fall prevention

Winter Walkways

February 5, 2025
admin
Fall Prevention, Uncategorized

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…

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Happy (and safe) Holiday Decorating!

December 17, 2024
admin
Fall Prevention

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…

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Go to Your Happy Place

November 21, 2023
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Balance Science, Balance Training

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…

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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…

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Underfoot

April 14, 2017
admin
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…

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