❄️How to Deal with Cold Feet 🦶 Two Part Process

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SUMMARY 

Jen DeTracey shares how to get the blood circulation moving in your feet when you live with multiple sclerosis, as well as your legs. Before that she's talk to you about the three keys to better circulation, the benefits.

How to Deal with Cold Feet - Two Part Process

I'm going to share how to get the blood circulation moving in your feet when you live with multiple sclerosis, as well as your legs. If you want to improve your cold feet, this blog is for you. Before I share that, I want to talk to you about the three keys to better circulation and then walk you through a two-part process.

Watch the video first to see if this is realistic for you.

Let's get started on those three benefits. If you have better circulation in your feet and legs and the rest of your body for that matter, what happens is you're getting more oxygen to your heart. If you're lacking circulation, then you're dealing with potential heart and stroke conditions. Improving your circulation is a preventive course of action.

When you can get the blood circulating, you're moving more oxygen and nutrients and blood flow to the heart, very healthy. The other benefit is that in order to get better circulation, you're likely moving your body in some way. This is very important to living healthier life with MS.

Lastly, you to get this circulation going to your feet, and maybe even your hands so they won't be so cold.

Part-One of the Process

You can see right now I'm sitting on the floor. So as long as you can sit on the floor, then you might likely be able to do this. Now I know for some people it's hard to get up afterwards. So if this is a challenge for you, you may want to talk to a physiotherapist or some other professional about whether this is a safe activity for you to do.

I'm going to be putting my legs and feet up this wall. You don't need a lot of space to do it. You can see, I have a futon sofa behind me, and if I look here, I only have this amount of space really well. It's pretty tight (14 inches).

So if you have a piece of furniture and you don't have a lot of wall space, use the furniture to assist you. If you're worried about doing this on your own, once you watch me do the process, be sure to ask someone to help assist you. Or at least be there to spot you, meaning that they're making sure that your legs don't fall down off the wall.

That's very important. Until you want them to leave the wall, you do not want your legs to drop. All I'm going to do here is turn in this direction. And of course I have my moose socks on because for this special occasion, notice the hot pink. It's a very coordinated with my outfit, not;)

I'm going to actually lay down. I'm going to put my knees in this position. I can use the sofa if I need to. I'm going to lay down and as I'm laying down, you can see my arms in this position. I can move myself towards the wall.

Move one leg up the wall. First, just one at a time. I'm going to scooch, continue to scooch in here as much as I can towards the trimming of the wall.

You're going to put your second leg up the wall. I'm going to lay down. One benefit here of having furniture nearby that you can grab onto to wiggle your butt as close to the wall as possible.

In my case, I have a rug underneath me. I'm not able to slide around. I've done this on wood floors. And as long as you have something to push you towards the wall, it works well. But if you have a wood floor or tiles make sure you've got something you can grab on to push you towards the wall.

Move your butt cheeks to get right flush with the wall. When you can feel your butt touching the wall, or if it's numb, you can check with your hand to see that you're snugged up. Then put your legs up the wall.

You can just press your legs against the wall if you have that capacity to do that. And again if it's too difficult, you asked someone hold your legs at your angles against the wall.

You know what happens if you're sit or you're laying in bed for long periods of time blood is moving down. The oxygen, the nutrients are moving down towards your feet and they're pooling in that area. So there's not good for proper circulation. When you don't have proper circulation, that's your feet get cold.

By having your feet up the wall you're reversing the blood flow. And basically you're just going to let yourself hang out here for at least five minutes. So physically, it's a bit of work to get into this position, but once you're here, as long as your legs can rest comfortably against the wall, then fantastic.

Now, if your hamstrings are too tight to be in this position, you could move bottom out a bit from the wall. And some people might just put their legs up on a pillow while their lying in bed or on the sofe, and you're still going to have some benefits of that. But having your legs up the wall is the kick ass way to do it.

After you've done this for five minutes, you've completed part one.

What if you say to me, "Jen, that's kind of boring. I don't know if I can do it for five minutes. I don't really feel like I can just be still for that long."

There's a couple of things that you can try to help the time pass quickly.

One is you can do some breathing. So you can imagine breathing into you nose and down into your belly. Then breath out through your nose following the breath up from your belly.

You can do a one word mantra. Say "release," or "love" or "peace," you know, while you're breathing in and out. That's another thing you can try is to imagine a place that you really enjoy being that you've had a wonderful experience and you daydream about that.

If there isn't a place that comes to mind, think about something that you would love to do, that you could just transport yourself there in this moment in your minds eye. And if you think about that, then basically while you're imagining, time is passing and your legs are up the wall.

Part-two of this Process

Part number two is you remove your legs a little bit from the wall. Only if you can. And then you're going to do a circular motion with both feet at the same time to get more circulation happening in you body to warm things up. This really works for me.

I'm going to move my feet out first and in a circle around like this both feet at the same time.

So they're going out and together, they're meeting again, out and together, out and together out and in together. I'm doing those circles out 10 times. Now I can feel a little bit of a spasm in this moment in this leg. So if it's really uncomfortable, you can stop doing that. Then start again.

I'm going to put my feet back against the wall. Just take a break there for a moment. And then you're going to go the opposite direction with the circles for 10 times.

After doing the foot circles both ways ten times, the question becomes now, how are you going to get your legs down from the wall?

Now, if you have a slippery floor, of course, you'll be able to just push yourself back and that's going to be easy. Go nice and slow. The best method is to bring your legs one by one into you body like you are hugging them.

Then you slowly row left or right hugging your legs until your first leg is complete on the ground.
After that, you can use your arms to sit up again.

Now, if this challenging for you to do, then again, you might want to talk to a physiotherapist or have somebody spot you.

After doing this, I can really feel the energy moving in my body while I'm sitting on the floor.
It might be good for you after you've done this exercise to just stay sitting for a while, just in case you feel any lightheadedness you want to avoid standing. You can always lay down on the ground if you feel light headed.

So make sure you don't feel lightheaded when you're actually getting up.

Jen DeTracey is the founder of Women Thriving with MS and a certified coach. Women Thriving with MS is an online community for women living with MS. You can join the private Women Thriving with MS Facebook group it's free and YouTube channel. Jen offers online courses, a membership and coaching.

Jen's been living with multiple sclerosis for over 11 years. She went through this process of surviving with MS to striving MS to thriving MS. She is a guide, coach and teacher who helps you move forward on your journey from surviving to thriving with MS.

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