Thursday, October 12, 2017

EXCUSE #2 : I COULD STEP ON SOMETHING SHARP.

Yes, you could. At least in the beginning, you could certainly step on something sharp and hurt yourself. But it is not nearly as big a concern as you think. Why?
Because when you start walking barefoot, you are hyper-vigilant. Barefoot walking and aware-foot walking. You have two eyes and you are using them to look for anything in your path. Over the first few weeks you'll know the location of every stick, stone, seam, and crack on your path. When you are barefoot, you are walking awarefoot. It is good. You'll be in the moment, incredibly focused and mindful of each step and everything before you. Your eyes will keep you safe as you scour the ground. 

  Soon enough, glass will become no more than a sharp pebble, something that you'll feel underfoot but that won't cut your feet. Over time you'll find it is not the glass that gets you, but sometimes a tiny thorn, or if you're in cactus country a barb or goathead.
Image result for goathead

⇧ Goathead 

⇩ "Touch-me-not"
Image result for touch me not plant

All of these are minor, sometimes requiring you to stop for a minute or a bit more. But none of them is the type of catastrophic injury we think about going barefoot walking outdoor.

FOOT NOTE
Keep a Sharp Eye Out for Rock Salt

We're often asked about the worst injury we've sustained when walking barefoot or running barefoot. we cut our feet while going barefoot on rock-salt-treated pavement in the winter. 

Image result for rock-salt-treated pavement

Image result for rock-salt-treated pavement


Image result for rock-salt-treated pavement

While salt id often applied on roads, sidewalk, and steps during winter to melt ice and keep people from slipping, rock salt wreaks havoc on bare feet, canine feet inclusive. See photo above.

  Why? Well, when it's dry, rock salt is sharp and hurts like the dickens.
Image result for rock-salt  sharp

  If it's wet, it acts as a meat-tenderizer, softening the skin, thus making our human feet susceptible to normally benign road hazard while walking barefoot. A piece of glass that normally would never bother a barefoot walker now poses a potential painful threat.


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