Two wannabe psychic intuitives both went to vend at their very first psychic fair. After carefully setting up their booths, chatting nervously with their neighbors, and endlessly rearranging the decorative spread of freshly-printed business cards and email list sign-up sheets on their tables, each prepared mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for the doors to open and their first clients to eagerly beat a path to them.

One of them folded his hands in prayer and nervously worried that he would be too open to all of the people who would come to him for advice. Deeply empathic, he had never quite been able to allow himself to touch the souls of others without having his own inner peace disturbed. He hoped that he would be able to close himself off to the negative feelings that he always sensed when he worked with his psychic intuition and other people. He sat down in a folding chair across from one where a client would sit, with the table in between them, crossed his arms across his chest and prepared to defend himself.

The other sat on the floor barefoot in brief meditation, allowing herself to be open to the experience ahead of her. Her prayer was to be a conduit for the energies of others and of spirit, so that she could clearly communicate and understand what other people had to share from their souls without allowing anything bad to stick to her. Reminding herself to remain sensitive yet to go with the flow, she sat in a folding chair, pulling one for her first client next to her, and relaxed in a receptive pose.

The latter psychic intuitive was me at my first psychic fair. I saw the other new vendor get burned out quickly that day and leave the venue early. In fact, I rarely saw the same vendors twice at psychic fairs during my early years as a professional psychic intuitive, though it took me a while to understand why. It takes a hardy personality to be able to bare one's intuitive soul without cracking under the pressure of the constant and deep empathic connection to others.

Whether you're just beginning to get in touch with your psychic side, or you are already an advanced reader, deeply in touch with your own inner senses, there are many best practices that can help you with the practical, the spiritual, and the intellectual components of accuracy and precision. One of the simplest psychic tips to implement is to remove your shoes and socks before performing a psychic reading for yourself or others.

Spiritual History and Contemporary Practice
Many mythological and historical figures have shed their shoes for spiritual reasons. From the peaceful Saint Francis of Assisi getting in touch with Jesus' command to removes shoes on holy ground to the Pagan Spartans fighting fierce battles in the names of their Gods in their bare feet, even deities are often depicted in ancient and modern art without footwear. Symbolically, going barefoot has represented respect, renunciation of bondage to possessions, cleanliness, and a sensitivity to the earth and to the spirit world.

In modern times, many religions and faith traditions still include a barefoot practice. In most Hindu temples, shoes are to be removed before entering the holy place in order to keep it clean and to respect the sacred ground. Many Wiccans and Pagans perform their rituals "skyclad," meaning nude and including bare feet. Even when Wiccan traditions practice their circles robed, often the shoes and socks are still laid aside before the ritual in order to increase the energy conduit from their bodies to the earth and to each other.

Why add barefooting to your own spiritual and psychic practice? Not only is the symbolic act of going barefoot into any sacred work a useful key to attune your mind to the task at hand, but removing the physical barrier between yourself and the earth can help with the vital psychic intuitive practice of Grounding.

Grounding and Psychic Intuitive Work
Grounding is the act of returning excess spiritual energy harmlessly to the earth and recharging yourself with renewed energy from the same earthly source. This act is done by everyone to some extent naturally, but if you want to be a psychic intuitive, an intentional ability to Ground when needed is important to keep yourself from feeling jittery or lethargic. Before and after any psychic intuitive work, as well as throughout the day if you feel drained of energy or too amped up, Grounding should be done.

Most psychic intuitives perform Grounding with meditation, visualizing or sensing excess, negative or stuck energy flowing through the feet into the earth while fresh and revitalizing energy flows easily and smoothly back into the psychic intuitive's body. Since the conduit of Grounding visualizations and perceptions is the feet, barefoot contact with the earth can be helpful as a mental and physical aid for the process.

The Practical: How it is Done
If you are the average tender-footed Westerner, you may spend most of your day in shoes, from the time you slide your feet into slippers in the morning until the moment you pull your boots off at the end of the day. A spiritual practice of going barefoot, especially when performing a psychic intuitive reading on another, may feel socially or physically uncomfortable. However, trying out barefooting in a spiritual context will allow you to immediately experience the benefits of the practice.

If you're shy, start out by removing your shoes whenever you pray or meditate alone. Once you are accustomed to the habit of shedding your shoes in a spiritual context, consider trying a barefoot form of spiritual exercise like dancing, yoga, or martial arts. Through the use of your body in motion while barefoot, you'll begin to notice how your internal energy feels different, more free to flow and change with your surroundings, and your sensitivity to others around you will heighten.

If you're really brave, try hiking outdoors barefoot and paying close attention to the sensations you get from the earth and surrounding plants and animals around you while in nature. Notice how, during a hike in shoes, you can only experience the world around you through your eyes and your ears if you are bundled up in plenty of clothes and hiking boots. By removing your shoes, you add an entire new dimension of tactile perception to your hike, which allows your psychic intuition to come alive.

Alternative Health and the Future of Barefooting
In addition to the psychic intuitive benefits gained by going barefoot, you may notice a renewed sense of health and vitality that comes from living barefoot more often. Alternative health practices such as reflexology have arisen by the discovery that your body, as well as your mind, internally responds positively to the pressure and exercise exerted on the feet through barefoot activity. As other modern practices such as barefoot running gain popularity, we psychic intuitives won't get as many sidelong glances from others as we walk boldly into the future next to barefoot kindred spirits.

Remember that many people on this planet live every day without shoes, and that only barrier to this ancient spiritual practice is a social one. As you take the brave step to put your psychic intuition out there for the use of others, or for yourself, may you be both sensitive and thick-skinned when the need arises. I hope that you will take the simple tip to perform psychic intuitive work barefoot to heart. In order to remain receptive while keeping healthy boundaries with the world around you, hearty souls need hardy soles.