Today’s Class, Wed. 9:30am class focused on Working with Gravity for balance!

The need to balance becomes very apparent as we get older.  We hear stories of older people falling, breaking a hip, others complaining that they don’t have balance when they are walking or moving around.  Here are my tips for better balance:

1. Gravity does one thing and one thing only; draws or pulls everything down!  On the surface, it feels like we are doomed to just become a puddle on the floor, but let’s think more in terms of how that in itself can help us balance.  Gravity provides an opportunity for an equal and opposing action.  How can we use that to our advantage?  When we are sitting, we allow the lower body ( hips down) to surrender to gravity, so we can use the upper body (waste up) to resist that force.  More we get settled with the lower body, more we can rise up.  We root down to rise up.  We use this throughout the practice, in all the postures.
2. If we slouch when sitting or walking, we create multiple points in the body where gravity will pull us down.  When we sit or stand straight..( shoulders aligned with hips, hips aligned with feet etc.), we create a single linear relationship with gravity and then we can use gravity to oppose it effectively.
3. Create a central reference for the body.  The central channel, that runs from the tail bone to the crown of the head, also is the CNS ( Central Nervous System).  The whole body is built around that center.  So when we walk, sit, run, we are always using that central line as the reference for the body.  The body is always drawing towards the center of the body.  Visualize a straight line from the crown to the tail bone and you can extrapolate a straight line down to the feet and use that as a reference for your body to draw towards.
4. Lack of sleep, anxiety, fear can contribute to falling as well.  Pay attention to that and resolve these issues!  Above 60 is the Vata time of our life, where the Vata related imbalances such as insomnia, anxiety, fear can take hold.