4-Week Minding Your Balance™ Basics Class Thursdays, June 4 thru 25 10:30 to 11:45 am Denver Ki-Aikido, 1195 S. Lipan, Denver
In yesterday’s Minding Your Balance™ class, students swept, shoveled, and raked as well as lifted and carried pots and tea kettles (among other things) ala Daniel waxing Mr. Miyaga’s car in the first Karate Kid movie. Everyday actions done with the same mindful awareness required in the martial arts. Class homework for the week is to practice sitting, standing, and watering the plants with the awareness of a dancer, or a gymnast, or the Karate Kid. Move like your life…
The first time I learned an attention strategy to help my balance was at age 5 in a ballet class. Spinning around on one foot in a pirouette, I was told to look straight ahead at a spot on the wall, hold that gaze as long as possible, and then snap my head around to see that same spot at the end of the turn. Spotting, as it’s called for obvious reasons, keeps you from getting dizzy and wobbly. Not long…
Olympic figure skating has mesmerized me this past week. The gravity defying jumps and lifts, the poetry of connection between partners, the graceful flow of movement across the ice, the high speeds, precision, and artistry. Amidst the spirals, swizzles, and multiple-rotation jumps in the air I am captivated by a seemingly simple component that only comes to mind when it fails – balance. I’ve also been catching up on brain research regarding the same. Researchers continue to develop a better…
Watching videos of my great-niece learning to walk, I am struck by her dedicated focus on the task of upright balance – and the pure joy in the accomplishment of that task. It reminds me of her delight when, as a wee babe, her father would fly her around the room in his arms. Now she flies through space on her own small feet. Balance is a wonder, an amazing feat (no pun intended) that we learn to accomplish at the beginning…
A stubbed toe – not a big deal, right? Except that when my little toe collided with the leg of a chair, it broke (my toe, that is, not the chair). While I didn’t fall, a tiny fracture in one of the smallest bones in my body has managed to upend the last three weeks of my life. A broken toe doesn’t just hurt – it potentially makes me more vulnerable to a fall. As I seek safe, pain free…
Colorado winter, true to form, is whiplashing from extreme cold and snow to balmy spring-like weather. The sunny blue sky days entice us outdoors only to find treacherous conditions underfoot – walkways that change unpredictably from packed snow to slush to wet concrete to black ice. Of necessity, I find myself consciously tapping the balance lessons I teach as I walk my beautiful and large dog Rusty through the snowy neighborhood. (A shout out to neighbors who shovel their own…
If you feel a bit unsteady while putting up the holiday decorations, know you are not alone – and take heed. Last year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that nearly 15,000 people were treated in emergency rooms for holiday decorating-caused injuries, half of which involved falls. Standing on ladders, reaching, twisting, and leaning to get the lights or the ornament in the perfect spot, checking to see if the garland is draped just right while ignoring the boxes at our…
Do you or someone in your life need a balance boost? Minding Your Balance™ – Mind Body Exercises to Improve Balance & Prevent Falls is available on Amazon.
Many of my Minding Your Balance students visiting family this holiday season are expressing concern about the balance challenges inherent in air travel. From navigating crowded concourses to pulling, carrying, and lifting luggage in and out of overhead bins to stepping on and off moving walkways and negotiating narrow airplane aisles, air travel provides ample need and opportunity to mind one’s balance. Here are a few quick Minding Your Balance tips for staying steady and safe during holiday travel: To learn more get…
The link between postural control and emotion runs deep, revealing itself in common expressions that convey feeling or mindset through a physical image, for example, thrown for a loop, on shaky ground, sure-footed, in a slump, and standing tall. Medicine has also long noted the connection, and in recent years, brain research has uncovered multiple neural links between balance and emotion processing regions of the brain. More than simply causal, how we feel and how we carry ourselves interconnect with…