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 ways to get from here to there, I am constantly reminded to practice what I teach.
Locus of Focus
As both my Ki-Aikido and Minding Your Balance™ students often hear me say, movement tends to organize around the focal point of attention – and pain draws attention to an injury. When that happens, I find myself hobbling around my broken toe, which in turn, destabilizes my balance. The first step (no pun intended) is to notice when that happens. A simple shift of my “locus of focus” from the injury to my center-of-balance in the lower abdomen helps stabilize posture and improve my overall coordination. I’m still mindful of the toe, but in the context of stable posture. And better overall movement allows me to better protect the injury.
Relax & Align
There’s a natural tendency when being careful relative to pain and injury to tense up. That tension gets in the way of agile movement and undermines dynamic balance. I’ve been reminding myself the last few weeks to “relax and align,” that is to feel and then let go of any tension I’m holding in my shoulders, hips, and legs, and to feel my weight drop vertically through aligned posture. It not only stabilizes my balance, it helps me relax and move with greater ease.
Stay tuned for the 2026 Minding Your Balance™ class schedule!