Listening To Your Body: Ways To Avoid Falling in San Miguel

By Richard Adelman

There is a lot you can do to avoid or at least minimize your chances of falling in San Miguel. The city has so many wonderful features—architecture, art, music, food, the weather, community-- but the risk of falling is not one them. Everyone wants to avoid becoming one of the “fallen women (or men) of San Miguel.”

Walking safely here is challenging—especially for new-comers who have not grown up in this environment. They are unaccustomed to negotiating the irregular surfaces. They may want to walk “naturally” or spontaneously, but that might not work with the uneven sidewalks and streets. Walking around San Miguel is a balancing act! It helps to recognize what you are up against, not only in the environment but also in yourself. With age, your balance and your ability to maintain it or correct it are probably not what they used to be. When you are over 60, nervous transmission slows down--you have a slower reaction and response time. It takes longer to notice and react to an irregularity where you are walking. You are less adaptable.

Your posture may overall not be as upright, balanced, or functional as it once was. People who walk in a hunched-over position are relatively more inclined to fall. Chronic or acute pain almost anywhere in your body limits your coordination and flexibility and may compromise balance. Vision difficulties can also pose a problem. If you have neuropathy you may not be able to clearly feel the ground through your feet.

What are some practical strategies to cope with these and other difficulties?

Genuinely recognizing you are liable to fall is the first step (pun intended). Try to take yourself and the situation seriously.

Some people have to start by admitting that they have been in a state of denial and naively adopting a carefree attitude.

Denying ones’ vulnerability does not make one less vulnerable to falling--but rather more vulnerable. Something a bit tricky here is a possible threat to person´s sense of his own identity. Part of our sense of identity has to do with “I am competent, I can do this.” It may be threatening to admit that one is prone to falling and can no longer be their spontaneous self.

He is being called to develop a new identity as a more careful, aware person.

If you can get over these hurdles then here are a few self-help suggestions.

To begin, wear good supportive shoes with non-slippery soles. What are good shoes depends on the individual. But definitely not sandals, unless they are closed at the back.

Avoid shuffling. Walk heel to toe, with a pressure wave flowing through your feet. If you pick your toes up enough with each step then when you arrive at a bump in the sidewalk you will not stub your toe and trip.

One way to clarify this for yourself is to practice walking backward in a safe place so you can experience the opposite—walking toe to heel.

Walking backward often has the added benefit of improving your normal forward walking. A man who had been limping for weeks walked backward in a Feldenkrais workshop and his limp vanished!

Try not to wear bifocals or progressives in the street. You cannot see the ground clearly through the bottom of the lenses, so you have to bend your head forward to look through the middle of the lenses.

• Bending your head down in this way can be uncomfortable for your neck or back and inclines your body forward (closer to falling).

• One option is to try going without glasses altogether. Another is to get a pair of lenses specifically for your long-distance vision.

• An additional vision tip is to scan 10 feet in front of you, identifying troublesome surfaces, and looking directly down when you encounter them.

• In general, if you pay attention to yourself and your walking environment and go a little slower and more carefully than spontaneously you can help yourself a lot.

• Avoid distractions and watch where you are going.

Walking around San Miguel with a “footloose and fancy-free” attitude can be very costly. Try to envision fall prevention as a challenge to your creativity and adaptability—your maturity.

Richard Adelman (M. A. Psychology) is a Feldenkrais Practitioner and Pilates Teacher in private and group practice.

415 197 7895 WhatsApp   richardadelman@gmail.com