Learning is my drug of choice. Set me up with a topic that I’m interested in – even marginally – and I fall on it like a hungry tigress.
For example, in preparation for a trip to Martinique next year, I’ve been studying French (for 70 days as DuoLingo pointed out this morning). Every day I puzzle over verb conjugations and which articles to use. I listen intently to see how much I can catch as the native speaker chats about hotel reservations and studying in Paris. I awkwardly wrap my tongue around all those freaking vowels and the gutteral Rs which give me fits.
DuoLingo!
It’s difficult going (even the word for yogurt – yaourt – makes me want to put my head down) and I can’t imagine I’d ever really be able to carry on a conversation – but I love it anyway.
I find myself excitedly looking up the word for grapefruit (delightfully: pamplemousse) and how to say “let’s eat outside” (allons manger dehors!) and French terms of endearment (mon chou is “my sweetie” or literally my cabbage; mon mignon is “my cutie;” and oddly yet charmingly, ma crotte is “my poo”).
Learning about balance – the bodily systems that support it and ways to improve it – has been a fascination for years. Even before two broken feet that required me to rebuild my own balance, I observed the importance of balance for comfortable, confident movement of all kinds – in my participants and myself. I even created a whole course about balance on Insight Timer!
It’s delighted me no end, then, that even after all this balance study, I’m still learning new things. Here are three of my new favorite balance moves … and only one of them is on your feet!
Three Surprising Moves To Build Balance
1. Side Lying Sweep
Slide yourself onto your side with your head resting on your long arm and your legs out straight, so your whole body is in a long line. Use your top hand on tented fingers to support you. This alone is a balance move.
Add onto it by pushing through both of your heels and lifting your top leg up just a little and balance there. Add onto this by taking your top arm and lifting it from the floor to straight above your body and back down again. Add onto this by lengthening your top leg back a bit as your arm goes forward and come back to stacked as your arm goes straight up.
Do it on both sides and see if one side is wobblier (it is for most of us). Good news: if you fall out of balance here, you won’t fall far!
2. All 4s Hover & Look
From All 4s: heels of hands under shoulders, knees under hips. Hover your right palm and your left knee off the floor just an inch or two. Isometrically draw your left hand and your right knee toward each other (they won’t move on the mat but you’ll feel your body engage). While the hand and knee are floating, turn your head slowly to the right and then to the left. And of course, do both sides!
Another variation on this is to extend your hand and leg out long and turn your head.
3. One-Leg + Hands Balance
From standing, shift your weight into one foot and float the other off the ground. This will be easier on a hardwood or tile floor; more challenging on soft carpeting or a squishy yoga mat. And stand near a wall or a chair so you can catch yourself if needed. Get a feel for how your balance is on this side in this moment.
Then take your hands behind your head, and push your head into your hands and your hands into your head. Notice how this impacts your balance and what parts of you turn on to help support your stability. Again, do it on both sides and notice any differences.
Learning is like stretching our brain muscles: it’s both challenging and it feels good! Whether it’s an exploration of balance, a language or whatever flips your proverbial skirt, learning broadens our perspective as well as our abilities.
And … “balance” is équilibre in French.
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If you are in Charlottesville and want to come play with what I’m learning, join me for Bones, Balance & Other Badassery on Wednesday, June 14 from 1030-12noon at Center Studio! On SALE through June 2 2023. More details here.
If you’re not in Cville, check out my 30 Lesson Balance Course on Insight Timer here!