Improving Balance

Improving Balance

There are significant negative sensations when one feels out of balance.  Whether this is influenced by illness, thoughts that can trigger emotions that affect our musculoskeletal system, difficulty breathing and moving, knowing where we are in space, all of these concerns affect balance issues.  Now, when you feel more balanced, you feel more at ease and breathing is less compromised.

“All perception and sensation take place on a background of muscular activity.  And though we are unaware of it, this activity is most strictly shaped by gravity. There are several systems cooperating in orientating our bodies, but the vestibular apparatus is the coordinating chef d’orchestre.  The vestibular apparatus coordinates all sensory impulses that influence muscular tone and attitudes.” – Dr Moshe Feldenkrais, Body and Mature Behavior

Balance is the integration of the vestibular, sensory and proprioception systems.  Simply put our hearing and inner ear, sight, and knowing where we are in space, our orientation.  Therefore, the mobility of our head and neck, as well as our feet and ankles is crucial and directly influenced by the mobility of our chest to be able to counterbalance when shifting our weight and moving. I often share with my students the image of a juggler who balances objects moving in space.  Think of your head, chest and pelvis as 3 bowls and our spine interconnects all 3 to enable them to work together to create harmony. This is a clear expression of counterbalancing so that if something goes in one direction, another portion helps balance in opposition to enable finding balance.

There are so many ways to enhance balance.  Start from the ground up with how we articulate the 26 bones of our feet with their 40 joint surfaces, how that transfers up into the ankles, knees, hips, spine and ideally up into our head. Just as improving the flexibility of our chest as well as the movements of the ankles and feet, this all helps creates more flexibility that enables greater security while improving our ability to restore our balance in the upright.  There is something called “postural sway”  it’s more distinct when we close our eyes to discern the swaying movement in the vertical as we are not statutes.  We have the ability to gently shift around our center to maintain balance instead of controlling and contracting away from movement.  Did you know that the larger and more symmetrical your postural sway, the greater flexibility in your ankles and bones of the feet that allow for a healthier and more optimal balance, thus preventing falling.

Playing with themes that enable more resilience is what The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education is all about. We show through example and comparisons how to recognize our unconscious behaviors of doing and then create more options and choices to find a pathway of greater ease that creates efficiency where we use the appropriate amount of effort for the desired actions.  Through these gentle movement explorations in different orientations, we begin to recognize inefficiency and effort compared to a smoother, more balanced experience moving whether, walking, climbing, running, dancing, or even simply coming to stand.  Living your life with greater freedom in movement is all about moving towards your desires as well as attending to your needs with more efficiency.

“Movement is life, improve the quality of your movement and you improve the quality of your life.” Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais

I hope I have earned the privilege of your time and interest and invite you to reach out so that you can have an experience with me and notice your benefit.  I look forward when the timing is right to your reaching out for links to classes or to chat and discuss a private session whether live or virtual as each session is created specifically for your needs in the moment that offer more variety in your life.

Warmest,

Peggi