Lost In A Spotless Mind

A couple of days ago Ulrikke from Ask For Answers wrote a post (in Norwegian) about how she feels uncomfortable with walking in high heels and wondered if she simply lacks the gene for it. Trust me, darling, there’s no gene for that – you just haven’t read my Guide to Walking in High Heels yet!

Concerning the Body

♥ The most important thing is to remember to relax, especially in the hips. You see, it is impossible to walk in high heels without letting the hips sway from side to side. This is part of their magic – don’t fight it! This will also help you to not hunch your back, which is the most obvious sign of not being used to high heels.

♥ Take it slow. Being in a hurry in heels is for the intermediate and advanced high heels-wearer, and should ideally be avoided for newbies.

♥ Baby steps, darlings! Whenever I feel like I look clumsy in my heels, I make my steps a little shorter, and it always feels much better.

Concerning Your Mind

♥ Some girls tend to devote all their attention to the oh-my-I’m-walking-in-high-heels-and-I-need-to-relax-my-hips-and-I-wonder-if-I-look-hunchbacked-now-thoughts. Relax. Think about something else. Your body is very good at adjusting, so if you don’t obsess over your shoes every minute, your body will probably improve your walk all by itself.

♥ Work with the shoes, not against them. Heels always make me feel more feminine, more powerful, and usually kind of seductive, too. The trick is to think “okay, sure, I can be more flirty today”, rather than “oh, no, now everyone will think I’m trying to be sexy” or the classic “I’m just not that kind of girl/woman”. Allow me to repeat myself: don’t fight the magic!

The tip: Practice Heels

♥ Go out and buy yourself a pair of heels that will be used mainly for practice. Be brave enough to buy a pair that’s more than 6 cm (2,5 inches) high. Why, you anxiously ask? Well, why not simply learn to walk in a quite high heel straight away? Once you can do them, lower heels will be ridiculously easy. Also, your practice shoes don’t have to be the prettiest, most expensive pair of shoes you can find – you can buy those shoes once you know how to walk in them! Just like ballerinas have to wear slippers for years before progressing to pointe shoes, your practice heels should be functional and durable first and foremost.

♥ Wear the practice heels when doing household chores. Wear them while doing the dishes, then progress to keeping them on while cooking or vacuuming. Not only will this make you more used to the feeling of high heels, but the chores will keep your mind occupied so you can’t fret about your feet too much. Using other parts of your body will also make sure you don’t turn stiff, which is essential for mastering the heels. When you’re able to clean the bathroom or hang wet clothes to dry in your heels, walking down a street will be easy as pie in comparison.

By the way…

♥ Strangely enough I find heels of about 7 cm or higher the easiest ones to walk in. I have a theory (“It could be bunnies!”) that this could be because heels of this height force you to change your balance all the way to the front part of your foot. Shorter heels make me feel like I’m “neither here nor there”; as if my weight is being placed mostly on my arches rather than the toes, throwing me off balance.

♥ My best tip of them all: TAKE A DANCE CLASS WEARING HEELS. My first pair of proper heels were a pair of T-strap ballroom shoes, which I wore for learning salsa. Both my mind and my body were so busy learning the steps and remembering them that I simply wasn’t able to worry about the shoes. Sure, it felt a little strange in the beginning, but so did the dancing. After a few classes the heels felt like a natural part of the dance movements, and I noticed that when I walked in the heels, my hips moved naturally and the rest of my body relaxed, just like when I was dancing. Oh, and did I mention that is was also incredibly fun?

Let me know if my tips were of any help to you, will you, darlings?