Self-Care Tip #5: Take Care of Your Feet

Until You Can Get a Massage…Self-Care Tip #5: Take Care of Your Feet

What are y’all doing to take care of yourselves? My stepdaughter came home on Saturday and we’ve had lots of good family time. We did some baking and cooking, playing outside, swinging in the hammocks, cleaning house. I’m in the midst of getting used to a new routine with another human in the house. I’ve gone on some long solitary walks, written in my journal, zoom-chatted with some friends.

It’s going to be a couple more weeks until Mama Jane Massage opens again. The Association of Bodywork and Massage Professionals (ABMP) sent out their list of recommended guidelines for massage therapists returning to work. Their recommendations are so long and complicated it would be amusing if this wasn’t such a serious matter. I will include their recommendations in my guidelines for returning to work, and will send out updated information on that in the next week or so.

Until you can get a massage again, I’ll just keep on sending out weekly self-care tips. This week I want to focus on taking care of your feet. Often neglected and mistreated, our feet need lots of love and care, especially during times of stress.

Our feet are full of little bones and joints, muscles, ligaments, tendons and fascia. Due to the shoes we wear and improper gait, most of the joints in our feet don’t get the range of motion they need and crave, causing the muscles, ligaments and fascia to bind together. This can cause pain, inflammation, misalignment and injury in our feet and also other parts of our body.

Luckily, there are many ways to take care of our feet at home!

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DIY Foot Soaks & Scrubs

Foot soaks and scrubs are super easy to make and they are great at increasing circulation and showing your feet some love, and you probably have a lot of the ingredients already! I recommend soaking your feet first, then the scrub, then soaking again in hot water to get all the scrub off, ending with a cool water rinse.

If you don’t want to make your own, support a local business and buy some of the best foot soaks, scrubs and lotions from MoonDance Botanicals!

DIY Foot Soaks:

For all of these you will need a foot tub or washbasin filled with enough hot water to reach your ankles. Always make sure the water isn’t hot enough to burn your feet before soaking.

Baking Soda & Lemon Foot Soak
Simple and effective!

• 1/3 cup Baking Soda
• Juice from half a lemon
• 6 tsp vegetable-based oil (olive, avocado, etc.)

Epsom Salt Foot Soak
A classic foot soak that can be customized with essential oils and herbs

• ½ cup Epsom salts – dissolve in hot water before adding the other ingredients
• 6 tsp vegetable-based oil
• 5-20 drops of Essential Oil: Any will work, but I like lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus, rosemary, tea tree or lemon
• Optional: Add dried herbs – lavender, rose, chamomile; Don’t have those but have some herbal teas? Use the contents of the tea bags instead. Or use some herbs from your spice rack – oregano, basil, thyme and rosemary have lots of great healing properties.

NOTE: If you don’t have Epsom salts, you can substitute it for ¼ cup of Apple Cider Vinegar

Warming Foot Soak
Perfect for cold tootsies or if you need some extra circulation for your feet.

• ½ cup freshly grated ginger – steep this in boiling water for 5 minutes before adding it to your tub of hot water
• 6 tsp. vegetable-based oil
• Optional: 5-20 drops of essential oil – lemon or lemongrass make a great complement to the ginger

DIY Foot Scrub:

Did you know I make my own foot scrub for my Fancy Reflexology and Ultimate Self-Care Treatment sessions? It’s super easy and all-natural!

• Two tablespoons organic brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon organic honey
• 2 tablespoons jojoba oil (you can use any vegetable-based carrier oil)
• Optional: 5 drops of an essential oil you like

Mix it together and it makes enough for a one-time scrub. Have a tub of hot water available to soak your feet afterwards to remove the scrub from your feet, then finish with a cool water rinse.

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Massage Tools for Self-Foot Massage

After a foot soak and scrub is the perfect time to do a little self-foot massage. Your feet are one of the only body parts that we can massage pretty well on our own. But there are also lots of easy tools you can use to get into the muscles, tendons, ligaments and fascia of the feet.

It feels great to roll the soles of your feet over a golf ball or tennis ball – and it’s likely something you already have at home. Start by standing barefoot on a yoga mat, place the golf or tennis ball on the floor and then gently step on it with your feet. Roll the ball, arch and heel of your foot across the golf or tennis ball, using gentle pressure from your body weight to sink in as much as feels good. Golf balls don’t have much give, so be careful putting too much weight on one too soon.

Be sure to roll the ball from side to side on the ball of your foot to get some good joint mobilization in your feet, too!

You can find some simple videos for this here:

How To Foam Roll the Bottom of Your Foot
How to Use the Nano Roller for Foot Pain

You can also use massage balls that are made for your feet, like a Rubz ball or soft foam ball – you can find these here:

Find Rubz Balls
Find Other Foot Massage Balls

Another alternative is to freeze a plastic bottle of water, and roll it under your foot for some added anti-inflammatory properties.

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Yoga Poses for Feet

Yoga is a great way to strengthen and stretch your feet and increase mobilization in your foot joints. Here are some great videos I love that show you what to do:

5-Minute Yoga Feet Stretches – Yoga with Kassandra
Yoga for the Feet – Yoga with Adriene
Foot & Toe Stretches – Heart & Bones Yoga

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Walk Barefoot or with Soft-Soled Shoes

Most of us walk the majority of our lives on flat surfaces while wearing hard-soled shoes. Your feet crave joint mobilization, and a good way to get that is to walk barefoot outside on uneven terrain. Obviously don’t walk somewhere where you could hurt or cut your feet, but grassy spaces and areas that have various sized smooth rocks are great places to walk barefoot. Hiking trails are great places to find uneven terrain for your feet – for hiking trails consider getting some soft-sole shoes – like moccasins – that allow you protection from sharp rocks and gravel on the ground but allow your foot to conform to the ground below.