Find Your Midlife Balance While Waiting For The Coffee To Brew (Simple Saturdays)

Episode 64 | (00:10):
Hey there. Welcome to Simple Saturdays. Today I'm going to be talking about balance and I don't mean work-life balance, I'm talking about actual physical balance.

(00:21):
Did you know that we can start losing our balance beginning at the age of 50? Yikes, that sounds really young to me. You guys, we are midlifers and as we age, we need to be thinking about our balance and our stability.

(00:40):
You hear about people falling and breaking a hip. This can happen if you're not paying attention. The interesting thing about balance is you don't get it magically overnight or by accident.

(00:52):
To get balance, you have to practice balance. It's just like flexibility. To be flexible, you have to practice being flexible, which means lots of stretching.

(01:01):
Today I'm giving you two simple exercises that are easy-to-remember, easy-to-do, and I gave the first one to my mom when she was about 70 or 75. She made some very nice progress on this.

(01:16):
When you're making your coffee in the morning, that is the priority of all of this. ;) Get the coffee going and while it's brewing, face the kitchen counter. Put both hands on the counter and then stand on your left leg.

(01:31):
Don't lock your knee when you do this, but just make sure you're sturdy on your left leg. So the bottom of your right foot will go against your left ankle with your toes on the ground. Your toes are going to help you balance, kind of like a kickstand.

(01:49):
Get your balance and when you're ready, lift your hands one or two inches above the counter. Keep them where they are, but lift them just a little bit, and then count. See how long you can stand there without falling.

(02:00):
If you feel yourself losing your balance, just put your hands down on the counter. Pretty simple, right? Do this a few times, then switch sides. If you do this every morning while you're waiting for the coffee to brew, I can guarantee that you are going to get more balance and more confidence fairly quickly.

(02:17):
You're going to be surprised at how fast this happens. As you get better at balancing, you may want to move your foot a little further up on your leg so your toes aren't touching the floor anymore.

(02:27):
Challenge yourself when you're ready to do that. So that's the first one. The second one is one that I do every time I go walking. There's a long block on my way home, and all I do is walk on the curb.

(02:39):
Remember when you were younger, and you used to pretend you were on a tight rope? You'd be walking on the curb and trying to get your balance.

(02:44):
In the last episode, I talked to you about slowing down in order to speed up your learning. When I started walking on the curb again, I did begin very slowly because I wanted to get the feel of what it was like to put one foot directly in front of the other.

(03:01):
I didn't want to go too fast at the beginning because obviously, I didn't want to slip and hurt myself. Pretend you're on a tight rope again. Start off very slowly when you're walking the curb and you're going to become more confident.

(03:13):
And now that I'm more confident in my abilities, I challenge myself to go as fast as I can without falling off. So for you, just pick a small stretch in your neighborhood, maybe in front of your house, and start slowly practicing walking on the curb, one foot in front of the other.

(03:27):
And in my experience, the one thing I will tell you, do not look at your feet when you're trying this. Look at the curb that 's a few feet in front of you because that's going to help you get your balance. It's just a lot easier to do it that way.

(03:41):
That's it for today. Thank you for joining me for Simple Saturdays. I'll see you in the next episode and until then, peace, love and blessings to you and yours. Take care. Bye-bye!