Barefoot Balance: Getting a Grip on What Serves You

By Lisa Berry

An hour-long drive in Toronto traffic, very tricky parking, and all the anticipation of taking the first step toward transforming my entire life in this very session, and my first lesson was on standing?

This could not be right; I knew how to stand, or did I?

I won’t keep you in suspense: I did not know how to stand; at least not in a way that gave me power, that felt effortless, that actually brought me comfort and ease.

Remember when you were a little kid and you had to be somewhere with your parents, or do something at school, and you had to stand for way longer than you wanted? And your body just started to fail you? You’d start crumpling up and get cranky and ornery and tired?

Well, when I learned how to stand in this magical way, I discovered that now I had the power to make all of those uncomfortable physical and emotional feelings disappear! From that day forward, I knew how to generate stability, steadiness,and balance in all areas of my life. I compensated and adjusted when external factors threw me off all from re-learning how to stand.

Posture as a Window into the Self
Posture was something my mom was always on us girls for. I thank her now for all, and I do mean all, those times she poked us or sharply said, “sit up”; but, boy oh boy, it was hard work. Perfect posture gives you a better appearance, is better for your physical health, and improves your breathing; but, to achieve and hold that noble stance, there are muscles that need to be strengthened, poor habits that need to be dropped, and an alignment that needs to happen.

I’m always amazed by the power of “standing tall,” the strength that comes from being in a beautiful upright position. I’m also acutely aware of the loss of power, the decreased energy, and the negative shift in my own emotional balance when I slouch.

Slouching is a side effect, a symptom, a tell-tale sign of your well being and vibration. Think about a time when you were excited, you heard happy news, or you were on your way to a highly anticipated destination. Can you remember how tall and strong you were standing? Or even sitting? You felt so tall that you could just reach up and touch the stars, and your body would show it. Now imagine, aargh, receiving bad news: a radio announcement of unexpected heavy traffic on your way home, the cancellation of an event, a lottery ticket you thought was a winner but isn’t. What is it that immediately happens? You drop, you slouch, you lose the energy to hold yourself up.

Let’s go even deeper with that idea: Imagine that you’re living a life filled with disappointment, sadness, unfulfilled dreams, physical tiredness or pain, discontent with your career or the social circle you’ve chosen. Those feelings can hold you in a crumpled, low, and disempowered posture.

The great news is that, while feelings can affect your posture, your posture can also affect your feelings. You really can shift into a confident, energized, and happier state of mind by simply adjusting your posture. If you allow your breath to flow through you and calm your nervous system, if you allow the balance of your physical self to float and expand, you can use your body to help stabilize and balance out your emotional state. With regular practice, Barefoot Balance can actually re-establish your well being. Now, surely, I had walking down pat, right? I not only had decades of good old-fashioned walking experience, I even thought I might have an edge seeing as I had taken modelling lessons, been up on the runway a few times, and repeatedly practiced both high heeled and fashion footwear struts. Again,no suspense here, I did not know how to walk, at least not in a way that generated and circulated a life force through me with every step. In a way that positioned my heart to beam out love and prepare me to be in a state ready for receiving. A way to walk that positioned my eyes so I would see the world’s beauty as I made a connection with mother nature and other beautiful creatures.

Re-pouring My Foundation
In order to regain my balance on an energetic level, I needed to get a grip on how I was living my everyday life, right down to my very structural positions.

My daily life was filling up with so many little things that upset me or made me unhappy that they were beginning to have a negative impact on me. A pimple one day, my car not starting the next, a client not showing up for a session, the internet connection going down, bills coming in left, right and centre, a fight with my boyfriend. These are “normal,” everyday occurrences, but I was dealing with them negatively. I wasn’t coming from a place of self-love, in fact I was being really hard on myself; even kind of mean. I called myself “ugly” when I saw the pimple, I felt “poor” because I had an older car, I felt “disrespected” when a client missed a session, I got angry and started ridiculous explanations for my internet problems, and I didn’t feel worthy of love when I had a fight with my guy.

But it wasn’t just the little things that were adding up. You see, back in 2009, I was on my fifteenth attempt at making a home in less than ten years. Stability seemed impossible for me.

My life had become positively anorexic, as the bags I lugged around with me got lighter with every move. I figured that the less stuff I had, the more I could control it, the less I would have to lose and, by extension, the less I would be hurt.  But, that kind of weightlessness isn’t grounded and doesn’t really feel safe.

Here I was, a published writer, a regular television guest and contributor, as well as an established holistic nutritionist and life coach; but I was lonely, hopeless, and depressed. There was no Om in my life, I had pinched myself off and was so far out of balance that stability, connection, and happiness were light years away, if not totally out of reach. I had been hiding, shrinking away, hunching my shoulders to protect my heart; bowing my head down from the feeling of brokenness, helplessness, and depression. My disconnection showed in my posture.

Slowly, I began to identify with the idea of “having nothing but myself” but along with it came the dichotomy of enjoying the freedom while suffering and mourning each move like a death and failure. Selfish, withdrawn, and scared, I pulled away from everything. Simultaneously, I desperately and fruitlessly tried to grasp for anything that might offer a sense of control. It became clear that I would have to gain true control over my life to serve my highest self, which I could sense was still in me somewhere.During that dark period, I’m not sure I believed that I’d ever see the light. When I say “see the light” I am referring to my own light. I was so dim, so sad. There was no joy, no ray of light or life beaming from me.

What I soon learned, is that it wasn’t a vicious circle that I was stuck in, it was in fact a long ugly chain of negative emotions all linked together in a straight line. I needed to start reforging it into a beautiful loving chain, one link at a time.

A belief is a thought that we’ve repeated so many times in our minds that we’ve come to accept it as truth. We now operate or act from that belief (thought). I went back to basics and realized that by starting my day off in a slouch, a defeated stance, an uninspired, reclusive posture, I was more likely to respond to everything in my life with the corresponding attitude. So, I went for it! I put into practice the daily habit of Barefoot Balance. Everyday, I started out standing tall, feeling firm and confident, allowing the effortless flow of breath to come and go so I could give and receive. I wish I had learned this practice so much earlier in my life.

From Dim to Shiny
What helped me to harness that very sense of believing I could indeed step into my highest power, was the inspiration I received from the up-lifters, teachers, and role models I found on the Internet and that 90 minute yoga session where I learned how to stand on my own two feet, with my entire body and soul.

My focal point, my goal, was no longer to find the right home or the right relationship, it was to nurture, grow, and experience life in the now. Piercing through my darkness and shining light on what would become my stable and trusted path, was my connection to my Om. My sacred Om where all things I manifested began in vibrational form (Om is the most elemental vibration and has one origin of being a seed sound, where all things manifested began in vibrational form and continue to contain that frequency).

I could never have seen it coming. In a single moment, with one breakthrough, my life changed in a big positive way for the second time. I learned how to stand. I learned how to be. I learned how to allow life-force to flow through me and to feel energized at the same time! The breakthrough I experienced was a realization that what I needed was “choice and responsibility for my highest self” and that that started with how I stood physically, what I stood for personally, and how easily I could do both when I was aligned with my inner self. This connection between our physical bodies and our emotional states, when balanced, is truly effortless. It’s weightless and pleasurable.

Stacking Stance
I’d love for you to experience it, and here’s an easy exercise you can try. I call this the ’Stacking Stance’. Did you ever play with blocks? Stacking one block on top of another to build the highest tower that you could? Not all of the pieces were the same size but you found that you could lean one block a little this way and shift another block a little that way. Do you remember that your first, grounding, foundational block was always centered? What about the monkey chain game? Well that first monkey always had to be secure as he swung about. Finding the centre in your own physical balance can also help you to experience effortless, powerful, and trustworthy balance in your mental and emotional areas of life.

To do the Stacking Stance follow these steps:

1. Get barefoot.
2. Comfortably plant your feet on the ground, about hip width apart and balanced with a little more weight in the heels than the toes.
3. Tilt your pelvis slightly by tucking in your tush; you’ll feel relief on your lower back.
4. Pull back your shoulders to open up the chest and heart area, and stand nice and tall, not bending forward or backward.
5. Pull down your shoulder blades and drop your shoulders away from your ears.
6. Tighten your quadriceps, your thigh muscles, as if you’re pulling them off of your kneecaps.
7. Soften your face muscles, forehead, jaw. Relax your eyes and eyelids to a low gaze but leave them open slightly.
8. Find the balancing point of your head on your neck. Let it wobble around til it feels like it’s floating.
9. Exhale, then slowly breathe in your nose and out through your mouth as if you were blowing through a straw.
10. Expel all your air until you feel your abdominal (tummy) muscles engage then hold the contracted position until you breathe in your next breath comfortably.
11. Notice the blood drain from your arms to fill your fingertips that have most likely been elevated all day while working.
12. As you find yourself stacked beautifully, you’ll simply be in pure balanced form, effortlessly erect, and exerting minimal energy.
13. Enjoy this peaceful posture for a few moments and as often as you can.

Coming Back to Life

Learning to stand barefoot was absolutely the perfect place forme to start harnessing my feelings of “groundedness,”connection, and, more importantly, safety! It gave me back my balance; allowed me to feel the gifts locked inside me. My Barefoot Balance brought me back to life.

The way that balance has impacted my life so far, is that it has secured and steadied me for almost ten years, now, in the same “home”: my sacred Om, which is always with me and always welcomes company. Barefoot Balance has supported my heart’s balance.

What I learned in that first yoga lesson, was that balance is a person’s perfect state of being; one that is effortless and allows flow. One that feels good, even pleasurable.

Allow your authentic state of being to shine through, explore which core values and beliefs might be in conflict with each other, and which ones are serving you, so you can live your life as your highest, best self. Use the Stacking Stance to experience your Barefoot Balance and feel the ease with which opportunities arise for you to create a rejuvenated and balanced life.

Lessons Learned:

1. How we stand reflects how we are feeling in the moment.Our posture tells a story, a tale of attitude, beliefs, daily practices, and connections.
2. We can use our awareness of our physical presentation and use its power to remain in balance.
3. As we become clearer on what serves us, on what feels good and is effortless for our bodies, our goals become much easier to define as well as achieve.
4. To be outstanding we need to stand out by living with passion. Standing in a balanced and grounded manner supports our heart and promotes our breathing. It also keeps us stable and unshakable.

Mindset Tips:

1. Posture affects mindset and state. The world throws stuff at us all day long and self- correction is us choosing a better way.
2. Do regular posture checks, to empower, love, nurture, and motivate yourself.
3. Get back on track with your goals and/or get back into alignment with your beliefs, by adjusting your posture.
4. To restore energy and lift spirits: lift your head, so your chin is parallel to the ground, and look up.
5. To lessen stress and anxiety: drop your shoulders, breathe deeply and slowly.
6. To relieve overwhelm:  tuck in your tush and tighten your abdominals to relieve low back pressure.

About Lisa Berry

Lisa Berry is an expert in breathing life into the dreams of authors who want to express their stories and messages vibrantly and energetically through being interviewed and interviewing. A #1 best-selling author, she is also a successful international radio show host and podcaster.

As a writer, Lisa draws on her own experience to create short stories that she offers up to her readers as “coachable moments” in the hopes of making an uplifting and life-affirming connection with them, whatever their circumstances.

As a host, she creates space for conscious conversations that are broadcasted globally, which promotes worldwide holistic happiness and connection. She also coaches other show hosts on how to deliver exceptional experiences to their audiences by helping them to produce individual podcast episodes as well as entire series.

Using wellness for all as her guiding star, Lisa’s life passion is to find, help, and connect with those who need and want to shine.

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