Feet and Hands: The Unsung Heros of Your Yoga Practice
Written by LJ
Our feet and hands can hold a lot of tension – more than we usually notice. These hardworking areas carry us, ground us, and connect us to the world around us, yet they’re often overlooked. This month in the Funky Buddha Yoga studio, we’re focused on relieving any tension and showing appreciation to our most distal (far away) parts!
Stiffness in the feet and hands can disrupt flow throughout the body, leading to restricted movement, balance issues, back and joint pain, and decreased sensitivity (we want our hands and feet to be sensitive!). This tension can also affect joint stability, reducing our ability to root down in standing poses balance in standing postures, or extend fully in forward bends. Beyond the physical benefits, releasing this tension and focusing on how our hands/feet are doing what they do, encourages overall mind-body connection. When we take time to care for our hands and feet, we enhance our sense of grounding, stability, and mindfulness—key components in both our yoga practice and our overall wellness.
Why the Funk do they carry tension?
We often think about, or more readily notice, the aches of larger muscle groups and body areas, but it isn’t until after we’ve typed an entire blog post (😉) that we notice the pressure in our knuckles. We sometimes need to take off our shoes to realize just how sore our toes are!
While these unsung heroes carry us and support nearly every pose, we often forget just how much they endure daily. Think about it: our feet bear our weight, keep us balanced, and connect us to the ground, while our hands grip, hold, carry, and are intensely sensitive. Over time, these parts of our body accumulate tension and stiffness, affecting our overall mobility, posture, and even mental clarity.
So, now I notice my extremities are tense… What the Funk do I do?
Let’s take a peek at 5 easy and effective ways to show your feet and hands the tending they deserve.
1. Toe Articulations (a.k.a. “Piano Toes”)
Start in a comfortable seat, feet flat on the ground, and spread your toes as wide as possible, then lift each toe individually in a “piano key” motion. Begin from your pinky toe to your big toe, then reverse. It’s totally fine if your toes are just kind of stuck together at first; that’s just an indicator that your feet need a little more love! This motion strengthens toe flexibility and dexterity, helps prevent foot cramping, and fosters a strong connection to the earth, which supports stability in standing postures!
(anyone else remember that quote from BONES “Dancingggg Phalangesss”? No? Just me still in love with cringey-2000s-crime-dramas? Anyway…)
2. Finger Splits
If you’ve ever felt hand or wrist stiffness in poses like Downward Dog, this exercise is for you! Extend one hand and gently pull your pointer finger toward you as you press your other fingers down and away from you. Repeat on each finger and hand, focusing on the sensation of space and relief in each finger. This stretch releases tension in your fingers and promotes healthy blood flow.
3. Self-Myofascial Release
Oh, you thought we were done after last month? As if!
Using a small massage ball (or a tennis ball), roll it under your feet or palms, applying gentle, pressure. This self-massage technique loosens tight fascia—the connective tissue surrounding muscles—and relieves stored tension. Try rolling in circular motions for a nice massage or applying sustained pressure for 60-90 seconds on areas that give moderate feedback. This can improve circulation, help with tight tendons in the feet, and relieve achy hands and wrists from repetitive motions.
4. Holding Feet!
It’s like holding hands with a loved one, but potentially stinkier 😉
If accessible for your body, sit comfortably and interlace your fingers in the spaces of your opposite foot (think, palm to sole). Slowly widen your fingers and toes alternating with a goooood squeeze. Alternatively, if reaching to hold your toes is uncomfortable, try them individually! It’s like crunches, for your toe beans. This stretch works wonders for those who struggle with cramped or tight feet, especially during balancing poses.
5. Hand Splaying on the Yoga Mat
Before beginning your practice, try a quick warm-up by pressing your hands flat into the mat, facing forward, and spreading your fingers wide. Try beginning in tabletop, hands and knees- then lean forward slightly, pressing each fingertip into the mat. Give yourself a few breaths, then try rotating your wrists to point fingers to each side- bonus! Warm up your wrists by adding some slight circular motion. This grounding exercise can help prepare your hands for poses like Plank or Crow, where wrists and fingers work extra hard, and can optimize weight distribution in poses like Downward Dog!
These practices make a big difference and deepen the foundation of your yoga journey. Step up, hands down, and give it a try! Integrating them into your daily routine doesn’t take long but can make a world of difference.
Our hands and feet may seem like minor players, but they play a massive role in how we move, balance, and connect with our environment. Giving these areas the care they deserve not only benefits our yoga practice but enhances daily life. So, next time you roll out your yoga mat, or even sit down at your desk, take a few extra moments to warm up or release your hands and feet. Your whole body—and mind—will thank you!
The 8 Limbs of Yoga: Samadhi
Written by Larissa
We’ve been exploring the 8 Limbs of Yoga for a few months now, beginning with the Yamas and Niyamas, which are the foundations of our way of being and then our actions. Following the wisdom of the Limbs, we added movement, breath, and sensory awareness, then last month Concentration and Open Awareness This month we land on the 8th and final Limb, Samadhi: Bliss and Freedom. Yes, please!
First, let’s revisit the 8 Limbs as a whole.
The 8 Limbs & Why They’re Important
The 8 Limbs can be broken into 3 broad categories:
- How to navigate the world, inner and outer
- Limbs 1 & 2: Yamas and Niyamas
- How to take care of your body and energy
- Limbs 3, 4, & 5:Asana (to sit, to pose), Pranayama (breath work, life force expansion), Pratyahara (sense withdrawal/enhancement)
- How to take care of your mind and spirit
- Limbs 6, 7, & 8: Dharana (pointed concentration), Dhyana (open awareness), Samadhi (freedom, bliss, wholeness). These 3 together are sometimes called the “Innermost Quest”
The purpose of the 8 Limbs is to give us concepts to understand through practice and ponder practical tools to apply to life.
What Does Samadhi Mean?
Ooooh, this one is a doozie to try to translate into just one word! It is a blending of a few Sanskrit roots: “sam” meaning complete whole or together, “sama” means equal. “Dhi” is consciousness, and “dadhati” means to put or to place.
Samadhi can mean concentration of the mind, connection of consciousness, or simply joining together. It is the place where nothing is disconnected from you. You are in a state of complete wholeness, nothing lacking, nothing needed. You are not too much, nor too little. This is freedom; it happens in tiny, miniscule moments, that require our attention and tending.
Other translations:
- Total Self-Togetherness
- A common favorite: BLISS
Samadhi isn’t about being perfect but seeking those moments of “perfect” ease and abiding in them. These moments come after moving your energy wisely, practicing self compassion, focusing your attention, and going deeper into the Safe Refuge inside of yourself- until you remember the freedom of simply being alive. No pretense, no expectations, just pure aliveness in a state of freedom.
What’s Next?
Experience! Unfortunately, we don’t just arrive at Samadhi or enlightenment without lots of practice. Trying to declare Enlightenment is like Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy by just… yelling the word BANKRUPTCY!!! Practice and action are needed.
And not just more ‘doing’, but more action to find the Safe Refuge inside of you:
- More saying no so you can say yes to rest
- More sitting with yourself with gentleness rather than judgement
- Practice of going deeper into the quietude of your own heart, to find the truest version of you
- Rememberence of times of great peace, like visualizing that sunset in its brilliance
- Cultivating great peace, like a perfectly situated savasana
- Regular movement and stillness
- Tending to our Safe Refuge & showing Self Compassion
These regular moments of Samadhi in your life become more accessible, more abundant, and stay for longer periods of time. The whole 8 Limb system is meant to move us toward the ultimate goal of yoga: Freedom (Jivanmukti, liberation while still in the body). It’s said that a Jivanmukta, a person who’s reached this state through the practice of yoga, has perfect equanimity and contentment.
This looks like: unwavering peace, deep abiding joy, bliss, and mercy. It is exquisite gentleness, and is free from doubt, ego, greed, and fear.
This doesn’t mean there are no more issues in life, life continues with all of its bobbles and loveliness, but a Jivanmukta is no longer swayed by every single external event. Your ability to hold both suffering and immense joy increases, so you are no longer bound by trying to cling to joy or avoid suffering; you are simply and fully living.
Try this: Take a deep breath. Thank your lungs for filling with air and thank your body for knowing what to do with the oxygen. As you exhale, allow your body to soften, feet, legs, belly, eyes- soften. This is existence. This is Bliss. There’s nothing more needed. See if you can try this often, and over time, begin to trust in the truth that your pure existence is enough. Just right, exactly as you are.
One of my favorite non-yoga quotes that encompasses Samadhi is from Etty Hillesum, written in the time before she died in a concentration camp at Aushwitz:
“Through me course wide rivers and in me rise tall mountains. And beyond the thickets of my agitation and confusion there stretch the wide plains of my peace and surrender. All landscapes are within me. And there is room for everything. The earth is in me, and the sky.”
~ Etta Hillesum
If you’d like to dive deeper, we invite you to join us for our monthly meditation circle!
Check out our Youtube for an overview of these concepts or a meditation practice to try them on <3
As always, we hope that you join us M-F at 7:30am for Funky Buddha Yoga’s free, live, virtual meditation to learn more practices, nuances, and dive deeper into a plethora of tools that can bring your practice off your mat and into your daily life <3
