Proprioception
Proprioception
In a sense, this is your body’s internal GPS. It’s a coordination of your senses that you apply every time you stand, shift, or transfer your weight as you walk, reach for something, really anything you do.
Proprioception also helps you recognize where you are in space and the organizing systems within you, including a network of sensors such as the Golgi tendon organ and muscle spindles that alert your musculoskeletal system to organize effectively when moving in any environment. It’s what helps you maintain your balance on uneven ground, being able to catch yourself before you fall.
Dr. Feldenkrais referred to the “Polygon of sustentation,” which means where you can shift and restore your balance in the vertical before you fall. Usually, the space in front, where we can see, is the area we can restore more easily than falling backwards or to the side. When too much of your weight is in front of your pelvis, it’s harder to restore, and you might fall unless you can get your pelvis and feet under your chest. In addition, when there is more weight on the balls of your feet, there is lots of activation of muscles, especially the extensor muscles that are responsible for being upright in the vertical. With too much weight forward of the full foot and heel, the nervous system senses you are already falling, and muscle activation awakens to try to keep you upright and prevent you from falling forward.
Let’s learn how to play with this idea of restoring your balance, like you did as a small child, how to fall without hurting yourself. Playing with folding and rolling is a really efficient Awareness Through Movement (ATM)® lesson to add to your daily play. Here are some other ways to explore and play to create more options for restoring balance. As you age, this function declines unless you train and hone your skills, exploring small amounts to restore balance daily.
The idea of being prepared to do something, the preparation that allows any process to begin to wire in, is best when you start in your imagination. What might you need nearby to use as support so you are really comfortable in your explorations in movement? Think with the end in mind: how can you prepare your equilibrium to be ready for unforeseen slip-ups?
“Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture.” – Amelia Earhart
In a lesson, you learn to make sure you continually hone these balance skills by standing and shifting weight slowly from one foot to the other. The practice is surprisingly simple as long as you do it daily, little by little. Once you feel comfortable shifting your weight from one leg to the other, slowly lift one foot off the floor to stand on one leg. You can do a count to notice how long you can balance. You’ll begin to feel your weight shift around that one leg; this is called postural sway.
It might be advantageous to be near something to lean into just in case. Maybe a better way is to return the lifted foot to the floor, even if it’s just your toes that touch down to restore your balance and begin again. This is single-leg balancing work that helps wake up stabilizing muscles. Can you explore this several times a day? Maybe when putting on socks or sliding your foot into a shoe, as this starts to rebuild skills that have dulled through lack of continued play and focus.
I listened to a Podcast with Jane Fonda, who is 88. She shared that she continues to do her exercises, as in her renowned Jane Fonda workouts, but now she does them slower, with less weight or resistance, and in smaller amounts. She shared that even when she doesn’t feel like doing them, after she does, knowing the improvement she continues to reap, she feels so much better!
“To learn we need time, attention, and discrimination; to discriminate we must sense. This means that in order to learn we must sharpen our powers of sensing, and if we try and do most things by sheer force of will we shall achieve precisely the opposite of what we need.” – Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
I hope I’ve earned the privilege of your time and attention.
Awaiting the birth of Spring that awakens what’s possible. Remember the lyrics from the Mamas and Papas, …”the darkest hour, just before dawn.” Remember, when the dawn comes, it will change, metamorphose the darkness into light!
Warmest,
Peggi
