One lady had been to only two or three Sahaja Yoga programs, but she had been meditating and footsoaking and giving her eight-year-old son footsoaks for two weeks. Her son has always had poor behaviour at the Steiner School he attends, and she is in regular communication with his teacher. 

The teacher spoke to her recently and said, “I can’t believe the change in your son. What are you doing to bring about such an enormous change?” From being an unruly, disruptive influence in the class he had become a positive influence, even saying to his classmates, “You don’t always want to do things, but sometimes you need to do it, anyway”.  

She told the teacher that the only change was that her son was footsoaking, and that she herself was meditating and footsoaking. The teacher was very impressed and asked her to bring some Sahaja Yoga literature along so that she could find out more for herself and for her students.

Footsoaks can also be very positive for the elderly. Some time ago my mother (aged 87) went downhill in her mental capacity. She was so worried about forgetting what to do and who was coming and so on, that she spent most of her time standing in front of the calendar trying to work out what day it was and what she should be doing. 

Footsoaking was only part of the changes we put in place for my Mum, but I am convinced that the biggest factor in getting Mum back to “Living in the Present” was the footsoaks. Mum is not a Sahaja Yogi and she doesn’t meditate, but she recognises the benefit of footsoaking. If several days have gone by without our doing a footsoak, she reminds me. It is an amazing and simple tool to get us back in the present, to suck out the negativity that builds up from everyday life and to keep us in balance. 

Maxine Whitnell