My first post on the barefoot forum, hi New here so I thought I'd say a bit about barefooting in my life. I started going for barefoot walks a couple years ago because A: I read an article about a woman who goes barefoot everywhere and I wanted to give it a try, and B: I read that it helps with depression and makes people feel good, and it's definitely helped with me I only go bf when I'm on my own walking, haven't got the courage to go bf in public yet, but I love feeling the earth underfoot, especially mud, and I also love snow, it feels so exhilarating to walk through!
Yer "preachin' to the choir." I live in Iowa, which is generally a boring state, but there are numerous state parks, nature preserves and such...and they generally have soft and/or squishy trails. As opposed to the Rocky Mountains. Beautiful, but there's a reason they're call the "Rockies." Although you could find alpine meadows that were a delight! Soft grasses with little steams running through them. The city I live in has a little lake with a trail around it. It used to be a delight until they decided to "improve" it by graveling the far side, which previously was just dirt/mud. The main side is a paved walkway, which is OK...or you can walk to the side on the grass.
Welcome! Barefooting is wonderful, and you'll find plenty of kindred spirits here. There's a hundred reasons why walking barefoot is awesome, but you've definitely named an extremely good one - it makes people feel good! And don't get me started on the joys of squishy, soft mud... that alone was the reason why I graduated from a being a boy who couldn't be seen dead exposing even his socked feet to someone who holds nothing but hatred for most kinds of footwear, and who will now joyfully trot barefoot across muddy farmland, looking for the softest, deepest mud to wiggle my bare toes in... or maybe even a fresh pile of cow manure to squelch beneath my naked soles! I'm also someone who only started walking barefoot relatively recently, after gradually replacing all closed footwear with open-toe sandals, yet I'm now slowly moving towards an entirely barefoot lifestyle. No matter what your "level" of barefooting is, we're all friends here - whether we're tenderfoot novices, like the two of us, or grizzled veterans with leather feet!
I love walking in mud and in the rain Ike today it’s raining pretty good here and I have gone for my morning walk. I also like walking in the snow .
