Focus on the Feet! - Yoga for Diabetes with Denyse LeFever, Certified Yoga Therapist

Today we're going to focus on the feet. The reason is one of the first side effects of diabetes can be a condition called neuropathy. This occurs when there's been damage to the nerves as a result of a prolonged period of elevated blood sugar. It may first appear as a sensation of tingling or maybe shooting pain in the feet and then eventually what happens is it's hard to feel any pain or any sensation in the feet. Today we're going to take some movements that will help us connect to our feet so we're aware of the condition of our feet. Let's once again check in to make sure we've got our mountain position. So feet are on the floor, ankles and knees are in alignment, knees and hips, hips and shoulders. Inhale lengthening from the base of the spine up through the crown of the head and then bring those shoulders up towards the ears back and down feeling nice and relaxed. So the first thing we're going to do and you may want to scooch forward to do this is we're going to examine our feet. We're going to bring our right foot up and again as I said the reason you need to do this as a diabetic is sometimes you may have cuts or abrasions that you may not feel because you could have early stages of neuropathy. So I like to look in between the toes so I gently spread the toes apart a little bit and I actually have problems with my feet that existed before my diabetes so I can't actually place my fingers in between my toes. If you can, it's a really good exercise to interlace those fingers in between the toes and allow those toes to stretch out. That's just not possible for me to do with my foot. So I just take my either my index finger my thumb and I massage each of the toes in between each toe making sure they're all getting checked out and I'm also checking to make sure I don't see any cuts or abrasions anything that looks funny making sure there's no pain or anything unusual and then I'm going to take my hands over my toes again if your fingers are interlaced you can keep them that way and we're just gently going to circle the ankle in one direction and then the other direction and then a nice exercise to do before you go to bed would be then with clean feet to massage those feet massaging the toes coming across the toe pads at the ball on the foot coming down the sides of the foot maybe taking a moisturizer if you have a favorite moisturizer because again dry feet can be a problem with diabetes and just giving those feet some tender loving care for all they do for you so let's release that right foot down and now we're going to take the left foot up so same situation if your fingers can fit between your toes please feel free to do so I'm manually stretching and exercising each toe I'm also looking in between the toes checking to make sure I don't see anything unusual and then bringing my fingers over the the toes and I'm circling the ankle in one direction and then the opposite direction and now we're just going to take a little massage taking the toes and take as long as you want here really enjoy the ability to massage your feet and if you have a good reflexologist near you I highly recommend reflexology that has been very important for my foot care and then let's release that foot down and let's just gently march in place a little bit finding that comfortable seat checking your alignment one more time ankles knees knees hips bringing those shoulders up and down and then I invite you to one more time soft gaze in front of you or gently close your eyes and bring that smile back to your face feel it expand feel the cheeks get engaged feel that smiling sensation come to your heart center feeling it expand down through your shoulders arms hands and fingers torso legs and finally your feet take a few more natural breaths perhaps bringing your hands to your heart as an expression of gratitude for all your blessings I thank you so very much for joining this class the light in me honors the light in each and every one of you take care of your feet and take care of yourself thank you