There are certain things we do in yoga without giving them very much thought.

We arrive, take off our shoes, unroll the mat and step onto it barefoot. It is such a normal part of going to a yoga class that most of us probably don’t think about it at all.

Someone walking onto a yoga mat in trainers would seem rather strange. But why do we practise barefoot in the first place?

There are obvious practical reasons. Bare feet allow us to feel the surface beneath us, spread the toes and notice the small changes in pressure and weight that help us balance. In standing postures particularly, the feet form the foundation of the pose.

But there is also a longer history behind this very ordinary habit.

Before the yoga mat

Yoga developed in India, where removing footwear before entering certain spaces was, and remains, commonplace.

In many Hindu traditions, shoes are removed before entering a temple or a space used for puja. Shoes have been outside and carry dirt with them, so leaving them at the entrance helps to keep the space inside clean. It is also a sign of respect.

Feet themselves have a more complicated place within Indian traditions. Touching the feet of an elder or teacher, for example, can be a sign of respect and humility, while touching something valued or sacred with your feet would be considered disrespectful.

Books are a good example. As objects associated with knowledge and learning, they are treated with respect and should not be touched with the feet. For the same reason, the soles of the feet would not traditionally be pointed towards a murti or a teacher. This is also behind the convention in some yoga classes of facing the feet away from the teacher during Savasana.

So taking off our shoes before yoga sits within a much broader cultural understanding of feet, cleanliness and respect.

What bare feet give us physically

There is also a very practical reason that the tradition continues.

Our feet provide constant sensory information about the surface beneath us and the position of our body. Without a shoe between the foot and the floor, we can feel where our weight is and make the small adjustments that help us remain stable.

The toes are also free to spread and respond rather than being restricted inside a shoe. This gives the foot a more active role in balance and allows the smaller muscles of the feet to work as we move and hold postures.

Tadasana is a good example. What looks like simply standing becomes much more involved once we start paying attention to the feet. We notice whether our weight is falling back into the heels, whether we are gripping through the toes or whether one side is carrying more weight than the other.

The same awareness follows us into balances and standing postures, while direct contact with the mat gives us the grip we need to move between postures with greater stability.

There is no need to make this more complicated than it is. We can feel the ground more clearly, and that helps us understand how we are standing and moving.

A tradition we kept

Perhaps one of the most interesting things about practising barefoot is how little explanation it usually requires. Someone can walk into their first yoga class knowing very little about yoga and quickly understand that the shoes stay at the edge of the room.

It makes you wonder how many other parts of yoga have survived simply because people have continued to practise them, often without thinking about where they came from.

There doesn’t need to be one meaning attached to taking off our shoes. But it is worth understanding where these small customs come from.

So the next time you arrive at your mat, perhaps give that very ordinary act a moment’s thought.