Balance, Stability & Strength
Balance, Stability & Strength
Listen to the audio here: http://tiny.cc/reta101
What’s under your control to help address these key issues as we age? Now, each stage of our development needs structural stability and flexible joints to allow spring and resilience. This helps us move with better alignment. Each step we take is a type of controlled falling. Fortunately, this process of moving lets you regain stability and balance to take another step or leap forward, or even backward. When you can bring your pelvis under your chest, or another way is to think about bringing your chest over your pelvis, you find balance and a way to prevent or recover from lurching forward and falling. Learning not only how to fall but also how to find the flexibility to regain your balance is a skill we all need to keep honing.
“Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better.” – Flannery O’Conner
Often, a client will share their fear of doing things that take them outside their comfort zone. If the surface is uneven, they don’t venture forward for fear of falling. Now, as little ones, we fell, usually forward, but sometimes one goes backward or to the side. It’s the process of finding balance, then losing it and regaining it before any collateral damage occurs. That’s one of the great processes those who learn from The Feldenkrais Method® continue to explore: how to fall and return to the vertical unscathed. Most important for those, especially in sports, and what about those aging and fearful of falling? It’s more a question of when you pass the tipping point and realize you’re falling; it happens so fast you don’t have time to think about what to do. That’s when exploring Awareness Through Movement (ATM)® lessons offers strategies to regain your balance and, if you do fall, to do so without injury, as so many athletes fall and come back up unharmed. So there are strategies, even if you are not familiar with Feldenkrais approaches, that stem from developmental movements we explored in our learning.
Skills of learning how to counterbalance are lifesavers, so let’s explore some briefly here:
Come to stand and make sure you’re comfortable. For some, I suggest standing by a structure you can touch or lean toward to feel more secure. Then move your chest forward a bit, in front of your pelvis, stay there, notice your breathing, and then draw your toes to fold as if you were grabbing sand at the beach between your toes. While standing, your ankles are already in a flexed pattern, so when you flex all your toes, notice whether that draws your chest back over your pelvis. Did the soles of your feet actually arch a bit more when you flexed your toes? You can even try this: if you pitch your chest a bit back, behind your pelvis, and flex your toes toward the ball of your foot, did this also help you shift a bit back into the vertical? Do small tests and notice how potent your toes are. If they don’t feel that potent, don’t give in or give up, because there are lots of ATM lessons to explore to start developing these skills. It’s never too late unless that is your belief. Maybe, if so, re-evaluate a held belief.
Another thing is what type of shoes are you wearing? Do they give all your toes space, or are they cramped up, one against the other, unable to be potent and support you better? If the shoebox isn’t wide enough for your foot, you’ll start to notice issues down the road. Begin to play gently, move your toes, and notice what awakens.
Many other strategies can help you learn and awaken parts of us that have gone offline. Let’s bring them back so you can all begin to awaken and help make life easier.
“The sign of an organized cortex: that never do you move one movement without the rest of the body being, doing something to help to perform the movement. That’s the object of being an organism. It’s an organic movement and not a coercive, self-destructive movement.” – Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
I hope I’ve earned the privilege of your time and attention this week.
Warmest,
Peggi
