The Little Book of Falling (And Getting Up)

Why are we afraid of falling?

      The answer may surprise you! It’s not just about getting hurt.

Why do we fall?

      Clumsiness is not the only reason. Learn to recognize the danger signs and what you can do in the event of a fall.

The Little Book of Falling (and Getting Up) answers questions like these and many others!

The fact is, everyone falls at some point in time. As we age, the danger of injury increases and with it, the fear of falling. Learning how to become more flexible and resilient can not only help prevent injury but can improve recovery in the event of a fall.

The Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement^® lessons included in this program are part of a carefully researched movement education system that has helped thousands of people improve their lives.

Prevent falls or recover more quickly using these simple techniques. Based on the Feldenkrais Method^®, which Smithsonian Magazine has called “a revolutionary approach to healing,” the lessons in both the ebook and the audio program are easy to understand and can be done by anyone.

Table of Contents

• Fear of Falling / Failing
• The Gravity of the Situation
• The Dance Between Stability and Mobility
• Sweet Surrender – The Art of Letting Go
• Stepping Up, Over and Around
• You Make Me Dizzy – That Old Vestibular System and How to Stay Upright
• I Get Knocked Down, But I Get Back Up Again
• The Downward (and Upward) Spiral

Introduction

I’ve been falling all my life. As a child, I often found myself lying face down in the mud, grass or street without realizing how I got there. One memorable fall pitched me head first down the stairs. Before I could cry, my parents grabbed me, sat me at the kitchen table and served me a bowl of ice cream; a rare treat that perhaps made me forever think that falling down was a good thing.

When I was a young actor, one of my wise teachers told me that we are successful when we turn our liabilities into assets. I became a mime and physical comedienne specializing in dive rolls, pratfalls and kicks in the pants. It was nice to get paid for falling down.

But it didn’t cure my clumsiness. Offstage I still fell down stairs, on hiking paths and sidewalks. Sometimes my theater skills helped. Once after a rain, I slipped on some mud while jogging. I tucked, rolled and kept running. A woman came panting up next to me. “Is that some new kind of aerobic exercise?” she asked.

Sometimes nothing helped and I had to nurse bruises, sprained ankles and even a couple of bloody noses. Then I discovered the Feldenkrais Method®. Developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, the Feldenkrais Method uses small, slow movements combined with awareness that change the way you move, think and act. I had no idea it would affect my falling. I just wanted to stop the aches and pains that seemed to be part of my career. What I discovered was an avenue towards better posture, greater relaxation, and more efficient movement. And I learned that while falling is a fact of life, you can develop strategies for both landing more softly as well as swifter recovery.

The exercises in this book are based on Moshe Feldenkrais’ teaching. He called his movement sequences Awareness Through Movement lessons. While it’s true that we are often hyper-aware while walking on ice, or crossing a stream, that awareness is often laced with tension. Awareness Through Movement lessons teach people how to sense their movement, sensations, feelings and thoughts without stress.

We use the word “falling” for countless emotional experiences: falling in love, into debt, out of favor, from grace. Oxford’s Dictionary has two pages dedicated to definitions of falling. Over the past 20 years, I’ve worked with thousands of people. Many had injuries from falling or were afraid of falling. Sometimes it wasn’t so much about falling as it was about getting up. Often after studying the movements of the Feldenkrais Method for a while, people ca me up to me with big grins and said, “Hey Lavinia, guess what? I fell on the ice yesterday,” or “I was working in the garden pulling weeds and went down!” These announcements ended with, “and amazingly, I didn’t hurt a thing!”

Falling happens so quickly, there’s no time for the ordinary thinking brain to make a choice. You have to rely on your kinesthetic intelligence. That’s the part of your body/mind that governs your movement habits. Your kinesthetic, or sensory intelligence knows exactly what to do as you back your car out of the driveway, flip an egg or ride your bicycle. While you can’t “train yourself to fall,” you can develop a more intelligent body that can help you in the event of a fall.

By exploring the movements in this book, you will discover a new way to prepare yourself for the inevitable. All of us are subject to gravity. Why not make it your friend?