To heel or not to heel? Oh, lordy, that IS a question!
Firstly, please excuse me by making today's blog all me, me, me! I had intended to present some facts and information about wearing heels versus not wearing heels so that I could present both sides of an argument and allow you to decided for yourself.
But it's such a pertinent issue for me personally at the moment that I just can't look at objectively enough. So while I do indeed intend to provide a more factual side about heels and alignment, I hope that today's blog highlights that sometimes facts can't change feelings and truly aligning oneself is more than just the physical.
So let me get on with being all me, me, me and tell you about my 'journey in heels'....
Even as recent as a month ago I was a big fan of wearing heels. Of my 9 pairs of shoes, 7 had a heel of at least 1 inch. It was my standard out of work look, along with a skirt and girly top. I loved the feeling of femininity and tallness and being the complete opposite of the sporty tomboy in trainers that was my constant look for so many years.
I often said that being able to walk happily and pain free in heels was one of the unexpected side benefits that pilates had given me, along with 'growing' almost 2 inches in height! From pilates, I understood my relationship with the ground, and my feet, better, I had a greater stability and a more centred balance overall. I was actually quite determined to do a workshop one day on helping women to wear heels.
Although I had read many an article about heels being bad for your alignment and I knew the science, I figured that the good feelings that I had from wearing heels far out weighed any negative physical effects. However, I did actively work at recovering from wearing heels! I stretched my calves after an evening in them and massaged the arches of my foot to relieve the build up in muscular tension from wearing them. And I worked on movements to enhance my stability on both flat feet and raised heels. All were worth it as far as I was concerned for the feeling of joy I had when wearing heels.
A couple of months ago I started working with a new therapist to help me with my sacral alignment. I have never felt that it is fully what it can be. I no longer have any symptoms of the original sacro-illiac joint disfunction which first brought me to pilates, and to all intents and purposes the joints appear to function well. I've never felt however that the functioning is as easy as it could be and I know that subconsciously I am working hard to keep my sacrum positioned in a place that 'appears good'.
The wonderful fascia work that we are doing is indeed unravelling these compensations and last week I finally had a tailbone with freedom and space, allowing my sacrum to sit in an easier and happier place.
Well, the day after our last session, I popped on a pair of wedges to tootle around town. An hour later I was in a shoe shop, buying a pair of completely flat shoes to put on immediately. The tail bone that I was lamenting and loving had been shoved to one side and my fluidly moving sacrum had been scrunched up into my lower back. Those newly gliding sacroiliac joints were crunching about in half the space they really enjoyed. My whole alignment was screaming 'What are you doing? This isn't nice and YOU. KNOW. IT!'. Oh the relief to have popped on a pair of flats again and brought space back to my pelvis and lower back!
So, the result of my lovely new tailbone and sacrum positioning? I not longer want to wear heels! Oh lordy, indeed!
I am both gutted at and accepting of this new awareness. Finally all the alignment science makes sense to my body and I understand why I would never ever want to put myself into a pair of heels ever again. Yet, at the same time, I am mourning the loss of the girly girl in heels that I so loved.
What I do know about myself though is that I'm a natural girl, always have been. I believe the body is its own powerful healer if given the chance and support to do so. I believe that our alignment, our nutrition and our self talk are key players in our health, happiness and healing. But I also feel that each person must choose how they live their life and so there is often a balance to be made. Until last week I wasn't prepared to give up my heels but I worked hard at regaining my alignment after wearing them to return me to my more natural state. That was my balance. This week I know in my heart that they are not really who I am and I'm not prepared to work hard at realigning myself anymore when I simply need to stop wearing them. More so, how can I wear heels knowing what it is doing to my sacrum, and all the ramifications that come from that? It goes against all my integrity.
But in the last couple of days I have started to ask myself what I am really missing out on by not wearing heels? A feeling of femininity, elegance, and poise? Surely that says far more about my own self perception than my being in heels! Really what I have come to understand is that I'm leaving behind the remnant memory of the sporty tomboy I once was, with my short hair, trainers and tough 'you can't harm me' exterior. That girl was never the person on the inside, just someone I needed to be at one point in my life. My heels therefore were my own symbol to myself that I was no longer playing out that old tomboy persona. But they were actually just another persona. I AM feminine, I FEEL feminine, and surely that runs so much beyond what I put on my feet....?
So flat shoes, I embrace you because you feel good, you allow me to move as I am meant to, and actually when I think about it....
"you make me feel... you make me feel.... you make me feel like a natural woman.... " Like the woman that I actually am :-)
So, with that said, tomorrow I do fully intend to give you some facts on heels and alignment (written with feeling behind the facts though, I may add!) ;-)
Til tomorrow then..... :-)
CT x :-)
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