Stress control-Take your shoes off and walk on the carpet

#8.  Take your shoes off and walk on the carpet

This is my favorite de-stressing activity and it shocks the living daylights out of everyone.  I first met a lady about 10 years ago who was in her early fortys and nothing seemed to shake her stature.  She was always calm and never got flustered and I asked her what her secret was and she said, "I always take my shoes off as often as possible so I can stay in touch with the earth".  This was a really prominent statement for me, because I never really thought of my shoes as a tool to disconnect us from our surroundings but if you think about it, it makes sense.

If you go down to the beach, what is the first thing you do. You take off your shoes to feel the sand through you feet and how does it make you feel, relaxed.  If you go to the park with the children, what do you do? Take your shoes off so you can run around and have fun or to play in the mud.  Whether we realise it or not, when we disconnect ourselves from mother earth we really do start to stress.

I now always take my shoes off when I am working in my office, including my socks just so I can feel something more inspirational under my feet rather than just the hard soles of my shoes.  I know another corporate CEO in Brisbane Australia, who used to walk down to Anzac Square every lunch hour to walk on the grass so that he could stay in touch with the world.  Hey, if it works in the movie Pretty Woman, surely it must work.