happening but not always stop it, This blog helps me to be more aware of it again.

311. There was a time in my life too where i felt being barefoot was the way to go and the soles of my feet became so hard I could walk on hot sand or gravelly roads no problem. For some time now I have been taking much more care of them and they are becoming much softer and more sensitive. I had reflexology sessions for some time but no longer feel I need that as I massage my feet most days with some lovely foot cream and even have a chiropodist come visit to keep a check on their health now and again. My feet are so appreciative and the love and care I have for them now is amazing….your blog really brought this home to me, thank you.

312. Jo this is great to read. I love hearing and remembering how as a child we just knew what our body was telling us, long before we learnt to override what it whispered to us, or before we chose to listen to others, before ourselves, about what to do. These instances that you speak of as a child of four, all encourage us to listen to external influences, the should’s and could’s, instead of staying firmly with the knowing of the what is from within our body.

     1. I agree Jenny and what I feel after reading your comment is how hard it is for children to stay with that listening and honouring of themselves when they have not got that reflection of others living the same way around them.

313. Thank you Jo. I remember as a child going to our annual day out at the beach and being amazed that people liked going into the water where they first had to walk on very hard rocks in their bare feet in order to be able to swim, especially where there was another part of the beach that people could enter the water without having to climb over rocks. It all felt very cruel to me to do such a thing to your feet. It is beautiful how our body just tells us the truth of any situation if only we would listen to it.

314. Hi Jo -what an enjoyable sharing and a confirming one for me. I have never liked my feet as I always thought that they were short and chubby and I always seem to have problems finding comfortable shoes to wear. Then I started truly connecting to my feet, I started appreciating them and taking care of them. The change was amazing. My feet no longer felt short and chubby but small and delicate, the skin felt soft and there seemed to be a lot more shoes around for me! Its amazing how love and connection to our bodies can make such a difference .

315. Thank you Jo for this powerful and inspiring sharing. You have reminded me of when I also believed that in being bare foot whenever possible meant I was living freely, by being ‘connect to the earth’. This included walking on the sand at the beach on early winter mornings with bare feet which after a certain time they became numb and hurt more… totally ignoring, overriding and dishonoring what I was feeling and the messages from my body. You have offered much to reflect on such as – ‘My body guides me all the time; it’s my choice to listen or to override it … and though I thought I “wanted the truth” and I was committed to searching for answers, I was overriding a lot of the signals my body was giving me.’ When we realise that the truth we seek is reflected through our bodies we can being to make choices that support our connection to our body and live in a more harmonious way with the truth and love that we are.

316. Jo as soon as i read the line ‘ With self love there can be love in all that I do’ I remembered how I used to live and that was ‘without self love there was no love in anything that I did’.

317. Jo this is such a great blog. I loved how you listened to your feet, even if it took a long time, the dialogue that you shared, your feet speaking to you and what they would say. I could very much relate to that, not thinking of feeling at all about how they are or what they have to put up with. That they too have a voice, much like our whole body, it is just whether we are willing to listen or not is the question.

     1. It poses such an interesting question… I’ve always given my hands quite a rough time: gardening, cooking (and cutting), DIY. Over the years I’ve learnt to be a little more careful, although I’m still prone to over riding that. What would they say about the relationship if I but gave them the voice to speak (and listened to them as well!).

        1. You raise such a good point Simon, my hands have been subjected to very harsh substances over the years and very little self care. I still do not care for my hands in as loving a way as I could and reading your comment has given me something to focus on as we head into the winter months. It takes nothing to have some hand cream in our bag or in the car to reach for when our hands feel dry. I have recently been feeling to have little hand care kit in my car for emergencies and the next time I’m sitting waiting in it with time to kill.

318. An inspiring sharing that confirms the door to self-love opens once we choose to truly support and listen to our body.

319. Jo what a lovely blog – it just goes to show choosing to connect with ones body and letting the love in really does speak to all parts of us and in turn emanates out… It’s awesome how that works! We have all the power of we choose to connect to it and that is very empowering to realise!

320. I guess shoes – like nearly everything in life – can be used as shield or to care. It is our choice.

321. How many times did I cut myself walking bare feet as a kid during summer. It took me while and a few cuts to realise maybe there was a more loving way to be.

322. Reblogged this on Alexandre Meder.

323. Jo when I was younger there would be times when I would love to be bare foot – like on the beach or sometimes on the freshly mown grass – yet there were always roads in-between these places. One example being the beach and the house, there was a gravel path. I would often walk step by step feeling the pain and trying to dodge the sharp stones – yet I persisted with this for many years. I used to think it would be quicker than putting on shoes, yet low and behold I’ve found now taking the time to stop – put on shoes and walk supported to the house is not only lovely for my body without the sharp pains but also I get there faster.

324. Thank you Jo, and to your feet for this blog. It is great to talk about our bodies as vessels that talk to us and that are worthy of listening to rather than something our minds can control. Your story of feet is great, and makes me think how I used to go barefoot all the time, though it didn’t feel right, but then switched to wearing high heels all the time that were just as if not more uncomfortable ; but again – it was all to look good rather than truly listening to my body. And of course if I was wearing high heels, I’d influence friends to do the same and vice versa. It is amazing what our bodies put up with, giving us space to figure out (or not) the true relationship we can have and the gentleness we can bring to how we treat ourselves and others.

325. Jo I loved reading this – it is fun, yet the message you bring is so pertinent. Our bodies know exactly what is needed and yet we often pay lip service to them only listening to them when it suits us and the ideas in our head. How have we come to live so that it’s our head that takes precedence? Why exactly would we ignore the whole body and give one part the lead – be it the head or as I often find with food, the mouth and taste? You’ve nailed it here, we listen when it suits us, until our body screams louder and we’re often forced to listen, or else somehow we find another way, and find the support to allow us to start appreciating us and our gorgeous bodies; and once we do we know what it is to be love. Our body is the one guide we have which leads us to live the love we are – now why would we ignore that?

326. Wow, this is a good story. It makes it so clear that it’s a good idea to listen to our bodies.

327. Thank you Jo I loved the playfulness of your conversation with your feet and how revealing it is of how often we choose to override the messages our body is giving us. This year my feet have been getting progressively more tender and it took me weeks to book a treatment with a chiropodist to relieve the symptoms and learn how I could care for them more supportively. For several weeks afterwards I followed a loving foot care routine but am now recognising that I have let that slip recently and my feet are starting to feel tender again. Thank you for the reminder.

328. Thank you Jo, this is a great article and brings to my attention the absolute important of nurturing the body with warmth, there are so many little practical things that we can do to support this which in turn really makes such a enormous difference to how I feel about myself, my body, others and then my day.

329. Wow Jo, it’s great to read your article, it shows me how easy it is to get caught up in a certain way of living and that our head can tell us how freeing this is etc.. whereas our bodies can be in pain and we override this for this sake of our ideal picture. i can very much relate to what you have written here; ‘I had not been accepting, honouring nor nurturing the sensitive and lovely person that I am!’ It is only in the last few years, since attending Universal Medicine workshops and courses that I have actually started to listen to my body and care for myself, before this I was living with a lot of disregard and overriding what my body was feeling.

330. Thank you for sharing your story Jo, and how you treated your feet. I too very much neglected my feet, in that I would wear shoes that were not proper fitting, were not truly comfortable but ignored this because they ‘looked good’! I did this for many years, thus my feet took a lot of bashing. However, for quite some time now I decided to make amends and have been massaging my feet every night after my shower…. well as you can imagine, my feet are loving me for all this extra attention, and I have to say, when I am walking now, my feet feel so much lighter and I have more awareness of each foot with each step I take.

331. I really enjoyed reading this blog and could relate to the poor treatment of your feet. I had idealistic ideas about being barefoot too. It seemed to suggest freedom and was a bit cool ( or so I thought!) I used to ignore how cold, hot or uncomfortable they felt. Really I had little regard for them as they were ‘down there’ and way down on the my body’s priority list. It has been through esoteric yoga and walking as presented by Serge Benhayon, that I have discovered just how sensitive and lovely my feet are when I feel and look after them. If I lay down to do an esoteric yoga session without socks, as I become more body aware I always end up putting socks on.

332. I am interested in the words “as a bare‐foot‐going family”. I understand that as parents we often make decisions based on what we believe is best for our children, and that sometimes these decisions are not wholly supportive or role modelling for a long lasting relationship with self care.

     1. So true Shami, and even not being a parent, we are still constantly teaching people how to be by the way we live. If we are a reflection for self-care or not, people are picking up on it.

        1. Absolutely Ariel, whether we are or are not reflecting self-care, we’re still reflecting and people are continually picking-up on it; in turn this gives further hold to some patterns and gives permission for others to raise their own ‘bars’.

     2. Well said Shami. I remember one winter when I was working in a town in Northern NSW regularly observing kids running around barefoot and babies barefoot in strollers even when their parents were wearing shoes and lots of warm clothes. It made me shudder just to look at them!

333. What a beautifully presented analogy of your feet and self love as a way of living without the disregard of no shoes for so much of your life approach.Very revealing as to how we ignore our bodies and what we really feel from being small children to our whole lives.Being honest and living lovingly feels so beautiful to come to from all this and wearing shoes or not will never be a lightly dismissed occurrence again.Thank you Jo for this real inspiring sharing and attention to what i am doing, how i walk with myself ,my feet and my foot coverings feel much more appreciated from reading this.

334. We become hardwired to make unloving choices when we disregard our bodies again and again. There’s no conceivable other way of being. I never hiked barefoot, but I did plenty of other disregarding things. I never knew there was any other way of being as I had accepted that it was ‘me’. Not until I met Serge Benhayon anyway. Then I found out that there was a true me deep inside and learning to make more loving choices actually feels like I am making choices rather following a pre-destined behaviour aligned to disregard.

335. “My body guides me all the time; it’s my choice to listen or to override it ” So true Jo. I am finding that the once subtle messages that my body gave me (that I used to ignore because I was so numb) are now clearer and louder as I pay attention and act on what they tell me. The unpleasantness when I ignore these messages is also becoming louder. Our bodies do know.

     1. I can so relate to what you shared here Sue, “the messages my body gave me (that I used to ignore because I was so numb) are now clearer and louder as I pay attention and act on what they tell me. The unpleasantness when I ignore these messages is also becoming louder.” I get this too, the more I listen and act on it the easier everything becomes, yet when I do not boy will I know about it these days, can’t miss the body’ telling …

     2. Great part you’ve highlighted Sue. I have felt this guidance from my body throughout my life, mostly I have listened to it but there have also been times when I haven’t. There was never any consistency and this resulted in feeling imbalance and a disregarding way of living. Now, I am learning to be super aware of these messages and to let it guide me to live in a rhythm that is in harmony with my body. My body is extremely sacred, delicate and super powerful. I have recently been appreciating that I am the custodian for my amazing body (vessel) that is here to shine with joy and God’s light. Now, I have this whole new level of love and appreciation for my body that allows me to truly honour and listen to it.

336. It is a great question to ask why do we override our inner feeling about things which we know are not ok or adequate for us as they bring us into a situation to disregard our being and our body.

337. As we know our bodies ‘talk’ to us very clearly and sometimes no matter the volume we still carry on regardless and have to then experience all the consequences of doing so. I so enjoyed reading your sharing Jo and how your feet shared exactly how you were walking through life – be it with disregard or self loving choices that you were choosing to live your life by.

338. Once we start to listen to our body, the messages it sends become more and more refined. This is a constant development as what yesterday felt super loving, may today be a thing which is not supporting anymore. Sometimes we realise this quickly and sometimes it takes a bit longer, but the body does not stop sending messages. It is up to us if we want to listen or not.

339. Our feet tell us so much. They take us everywhere and feel how we are walking on the ground; angry, sad, lonely, frustrated, bored, anxious etc. At one time I had several hard callouses on my feet that were showing me how hard I was on myself and the way I walked in the world. When I started applying the teachings of Serge Benhayon in taking more care of myself in the way treated myself the callouses disappeared.

     1. As I reading your comment Mary I got a sense of the actual impact we are having as we walk. What ground are we laying and what quality are we imprinting when we walk. Every step we take has an ability to either burden or lighten the space.

340. The picture at the start tells it all for me Jo, your feet are telling you that this is not the way to go but you where forced to accept by hardening your body and to stop to feel the messages you body was giving to you. This tells in short how we put aside our connection with the love that resides within, we harden up because of the way we grow up. If we grow up in an environment void of love, we do not get any response to the love we feel inside and from there we shut down the love we all innately are and harden ourselves to go through life, a life void of love, resulting in all kinds of physical and mental disorders as in your case “chronic depression, harmful food cravings, physical pain, anxiety and sorrow, financial inadequacy, memory problems, harmful and empty relationships and the relenting loneliness that ran through all of my life”. And when we somewhere in our lives find back our connection to the love that always resides within, thanks to Serge Benhayon that shows us that way, these disorders may disappear through our reestablished connection with the love we belong to live.

341. Dear Jo, your blog brought back the memories of childhood where I ignored wearing proper footwear and how thorns got into my foot and gravels poked. I feel the disregard and partial absence from my body to avoid feeling something that is driving me.
     Today, I can’t imagine working without my gloves and wearing personal protective equipment (called PPE in work industry). It feels cozy and self loving!
     Thanks you for sharing.

342. Jo this as a beautiful story, I love how much you have changed from making more honouring choices and from listening to your body. How supportive it would be if we listened to what our whole body said, from our fingers to all of our organs! There would be such a simplicity and a way of living that wouldn’t settle for less than what felt like love.

343. Utterly and totally delightful Jo, and full of so much wisdom from you – and your feet. Only yesterday a friend and I were discussing how we used to treat our feet and it certainly wasn’t with the care we do today. Now looking after all of ourselves with so much more care and consideration our feet, which once were rough, often sore and with badly cracked heels, look just like yours: very happy that we are finally caring for them the way they deserve to be cared for – with love.

344. Thank you for sharing this Jo. There is so much in what you have shared. I love the way you have used your feet as a marker for self love and a constant feedback mechanism for how you are feeling.

345. Soul from the sole, I like it! Thank you for sharing your story Jo, with (and without) boots and all.

     1. Fun play with words Victoria Lister and so true…. Sole-less to Soul-Full, what an inspiring story.

346. “With self‐love there can be love in all that I do.” Yes, when we build a self-loving, nurturing and caring relationship with ourselves it does flow very naturally into all we do.

347. What an awesome article Jo, Having awareness of your feet has brought reconnection from ‘Tip to Toe’ to the enormous love that in within the body and now walks with you with every step you take. A great message here for all who reads your article, thank you!

348. As children we just simply feel what is, as in you feeling your feet hurt without shoes Jo. We can become so mastered at overriding these natural signals from our body, and especially so when we impose upon ourselves certain beliefs, idealistic ways of being. Having done this myself in the past without ‘success’ I know this does not work. The honesty of the body is one of our greatest supports.

     1. So true Victoria. We can master overriding the signals from our body – Thank God for Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, who help us to come back to our original, natural feelings and awareness.

349. I have always worn shoes, even wearing them on summer days(very un-aussie not to wear thongs). I often had the comment of having ‘school girl feet’- however it was worth it.

     The sense of self care is strong and it is in every part of our lives, right down to our feet.

     1. It has always struck me how incredibly sensitive our feet are. I’ve never been one for going without shoes much (though sometimes it feels nice) and I’ve always found it hard to find shoes that work for my feet. They always have to be just right – and comfortable. I’ve often observed how hard people are on their feet and how they often don’t know when their feet are cold. The line about being so in your head you can’t feel your feel rings true to me and I know when my feet are cold I’m not as connected with my body as I could be.

        1. True Victoria, this is a interesting discussion because now I think about it I take better care of my feet then my hands. Although there is nothing wrong with my hands (they are quite soft). But I don’t take the same level of care as I would with my feet i.e. wear gloves when cold or performing high intensity labour. Ideally we shouldn’t be separating the body into different grades of care. The whole unit (the body) should be treated with the same dedication and care as the part of the body we take the most care of. i.e. the face for me.

350. Thank you for sharing your cute relationship with your feet Jo. This bit felt so good to read … “but now that I consciously stop and pause with the intention to “simply allow myself to feel” I find that it is OK to feel what is coming up and not supplement it with abuse or an “effort to fix” or another distraction.” My whole body relaxed with a ‘yea, that feels good’ I used to walk barefoot a lot too- over hot roads and rocks and cold floor. I have found now that I care for myself more it is abusive to disregard if my feet are cold, hurting etc… It’s like torture.

351. Listening to the body would seem to be a simple enough thing to do, but for virtually all of us, the body is usually not considered unless it is screaming, then it gets our attention. The line about eating sugar is a good example – feeling lethargic afterwards, but you couldn’t give it up, resonates with me in many areas of my life. I can feel how the lack of love and not valuing myself allows these disregarding habits to continue, so although the choices are simple, making them requires feeling how much disregard is there, something I have often avoided in the past. Being able to feel how much of me is simply divine, makes for better choices.

     1. Good point here Mark in that even though we might hear the messages, we’re sometimes only willing to look at the messages when they become impossible to ignore, – and sometimes even then, only for long enough where the symptoms are relieved and we can go back to our old patterns of behaviour. The key for me in this process has been to connect back to within, in preference to looking to the outside for the answers or relief. When I connect back to ‘me’, it’s much easier to listen and much easier to make more supportive choices for my body.

352. I love this blog Jo, giving our bodies a voice is so powerful. This would make a great cartoon. I can see livers, stomachs, hearts and minds all lovingly chiming in. Imagine what we would learn about ourselves if we gave each part of us a voice? Our bodies are so willing to communicate their wisdom with us.

     1. ‘Our bodies are so willing to communicate their wisdom with us.’ Yes we just need to develop our listening skills…

        1. …so true Helen and then honour what has been communicated.

     2. Victoria, I love those words ‘giving our body a voice’. Wow! What a one liner. It’s like taking the volume off mute, to find the sound was there all along. And in the case of our body, muted by the dominant mind.

353. Wow its fascinating to read about other people’s lives. I couldn’t imagine walking places without shoes, especially over roads, rocks and gravel. I bet your whole body is thankful for those changes.

     1. I had that response too yet then I saw my own equivalents. How many times have I dragged myself back, through and over the bush backwards in my relationships, for example? Or with alcohol, cigarettes and other vices? Probably as many times as Jo has taken barefoot-steps.

     2. I agree Kristy, it is fascinating reading about peoples lives, what they have been up to and the changes they have made. I sometimes find myself barefoot say around the beach but feel how painful it cam be to go along the road so now always would rather have some shoes and then take them off at the beach and carry them rather than suffer along the road. I have found that my feet can be extremely sensitive and deserve to be lovingly taken care of and not abused. It is symbolic for me of the way I am living for if I was to allow abuse in one area of my life, say harming my feet walking barefoot everywhere or even just to the beach, it means I am not fully taking care of myself. It is like a love reading gauge for me, how much love wlll I say yes to when I can feel my body is trying to tell me something!

     3. I find this too Kristy. I couldn’t imagine walking barefoot through rocks and gravel, but then again I disregard myself in different ways – biting my nails, overeating at times, taking on people’s problems and issues… In essence they are all the same thing, and it’s gorgeous to hear how different people have changed their individual patterns in the blogs on this site.

     4. Yes Kristy, it is fascinating to see what ideals and beliefs can make us do. In Germany these “barefoot” practices are known as well, along with splashing cold water in your face, taking cold showers, walking through cold water over pebbles. And then the whole sauna practice, where you heat up in the sauna and then jump into ice cold water or rub yourself down with snow… all this is considered a healthy practice in the North European countries, supporting you to toughen up against the cold, increasing circulation and heart activity, etc. the list can go on. I tried to adhere to that practice at some point, but could not follow through as I just hate cold water.

354. Jo, I just loved your feet ‘talking’ to you -how they told you how warm they felt when you were coming from your heart and how cold they felt when you go up into your head. I also used to go barefoot a lot (it is definitely a ‘New Zealand thing’), but now my feet are very sensitive and it feels horrible when I mistreat them and they are cold, for example, or my shoes are too tight, or the surface I am walking on is too rough. I will listen to my feet talking to me even more after reading your playful blog!

355. Jo I loved this. Our feet or any part of the body continue to talk to us all the time. Its just about allowing their messages of support to guide us back to a truly loving way to live. What you have shared here is deeply inspiring and your honesty is gorgeous.

356. This is fun to read, with a great message on how much we can disregard what our body is calling out for us to attend to. I really love the perspective from your feet’s point of view Jo and that you have happy feet now. Our body is an amazing and wondrous instrument always there having to take whatever way we choose to live. We can choose to be responsible by having regard, honouring and making loving choices to care and nurture our bodies by the way we live or not. Our body is the recipient of our choices.

     1. ‘Our body is the recipient of our choices.’ Yes, indeed it is and it’s amazing our bodies stick by us as much as they do considering all the abuses we subject them to. I had the image of an egg pop into my mind – if we did to an egg what we do to ourselves that’d be one smashed, scrambled, cracked and totally fried egg! Yet we’re just as fragile.

357. Thanks Jo for your amazing sharing. It’s funny how we can disregard our bodies whether it be our hands, feet, lungs or liver, in so many ways; the disconnection between our spirit and the love of our soul and god can be huge. There is always more love we can embody I have found as love is endless and can be forever deepened if we begin to choose that and listen to our bodies from our hearts.

358. Ah yes our feet Jo! I also used to ‘harden up’ the soles of my feet as a child so I could walk barefoot everywhere if I chose to and I still remember walking on the hottest surfaces and the burning I would endure! I think my feet were one of the first parts of my body I started to nurture, purchasing a foot spa and discovering the joy of having pampered feet. Every step we take matters, and I have learned through Universal Medicine that our walk is so very important, so I would never again neglect the very part of me that takes those steps! I still walk barefoot on the beach if it is warm and I still love the feeling of grass underfoot, but having my feet safely ensconced in my shoes is also super lovely.

     1. Wonderful confirmation Jo; that HOW we take our every step matters. My feet are so tender and strong now; you can see the natural little puffy pads in the recent photo… I walk more lightly and more with myself all the time.

359. Your line here Jo is so real and valid surrounding our ‘search for truth’ “… and though I thought I “wanted the truth” and I was committed to searching for answers, I was overriding a lot of the signals my body was giving me” – how many times do we choose to not see what we in fact want to see? The obvious truth communicated by our body.

360. What a revealing blog Jo – I so enjoyed reading it, and could feel the joy in your feet as I read your words as they are now being met – how yummy is that. I too am learning there is much for us to appreciate as we learn to listen to our body from our innate awareness – and this has been made possible for me also as a result of being shown how to reach this great wisdom we all have within by initially meeting with Serge Benhayon and thus attending the presentations of Universal Medicine. Thank you for sharing.

361. I love the humour and lightness you have shown here Jo. I went barefoot as a child on many occasions with a deliberate intent to ‘toughen up’ the souls of my feet to create ‘permanent ‘shoes’. I was inspired to do this after reading a book where the hero of the story did this. I felt that hard feet would show that I was tough and strong. Looking back now I can see that I did this in an attempt to protect myself by showing others I didn’t feel pain.

362. Jo I love what you’ve shared and was particularly struck by your comment… ‘the therapies, modalities, meditations and medicines I had tried had not even scratched the surface of my unhappiness..’ Even though your blog is about your feet, it just goes to show that no part of the body can be treated as separate from the rest. The changes you describe incorporate your whole body physically, but also your emotional and mental state of being. True healing is all encompassing, even if the focus is just on one part.

363. A realy enjoyable read Jo, and the dialogue between you and your feet is one I can in part relate to – the moment I’m not present in my body, and go ‘into my head’, my feet are gone, and I’m not ‘in’ them any more. I live in an area where many people ‘go barefoot’, and used to myself. I dont imagine I’d quite have put my feet in snow, or cactus spines, (ouch), but as the basics of self care kicked in, I felt how awful it was to walk on a footpath with no shoes, and all that was dumped there, really yukky, imagine what my feet would have been saying. Amazing how the head set told me this was ‘freeing’, or ‘closer to nature’, when I was actually quite trapped in disregard, and far from truly connected with nature, as I was not connected with me! Years later my feet are never left to be cold, always kept toasty warm, and I feel the greatest when I actively feel my feet in all I do, more commited to life and willing to ‘be here’. I loved the line: “I have a very reliable guidance system within me as I am getting the messages my body sends me. My body has experienced my every choice and it tells me all about it; all I need to do is stop and listen.”

364. Thank you, Jo, for all that you have so lovingly shared here. Just beautiful to read how you have given yourself permission to return to beautiful you, especially loved your feet’s perspective!
     ‘I was only open to hearing, taking on board particular ‘truths’ …. I can certainly relate to this. For me, it’s a reflection of the level of control that’s been in my body, picking and choosing what’s allowed and what is not. It’s amazing how we do this over and over again, all the while convincing ourselves that we are being open, not wanting to be honest about how trapped we really are.

365. Amazing story Jo, thank you for sharing it. This line in particular jumped out to me and it is something that I can very much relate to – “As I support myself with true and consistent care I feel more steady and loving in all areas of my life.”

366. Thank you for this sharing Jo!
     I find our feet are such a reflection of how we are living life. Because they are at the opposite end of our body to our head, they can easily be ‘forgotten about’ or disregarded. When this happens for me, I know things are out of balance and I’m having too much of a ‘top heavy’ approach ~ largely based in my head. Allowing my head to ‘rule the roost’, so to speak, and not tuning into how my whole body is feeling leaves me wide open to disregard, and running my body into the ground. Opening our awareness to feeling more of what our body is communicating to us is vital for our health and wellbeing.

367. For a long time I didn’t want to take care of my feet too. What I didn’t enjoy in connecting with my feet is I did not want to face how disregarding I have been with them. My feet felt they have been in battle, the battle is mostly with myself, the non-acceptance of even having feet for a start! The coldness and hardness felt in my feet were very exposing of the same coldness and hardness I have lived with the world—what was hardest to face was my feet have reflected to me my choices, which showed me how I have been living has not been the truth of myself.
     How beautiful that last night, when I took time with my feet, tending to them gently, tidying the toe nails, and the skin felt smooth, and it was important to acknowledge that. And this morning, I read your blog Jo, how truly beautiful is constellation and the connection and growth we support each other in. Thank you.

368. i really enjoyed your blog Jo. i know when i was younger. I didn’t really think of my feet either. I was often in bare feet. I used to even be proud of how hard the soles of my feet were, that I could walk on rocks and it didn’t bother me……I hardly felt them. I was only thinkng of this the other day. Reflecting on this…..I now know and feel there is no way I could treat my feet like that now…..my feet are a part of me and I care about me.

369. As I read your beautiful blog Jo, I felt connected to the warmth in our feet, our palms and our hearts. Our physical bodies are so much more connected than we tend to think. If we treated our body knowing it is connected to every other body in this world, we would not be as impulsive, stubborn, callous, defiant, disregarding, abusive to it, would we? Every choice we make with our body, we are making it for everyone else, and it affects them.

370. I love your blog Jo, how your feet have so much wisdom and how their loving guidance supported you to make changes. Then those changes supported you more and more. The choice to build a level of care and consistency into your life shows how powerful these simple choices can be. Thank you for your inspiration. Time for a pedicure!

371. I remember chasing my brother around as kids, to get away from me he would run out on the road where I would come to a grinding halt after a couple of steps, I was always jealous of how he could do this but could see the pain he was in when we did this, it was definitely much more than what I was most likely going to inflict!!

372. Dear Jo, I can really relate to you saying how you used to rarely make your own choices about people, jobs or situations. Whilst I was always strong and confident about getting work and changing jobs and did well in this area of my life, it felt impossible for me to be confident about making my own decisions in other areas of my life, especially in my relationships. I used to ache with the pain of knowing that there was this confident woman inside of me that I just couldn’t get access to. After working with esoteric healing practioners and coming across Universal Medicine it’s incredible – I feel so free and bold and now live with that confidence I longed for everyday.

373. I have been focusing a lot on connecting with my of body late – these last few days in particular – so how fitting now to be reading your wonderful blog about feet this morning. I am beginning to feel how if I can stay connected to my body as much as humanly possible, for example with my fingers as I type this comment now, then I will never really need to lose myself in my mind again and always be able to stay in tune with what is going on from the natural knowing we have in our bodies.

374. What a great reconnection with such an important part of your body, and great to hear from them as well as you! Thank you for letting us in on the conversation.

     1. You said what I wanted to say but did not find the words: great to hear from them as well as you! I second that.

375. Few people don’t have ideals and beliefs – many pick them up from their families and go on to adopt a whole lot more as they grow up. Ideals are unsupportive, limiting, controlling and unloving. As you share, Jo, in your amazing blog, our body has all the answers (if we are prepared to listen) and these will not be stereotypes, but loving and often different in each situation – depending on what is supportive and required.

376. After all that walking Jo your feet look great! This is a lovely playful blog, I particularly like your line, ‘With self‐love there can be love in all that I do.’

377. Wow, what a path you have walked (literally) Jo and the symbolism and reflection you are offering is so exposing. Our feet and our hands are powerfully instrumental in carrying out physically the choices we make and as you have said the last area we consider when making decisions. One comment that you made at the beginning of your blog – ‘I remember feeling confused that the little stones felt more and more pointy and sharp as we went along, even though they looked just the same as the ones at the start!’ reflects so much to me. How often do we make an unloving choice but still continue on? We may be faced with a situation that brings up the same opportunity to once again choose the self love option but again we choose the unloving choice. The ‘stones are a little bit pointier’, we notice and feel, but still proceed. We keep choosing to over-ride what we know deeply to be true. The truth is always there and all we need to do is be willing and open to hearing what is offered. In appreciation and acceptance of all that is. Thank you Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine – a ‘Way’ that has allowed the ‘roadside’ stop we all need to feel and re-connect to what is true.

378. Jo, I really enjoyed reading how your relationship with your feet has developed over the years. The conversation that you had with your feet being light and playful reflecting the changes that you have made along the way to be more self-honouring of your feet and hence the whole of your body. I can understand and too have experienced how our ideals keep us trapped in our minds and disconnected from our bodies particularly when we are stubborn about them and don’t want to let them go. Where does that come from? Really, it is just a tricky way to keep us disconnected from feeling and connecting with our body which holds all of our innate wisdom.

379. I love the way you had a conversation with your feet Jo! At the beginning of your story, I almost winced with pain as I read about your childhood, walking on those sharp stones. As you said, ‘ I had always carried a deep‐down feeling that we humans have forgotten a beautiful way of life we once knew and looking around I understood that there had to be a more fulfilling and balanced way to live…’ You found it and lovingly shared it with us all.

380. I love the way your feet have been talking to you and how their ‘coming of age’ parallels the development of self love and self care. Or maybe, it is actually the other way around: your feet were always the mature and wiser part of you and it is you who has come of age?

     1. Yes, my feet are wise like a child, like my own true heart and I’m finally learning to listen.

381. Jo, what a change you have made. It is lovely to see that you have evolved so much. Listening to your feet, treating them with love and caring for them. And having no more depression, loneliness, anxiety, financial inadequacy…etc. Congratulations. I am amazed at how different peoples lifes can be and the many different ways we find or inherit to harm ourselves, and to be disconnected from our inner knowing, and then we find a way to come back, to gradually start listening, to change our harming ideals, and that is always the same way, the self love path.

     1. Julia, I love how you say that ‘the way to come back from all they ways we harm ourselves is always to same, a path of self love’… And it is a process; a lot of little choices and small steps to take more care.

        1. I was feeling the cruelty of the spirit when we allow it to rule over our heart and soul, the many convoluted ways our spirit finds to make us miserable, and the variety of the sinister, colourful ways it can ruin our lives. Like the way you were with your feet, and then the pure clarity and joy of reconnecting and coming back to yourself, the path of self love, the deliberate conscious choice of taking the time and effort to appreciate and connect to your best side, your essence, your soul.

382. That is incredible great story Jo, I love how you have explained your connection with your body through your feet. It is so beautiful to know and feel that all parts of our body communicate with us and know what to let us know. So cool what you shared on having no need now to walk on bare feet if that feels not true or nurturing.

383. Jo it’s amazing how the smallest amount of self love can have a big impact on our bodies which can create an opportunity to build on this and create more love for ourselves. You took one step at a time and your feet are now the voice for your body that lets you know if you are self loving or not.

384. Great realisation Jo, “I have come to realise that self‐love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world, which is crying out for real Love.” Spot on. With presence the space opens to let others in and loving our self is the only way we are going to truly be able to love another.

385. It’s delightful to share how playful you are with re-connecting to your feet and your entire being Jo. Reading your choices certainly does feel like love and I love the way it is expanding in your life as things fall away.

386. The way you have put this conversation with your feet tickled me, Jo. I wonder what all our different body parts would truly say to us if they had their go? It does feel like we might need some serious relationship counselling. When you mention how these illnesses and conditions are no longer part of your ‘make up’ it stuck out to me that they are a bit like cosmetics, in that they can sit on the surface hiding the true beauty we naturally are underneath.

387. Great blog Jo. My feet love to feel the naked earth beneath them when it’s warm and I love to feel what my body has to tell me about what is going on inside. Self love and self care are truly amazing. Thanks Universal Medicine.
     Thanks Jo.

388. I find that I notice the suffering that I see in another, but so often do not see the suffering that I am causing to my own body. Thank you to Jo’s feet for speaking for my body, and bringing me to a tender appreciation of it, and an understanding of what I do to it when I disregard it.

389. What a wonderful read Jo. It is exposing that I’m still not fully accepting myself after 6 or 7 years studying with Universal Medicine, that it is all about the body. I understand it mentally and I do make a lot of caring and loving choices. But also can see that part of me is still not commited in full. Like part-time choices. Your choices are beautifully reflecting that it is always the choice to reconnect to what I feel. Whatever is there to be felt. Thank you Jo.

390. What a fantastic blog you have given us Jo!. It has left me pondering on not just my feet, but the many body parts I may have been disregarding, blocking out where I have been arrogantly overriding their messages to me about the level of self love that I am providing for myself. It has given me a timely reminder to build the level of consistency in which I show my appreciation for my body and take note of all that it is offering me. Thank you.

391. A very beautiful story you share here Jo about your feet and how your own body and its inner guidance brought you back into your own loving tenderness that was always there but veiled by ideals and beliefs. Great to feel the true care you are living now.

392. It’s fascinating that whilst we are often dedicated and diligent in searching for truth we ignore and override what our bodies are telling us, usually a few home truths we don’t want to pay attention to. Thank goodness for Universal Medicine showing the way back to simplicity. I enjoyed hearing your feet speak, Jo (as well as you of course).

393. With or without shoes – we are all walking the path of returning to who we really are. I love the way you have given your body a voice and chosen to listen to it. This is the true path home…

394. Jo, thank you so much for this delightful walk through what I can feel is a ‘road well travelled’! I absolutely loved being taken through the steps of what can be revealed for us when truly connected to whats beneath us, what and how we tread our way through all the many and differing environments. It has instilled the appreciation I feel that no matter where we find ourselves, the placing of our feet and communication this brings can guide our way through whatever the terrain.

395. Jo I relate to your observation “I was also aware that I rarely made my own choices about people, jobs or situations”. This used to be my experience, exposed as I was to the vagaries of every day, like a cork going down the river. Coming across Universal Medicine a few years ago has been a life changer for me. I no longer leave myself open to others’ whims or dictates. It is not so much that I feel in control of my life, rather I feel what is not right and move on from here. Listening to this body of mine that I abused and neglected for so many years I rediscover many truths I had forgotten about. Thank you for your inspiring blog.

396. Thank you for sharing Jo, such a joy to read. I love how you like to be barefoot on nice substances, I never really liked being barefooted but in the way you described it I would love to give it a go!

397. So confirming to read this blog and recognise the truth of myself, as I’m sure will many others – be we shoe wearers or not!

398. Wow what a story! This is incredible what you have shared that through honouring your body and making self loving choices all these symptoms and problems have gone … ‘the chronic depression, harmful food cravings, physical pain, anxiety and sorrow, financial inadequacy, memory problems, harmful and empty relationships and the relenting loneliness that ran through all of my life have dropped away and are no longer part of my makeup. This feels like love.’ That is Amazing and worth celebrating 😄👠💕

399. You have shared so much wisdom here with us Jo and I love what you have written. I hear what you are saying about how much our bodies can share with us at one given time and that it is so important to take care of all aspects of our bodies – not just our heads! They don’t always make the best decisions for us.

400. Jo this is a beautiful and playful account flowing with all the self-loving choices you have made over the last four years. Thank you for sharing this inspiring unfoldment of re-connecting with what you have always known. This stood out for me: ‘What I can feel now is that I was living out my held ideals without considering if it was loving to do so for me, in each situation.’ It is a great way to expose the ideals and beliefs which have a hold over us. Simply saying ‘wait a minute…is this loving for me?’ we can start to see the things which don’t support us in life

401. Jo, I find it fascinating and indeed very sad when I see people around me, including young children, wander around barefoot — it does signify that they do not want to feel their feet, themselves on the ground and themselves at all! Thank you for sharing your journey and the love affair you have with yourself, that is with all of you from foot to toe now. Something to share with everyone.

402. You grabbed my attention with, ‘I was living out my held ideals without considering if it was loving to do so for me’, because this is true for all forms of disregard. When the disregard leaves us much the lesser, we decide we want truth and search for it, but we look for it ‘out there’, unprepared and often unwilling to accept the truth of the ‘in here’, of the body’s constant, consistent messaging service to us that reflects the truth of how we’re living. We have to start with the basics, the fundamentals of our relationship with our body and this then supports the development of our awareness of the bigger picture. There are no short-cuts to truth. Just truth itself at every turn

403. I did enjoy reading this Jo and how your feet feel about how you treat them – giving them a voice. This is one of those stories which shows how we can believe something is good for us and pride ourselves in being a certain way, but without realising we are being abusive to ourselves. Thank you for sharing.

404. What a journey with your feet Jo, I love how they are talking to you and you are now listening and being more loving and caring with them.

405. What an amazing transformation Jo and I love the way you gave your feet an opportunity to share their side of the story! The changes you have achieved in your life, the level of self respect, self love and self care you have so lovingly established is quite extraordinary. How often do we completely over-ride and ignore the very loud signs our bodies send us when we choose to neglect it in favour of our high ideals and airy fairy beliefs? I know I have and my health suffered hugely as a consequence. Choosing to become aware of, feel and respond to my body and its reactions or responses to all my choices has been revelatory too. You are living proof that we can turn around the most dire self esteem and self neglect and truly blossom into responsible, caring adults in touch and in tune with our essence and love once again.

406. I love this blog Jo, when a blog paints a picture it stays with me forever and your blog painted a picture of how it was for your feet. I can take this analogy and think of any part of my body and how it has suffered the disregard in my lifetime and whether or not that has changed. Thanks Jo

407. Beautiful sharing Jo. Its amazing how we can live in absolute disregard and not even be aware of it. The ideals and beliefs about how life has to be are so strong and ingrained that we convince ourselves that the way we live is liberating, not mainstream or special all to avoid feeling what is truly going on. For me it was also that I did not know where to turn, there were no role model for me, nobody I felt, wow they have life sorted and as you describe my own capacity to choose was totally switched of, the outer was bigger than myself and everything was measured by it. But what I found most amazing is how through Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I connected to truth and suddenly it was all there, very clear and ready to be lived in its absolute simplicity. Very awesome!!

408. Reading your blog brought a smile to my face Jo, especially when reading the bits where your feet were talking. I had a similar unloving relationship with my feet. I didn’t like them because I thought they were too big, so I would squeeze then into smaller sizes and endure lots of pain. These days my whole body sings with joy when I wear the comfy shoes I have recently started buying. Saying goodbye to my gorgeous looking high heels has taken a while. I held on to them for years and have gradually let them go as I know I just can’t wear them anymore. Like you I have developed a more caring loving relationship with my body.

409. Lovely to read your blog Jo and to feel the relationship you have with your feet, and how they have responded to the more self loving choices you have chosen to make

410. I love the conversation you have with your feet Jo. I relate to it well although for me it would be late nights and food and drink that did not suit my body and I would carry on regardless without really bothering to have a conversation with my body and checking how it was feeling. I now have a more connected relationship with my body and enjoy listening and responding to the messages it sends instead of ignoring them.

     1. Beverley the conversations that most of us had with our bodies before coming to Universal Medicine would have sounded like conversations between couples involved in domestic violence. Abusive, aggressive and one sided. Now thankfully the relationships that we are building with our bodies are much more harmonious and based on mutual respect.

411. Our feet are often taken for granted. We just walk on them day in day out and many treat their’s like a pair of wheels that get them from A to B. But our feet can also be one of the most sensitive parts of the body especially to the cold. It is very empowering to honour that and how we choose to use our feet.

412. Thank you Jo, your words have brought me closer to my feet confirming how much care and attention they deserve.

     1. Me also Esther. Our feet have a hugely important job of getting us from A to B and they wear the quality in how we choose to step through life. This is a fun blog that has left me feeling very appreciative of my feet!

413. Jo this is a powerful blog to read. The conversation between you and your feet brings a playful feeling to it all. I can remember around age 14 walking with a friend down to a local town and back with no shoes on (which took about 50 minutes each way with the pain of this). For the majority the roads were really painful to walk on and yet we had to be ‘cool’ and defiant with parents and society wanting us to conform in so many ways. At the time it felt the only way we could make a stand, but in truth, we could hardly stand up by the time we got back home! It has taken me many years to really begin to listen and act upon the advice from my body and bring deeper self care to myself from this. Thankfully the cycle vicious cycle of not honouring my body began to be addressed after attending my first session with Serge Benhayon and totally inspired to make new choices from then on.

414. I love this Jo. Feet are something many of us disregard and don’t listen to; I certainly don’t take the best care of them, sometimes resulting in dryness, blisters, aches and pains, and this is just a reflection of how I treat my body on a whole. It’s the same thing with my fingers and hands – I often get small cuts or bruises there, and when I do it’s important to look at what behaviour has lead to that happening, and evaluate how I’m treating the rest of my body. Thank you for sharing the evolutionary relationship between you and your feet 🙂

415. I took up barefoot running a few years ago, convinced it was the way forward, in doing so I had to override every part of my body that was screaming me to stop. Like you I still enjoy being barefoot but only if it is right for my feet and the rest of my body of course at the same time. Sometimes my feet want to be free of shoes, particularly when its hot, but either way it is really obvious as it is felt instantly very clearly, what is right for my feet and it amazes me how little I used to listen to my body. Thank goodness I do now.

416. I can so relate to the selective hearing. I used to so conveniently not let in what didn’t suit me, and kept justifying my unloving choices. I wasn’t doing that consciously; it was only after I started making conscious choices to self-love that I became aware of what I was doing and feel the truth.

417. A joy to read your blog Jo. I love the playful way you give voice to your feet. And this sentence, “… all I need to do is stop and listen.” actually shows how simple it can be to hear how our body always guides us with love and truth. If we really choose to feel every part of our body and open up to what it is showing us.

     1. So lovely diana1975, the joy and playfulness that Jo now has with her feet is in stark contrast to her earlier relationship with them. This is a simple and practical reminder to me to be loving, playful and light with my body.

418. ‘I have come to realise that self‐love and presence are key ingredients for being a loving person in this world, which is crying out for real Love.’ Yes self-love and presence are indeed the ingredients to become love and to inspire to be love. Thank you for your, and your feet’s 😉 blog Jo. It is impressive to read how hard you once were on yourself on a physical level. I guess being brought up like that you didn’t know any other way until you came across Universal Medicine who showed you the way out.

419. what an amazing relationship to have with feet. our body can tell us so much. and its hard to believe that we humans would impose such strict and harsh laws over our body, as if they were normal.

420. What you present Jo in the playful way that you do is how as a race of Human beings we can so quickly override, deny or refuse to listen the the body’s wisdom at our own expense. We can essentially live our life disconnected from our body yet stubbornly directing our body to keep on keeping on and let those feet keep walking.
     I spent a lot of my life trying to be like others and to fit in at the expense of my body and all that i know to be true. This involved punishing my body, pushing my body beyond its limits, self-abuse and demanding that it serve me in the most reckless and irresponsible ways. What a great blessing that one day my body said enough. You are going to stop whether you like it or not. My feet were running me at that point more than 60 kms a week (running away from my true self i dare say), they were contorting my body into all kinds of postures in heated yoga rooms (i don’t recommend it) and i was in pain. I was aware my body was in pain but i kept ignoring it with my head until my body collapsed and i was in bed – unable to walk for many many months. It is fascinating how our minds can direct our body to do things that the body would never willingly choose to do – the body has smarts and thank god i discovered Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and started listening to my body’s wisdom again.

421. This is an area I am seeing now in my life where I can improve my presence and quality I do this too often..” automatically shift into fast gear, pushing myself and staying distracted as a way to not be aware of uncomfortable feelings”. This is great advice..”consciously stop and pause with the intention to “simply allow myself to feel” I find that it is OK to feel what is coming up and not supplement it with abuse or an “effort to fix” or another distraction.”

422. Jo I love your humourous way of delivering the insights of your return to a self-nurturing and loving way of being. I recall running barefoot on the stoney track at my grandfather’s place, believing I was showing him that I wasn’t a wimpy city kid, and not allowing myself to feel the pain of it. These days I take excellent care of my feet, keeping them warm, buying lovely soft socks – and wonder at the fashion for little shoes with no socks or stockings that many women sport even on the coldest days of winter. I recall how that was me once, and that in fact I couldn’t feel the cold because my feet were numb. Feet are a great indicator of how much care we give ourselves.

423. It’s amazing the beliefs and ideas we hold, that lack full responsibility of the health and wellbeing of our body. Calling barefoot natural and free is one of these. Another simple example is that it’s tough to exercise or play sport in the cold and rain, as it show’s full commitment and motivation. The truth is that being outside in the rain and cold to play sport is a lack of regard for our body and in no way at al will benefit the health and wellbeing of the body.

424. Wow Jo, it’s not surprising that you learnt to override what you felt when as a four year old, you had to override the pain and discomfort of your tender little feet feeling sore and tired from walking without shoes. This and probably other experiences at that young age clearly gave you messages to not listen to your body which you carried for a long time. It’s wonderful that you’ve reconnected to the truth of who you are and are now living with care and self love…very beautiful.

425. Great post Jo! How easy it is to carry an ideal such as living barefoot, and force yourself to think that it will make you one with nature. How ironic as you say, that with more loving choices towards yor precious body and feet, you now feel more grounded. Who would have thought, simply listening to what we know is true would actually be the most supportive thing?!

426. My feet and I love this blog. I was never an outdoors bare foot fan because it hurt too much, so I got teased for being a “wimp” (slang term for a person lacking courage and fortitude). But gee did I ignore other parts of my body and hurt them in a million ways. I tore a tendon dancing and kept going for months, brutally, in spite of the pain.
     My body and I are steadily becoming re-acquainted with each other, and it is blossoming into a friendship after many years of a one-sided war, me against my body. I will note that it always wanted to be my friend.
     Note from my feet: They are loving the fluffy slippers they are currently wearing, and they are very happy that I no longer let them get cold and ignore them as I once used to.

     1. I find it fascinating how we can ignore pain in our body and keep choosing the very thing that gives us the pain. I feel a lot has to do with our beliefs about a certain thing. I believed that strenuous yoga was healthy and so held poses that were, at times excruciating purely because I believed it to be good for me. It seems absurd now. Our body has an incredible wisdom and when listened to can lead us to true health.

427. I love your story Jo. It clearly expresses how every part of our body is always communicating with us and how by learning to listen and heed it’s messages can be so profoundly life changing. You and your feet sound like very happy little campers now, well done!

428. I loved reading the conversation between yourself and your feet. I have for a while clocked that when my hands and fingers go cold that is my alarm bells for something is not right. But what if there was more being communicated in these messages? Thank you Jo.

429. Time to celebrate how far you’ve come. A really loving way now feels firmly planted in your life, along with thousands of students who listen to the presentations of Universal Medicine. Go us! A journey of self love can be excruciating in parts when you begin to feel the level of disregard one has chosen but once those layers are worked through the feeling of being love and being aware of your body really is the best path to be unfolding on.

430. Jo it great to consider every part of our bodies in our committment to truly care for ourselves. My feet are definitely getting lots more love and care these days too!

431. Joe, when I was 8 or 9 years old I decided I had to harden up my feet in order to toughen myself up. So, I did not just walk on the hot bitumen, I walked on top of broken windscreen glass on the side of the road to prove that I could. One day, around the same age, I got stung by a bee changing the sprinklers on the lawn, which was 5 acres mind you. Rather than go straight inside to remove the sting, I decided to finish my chores, and tough it out. It was a good test, I thought. And it was 10-15 minutes before I got back into the house to deal with the sting, by which time there was a tennis ball size lump on my stomach.

     People may say that this was strange behaviour, but when you are sensitive and young, and all the world is screaming at you to toughen up like an adult, what do you do? We should not only look to preserve the delicacy of our youth, but our own delicacy as adults. Otherwise, chances are, our youth will end up living the same way we did. Our future lies not in the hands of our youth, but rather in our hands, for it is our way of living that will inspire the next generation coming through. Otherwise, we shall continue on, the blind leading the blind, each generation copying the patterns left before them.

     1. Wow Adam, ouch. That we would attempt to build a barrier between us and the earth we walk upon by way of ‘toughening up’ our feet, is indicative of the shield we learn to craft at a very early age between us and the world. We are a humanity that has learnt to be very ‘thick skinned’ and far from wanting to change this, we champion it for it is yet another method of protection we willingly put in place to not feel the delicateness that we are and are from.

        1. And so we soon forget the glory and delicacy of the love that was ours from birth. Just the other day, I was told in jest to harden up, and I thought to myself, why would I trade in all the beauty in the world, just so that I may compare myself to a rock.

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