Go to Your Happy Place

November 21, 2023

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…

Conquering Gravity

January 5, 2020

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Balance Science, Balance Training, Fall Prevention

The Conscious Art of Balance 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…

Real in a Place

August 21, 2019

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Balance Science

“The connection to place remains deep: touching the core of our being. Landscape is our mirror, our book of revelations…” Suzannah Lessard, The Absent Hand: Reimaging Our American Landscape I just finished a thought provoking read about the American landscape – as in the literal physical places we inhabit – that provides unexpected insight into the primacy of our relationship to the spaces we navigate in everyday life. The Absent Hand, by Suzannah Lessard, takes the reader on a vivid…

Move like a martial artist

July 9, 2019

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Balance Training, Fall Prevention

A wild 4th of July hail storm had me raking up downed leaves in the back yard, adding to my list of summer chores. From carrying bags of potting soil to pulling dandelions, winding up garden hoses, and mowing the lawn, the unending yard work engages me both body and mind. And as creaky knees and aching back threaten to undermine my efforts, these summertime tasks continually remind me to move like a martial artist – no matter the task.…

Balance, Motion, and Space

August 25, 2018

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Balance Science, Balance Training, Fall Prevention

On a beautiful late summer day in the Rocky Mountains, I joined participants at the Easter Seals Rocky Mountain Village Post Polio Wellness Retreat to teach a class on balance. People from all over the country came to Colorado to participate in classes and activities about living with post polio syndrome – a condition affecting polio survivors that includes muscle weakness, atrophy, and fatigue that can occur many years after recovery from the original illness. Post polio syndrome’s impact on balance may result…

Being in Motion

January 4, 2018

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Balance Science, Balance Training

Over Christmas I met my new grandniece who, at the age of one month, loves to dance. Any kind of rhythmic motion soothes and enthralls her. Whether we grooved to Stevie Wonder or waltzed to Frank Sinatra, her cries would cease, her muscles relax, and her eyes brightly turn to the swirling landscape around her. While others in the family were curious to discover the object of little Emma’s gaze, my wonder was with the process of how she responded…

Underfoot

April 14, 2017

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Balance Training, Fall Prevention

A good friend who volunteers at the local animal shelter stumbled over a hose during cleanup of the dog kennels and took a bad fall. She was carrying a big bucket filled with cleaning solution at the time, and while her view of the floor wasn’t obscured she just didn’t notice the hose lying across her path. My friend, the bucket and all its liquid contents went flying. Fortunately, she came away from the fall with only minor bruises and soggy clothes. Sometimes when we…

Dizzy

July 31, 2016

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Balance Science

Why is it that dizziness happens in the head but makes us unstable on our feet? Blame the vestibular system – the sensory system that perceives our motion in space in relationship to gravity. The sensors themselves are located in the inner ear, but the information they provide is critical to perceiving and maintaining our vertical alignment with gravity as we move around in the world. And that matters for more than not falling down. Gravity affects every breath we take,…