Saturday, June 16th (1:00-3:00pm)
$30/in advance ($35/at the door)

For the Love of your BARE Feet
When shoes don’t fit, they cause discomfort and negatively affect your health. The obvious solution is to limit yourself to shoes that fit. The less obvious solution is to also go without shoes for at least some portions of your day.

We’ll discuss the myriad of foot problems that can be helped by spending time bare-footed. Then, we’ll work to increase the flexibility, strength, and agility in our feet. We’ll cover the facts and figures such as 1) there are more nasty microbes inside your shoes than there are outside on the ground, 2) pronation is a natural movement of feet, and 3) one solution to fallen arches is to walk barefoot.

When was the last time you went barefoot? Maybe when you were a child? In these early weeks of summer, it is the perfect time to reconnect with the value of being shoeless. Our Portland sidewalks have warmed up and are ready and waiting for you to explore a whole new (old) world. The awareness training and sensory benefits of going barefoot are enough to make it a worthwhile activity, and your posture and your overall health will improve as well.

You’ll go home with abundant ways to reconnect and support your feet and your life. In a warm, accepting, and non-judgmental atmosphere, you’ll get the opportunity to meet your feet, like you did when you were a child.

Come take your shoes off and discover anew what it means to twiddle your toes.

Info about Kim Cottrell:

Kim Cottrell, an educator for 30 years and a certified Feldenkrais® practitioner for over 15 years, has helped countless women live more comfortably by enhancing their posture, resilience, and self-image. She has witnessed the power of an increase in self-awareness to bring ease and self-liking into women’s lives. The author of A Body Like Hers: Reflections on an Inheritance, and a chapter in Wise Women Speak: Changes Along the Path, Kim teaches Feldenkrais classes and workshops in Portland and the Northwest, writes regularly for WalkAbout Magazine, and blogs on A Healthy Stepmother and Feldenkrais Notes.

“These days, after almost 20 years of study and practice, my teaching and writing are focused on awareness, communication, personal health, and prevention. Life’s challenges have inspired me to teach workshops such as A Body Like Hers, Living Inside Your Skin, Mindful Walking, and Walking Your Grief, all in an environment rich with learning and discovery.

My life has been profoundly affected by the learning and understanding I’ve gained through my studies of behavior. Prior to my introduction to the Feldenkrais Method, I had a background rich with cognitive theory, memory literature, behavior modification, communication disorders/remediation, and educational principles. But it was only by participating in the actual sensory-motor experience that is the learning environment of the Feldenkrais Method that I could begin to fully grasp the ramifications for my own life, and that of my students.
I do not purport to fix my students. I do not make them better. This is a vital distinction in my mind. I act as a conduit and facilitator, literally as part of the learning environment. My students and I work together. Together we explore what it means to have a certain posture, a certain view of the world, and to discover the many options those postures and views offer up.”

Read more about Kim and her work at her website: www.kimcottrell.com

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