Monday, November 22, 2010

Barefoot Fridays!

Several years ago one of the girl* dorms at Liberty University began a tradition called Barefoot Fridays. Each Friday the girls of that dorm ditch their shoes and spend the entire day barefoot. What a fantastic idea! One that the whole nation should adopt as a new American tradition.

For many of us, shoes are not a daily requirement – not for physical reasons anyway. If you don’t work, safely spending the day barefoot can be just as simple as kicking off your shoes and leaving them off. Even many jobs do not require shoes for safety reasons. If we’re honest, the only reason shoes are “required” is to acquiesce to our cultural ‘shoe rule.’ Whether you work in an office, a classroom or in retail, ask yourself when and why you really need footwear on the job. Could it be possible to actually work barefoot?

If your place of employment is not yet ready to accept full-time barefoot employees, maybe they are willing to adopt Barefoot Fridays. Many businesses already allow a relaxed dress code on Fridays, why not extend that courtesy to our feet? Why not give our feet just one day each week to breathe? Why not one day of the week to give our shoes a vacation and our feet the benefit of a full-day workout? Ask your boss if Barefoot Fridays could be an option at your workplace, and remind him or her that 90% of our foot problems in America can be traced back to the shoe; healthier feet could translate into healthier and more productive employees. If you are the boss, give Barefoot Fridays a try for your employees, at least for a month or two and then re-evaluate the policy.

We’ve all heard the oracle: “Everything in moderation.” When it comes to footwear, however, we are far from moderate. With just a few exceptions we wear shoes all day, every day, everywhere we go and for everything we do. Adopting Barefoot Fridays could be a great way to give our feet some sensible barefoot time.

This Friday, go barefoot! When others ask you about it just say, “Haven’t you heard? It’s Barefoot Friday!”

*Liberty University has separate male and female dorms.

7 comments:

  1. Barefoot fridays could become an educational concept for schools. To prepare children for weekend, they should do barefoot exercises like sensory experience, foot gymnastics, barefoot sports etc.
    In addition they can get informed about appropriate foot care, hygiene and cosmetics. All this is not much effort!

    I can contribute experience with dozens of barefoot sensation trails. I described this on my website http://www.barfusspark.info/en/path.html

    Feel good, live unshod, Lorenz Kerscher

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  2. I work in IT and our dress policy is fairly relaxed. I went from shoes to flipflops, and now I am barefoot in the office all the time. My coworkers have gotten used to it and I feel a lot more relaxed.

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  4. Barefoot Fridays! As you can imagine, having one of those "bare footed Fridays" is actually not unusual in NYC (or anywhere else) these days. In fact I'm pretty sure it's just an ever increasing trend with this city that probably goes without saying since there are a handful or so venues out there on every day: bars and restaurants open to the public at whatever hour they choose. PHD dissertation editing services So where do we draw the line between bare feet and wearing some sort as tacky clothing? Well for starters let me explain what exactly constitutes any kind taint while showing your basic sense about normal wear during such times.

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Welcome to The Barefoot Professor blog, intelligent talk about running, walking and living barefoot. I encourage your comments, even if you disagree with me. In this spirit I don't even moderate the comments. However, PLEASE use critical thinking skills when leaving comments, and avoid inflammatory words. Please keep your comments short and to-the-point. THANKS.