It is recommended to pre-do a short yoga https://www.julianalucky.com/post/mommy-and-me-yoga-benefits asana practice or meditation: this will allow you to tune in and calm your mind. Standing on nails in an excited state or in strong emotions, especially negative ones, it will be difficult to bear the pressure, and instead of calmness and ease, you can get an escalation of negative feelings.
Important! Make sure that there are no skin lesions, fungal diseases on the feet. Even if the board is personal, if the skin is damaged, nailing is not worth practicing.
For beginners and people with hypersensitivity, it is advisable to first get up on the board from a chair and with support (for example, relying on a table or on an assistant’s hand). This allows you to distribute body weight on 2 feet at once and reduces discomfort. Over time, it will be possible to step onto the board from a standing position, but it is still desirable to have support at hand: a table, mentor’s hands, a chair, a handrail, etc. It is optimal to practice every day. If this is not possible, don’t worry, choose a mode that is convenient for you. As in any training, regularity and consistency are important here.
The sensations of standing on nails, frankly, are unusual and the body can be perceived as a danger. This means that it is automatically mobilized: the muscles come into tone, the head “goes” into the shoulders, the oculomotor and suboccipital muscles tense, breathing becomes superficial. If you keep this tension in the body, then the practice of nailing will not give any beneficial effect!
Having survived the first seconds of shock, you need to gradually release the tension in the muscles, allow them to “drain” to the feet. If you practice yoga, the skill of relaxing the muscles that are not involved in movement has already been worked out. If not, it will take more time to do it, but sooner or later the skill will form.
How long to stand depends on your preparation. You can start with 10 seconds, gradually gradually increasing the time. Advanced practitioners stand on nails for an average of about half an hour.
When you manage to stand quietly for several minutes, from time to time you can make “steps”: slightly change the position of the feet on the board in order to involve more energy points in the work.
Harm from standing on nails can only be obtained in case of excessive sensitivity: if the nervous system and psyche are very reactive, the sensations will be too bright and will bring nothing but stress. In this case, you can start the practice while sitting until the sensations become familiar, or abandon it. The practice will be ineffective even if you stand in tension all the time, do not try to get rid of it and accept the pain, discomfort and resistance of the mind as part of the practice.
After practice, do not rush to get up. Sit on a chair or on the floor for a while and massage your feet, getting used to the new sensations. For massage, you can use oil or fat foot cream. Then walk in warm socks for a while or lie down to experience the pleasant sensations after nailing, remember them and be happy to return to practice next time.
Practice mindfully and be healthy!
