Balance

Balance everything at this busy time of year!!! How one might ask??

As we move closer to Xmas, life gets busy with catch-ups and more activities to try and get through in our daily lives! As if we don’t have enough already to do!!

With our heads rushing from one thing to the next and pre-thinking all the extras it’s often hard to stay in the present moment! We write lists and try and remember all the things that we need to do!

Balance

To help us balance it all out here are some tips:

• Breaths can balance our nervous system and our mind.
• Physically to balance we need to be in the moment! Ever noticed when you try and balance and your not present, you cant?
• Ever noticed when your eyes are flickering around you can’t balance?
• Ever noticed in class when you are twisting and looking around that you become unstable?

Physical Balances help us to come into the moment and be present in this moment! So if you’re not present in your body at any given moment it’s often difficult to balance all that we are trying to do! Slow down and be aware of where you are in space and time!

Alternate nostril breaths help us to balance the yin and the yang energies in our body, mind and soul. The breaths help us to balance out so we can focus on what we need to do and either shift from a logical to creative energy and vice/versa is required!

Deep and slow even counted breaths also help to calm us and balance our energies.

Nadi Shodhana

This practice is about alternating the breaths up and down the nostrils.

The Practice: Alternate Nostril Breathing

Inhale: Left nostril (R nostril is closed by the thumb)
Exhale: Right nostril (L nostril is closed by the ring and little finger)
Inhale: Right nostril (L nostril remains closed by ring and little finger)
Exhale: Left nostril (Right nostril is closed by the thumb)

Please be mindful to:

1. Keep your breaths in a balanced count
2. Remain seated/upright for this practice, not laying down so re-adjust the body/legs with support if necessary. Or sit in a chair.
3. Start with your natural breaths and when ready commence the practice, a full exhale down your left nostril then begin, always being mindful of feeling how you are in the moment.
4. As you are traditionally using the right hand to close each nostril, you may need to swap hands or support the R arm if the shoulder is getting aggravated. Left hand cups the R elbow for support.
5. If you have cold/sinus symptoms and one side/nostril is completely/partially blocked keep the closed nostril slightly open in order to get airflow, or release the hand and continue the practice using your awareness only.
6. Notice your head alignment – if you are turning your head as we sometimes do when we’re pressing the nostrils, be mindful to try and keep your chin centred to the notch of your throat, therefore aligned.
7. Please watch the attached link, for a demonstration. The placement of the hand to close nostrils can be either with fingers extending up through the eyebrow centre, or closing/rolling the fingers down so they’re tucked into the palm of the hand.
8. Be mindful to stop if you feel any discomfort and return to a regular breath when necessary/ feels right. You may also start and stop throughout the time frame and for those who know how to count the rounds of breath on the left hand, do so 12 rounds or until you feel like finishing.
9. Give yourself time to sit in stillness once finishing the practice and notice any feelings.
10. Journal your experience. ????

This is an amazing practice with amazing benefits of balancing energies yin/yang; masculine/feminine; ida/pingala; right/left, hope you enjoy the practice.

NOTE: If you’re not familiar with this practice and bringing your hand up to close one side of the nostrils does not feel right to do then please let the hand drop away and slide your awareness through the nostril rather than trying to seal off.

These are some tips to help get you through this silly season.

SOURCE: Wikipedia on BALANCE in Bio-mechanics

In biomechanics, balance is an ability to maintain the line of gravity (vertical line from centre of mass) of a body within the base of support with minimal postural sway.^[1] Sway is the horizontal movement of the centre of gravity even when a person is standing still. A certain amount of sway is essential and inevitable due to small perturbations within the body (e.g., breathing, shifting body weight from one foot to the other or from forefoot to rearfoot) or from external triggers (e.g., visual distortions, floor translations). An increase in sway is not necessarily an indicator of dysfunctional balance so much as it is an indicator of decreased sensorimotor control.^[2]

Maintaining balance requires coordination of input from multiple sensory systems including the vestibular, somatosensory, and visual systems.^[3]

• Vestibular system: sense organs that regulate equilibrium (equilibrioception); directional information as it relates to head position (internal gravitational, linear, and angular acceleration)
• Somatosensory system: senses of proprioception and kinesthesia of joints; information from skin and joints (pressure and vibratory senses); spatial position and movement relative to the support surface; movement and position of different body parts relative to each other
• Visual system: Reference to verticality of body and head motion; spatial location relative to objects

The senses must detect changes of spatial orientation with respect to the base of support, regardless of whether the body moves or the base is altered. There are environmental factors that can affect balance such as light conditions, floor surface changes, alcohol, drugs, and ear infection.

There are balance impairments associated with aging. Age-related decline in the ability of the above systems to receive and integrate sensory information contributes to poor balance in older adults.^[4] As a result, the elderly are at an increased risk of falls. In fact, one in three adults aged 65 and over will fall each year.^[5]

In the case of an individual standing quietly upright, the limit of stability is defined as the amount of postural sway at which balance is lost and corrective action is required.^[6]

Body sway can occur in all planes of motion, which make it an increasingly difficult ability to rehabilitate. There is strong evidence in research showing that deficits in postural balance is related to the control of medial-lateral stability and an increased risk of falling. To remain balanced, a person standing must be able to keep the vertical projection of their center of mass within their base of support, resulting in little medial-lateral or anterior-posterior sway.

SOURCE: Wikipedia ON BALANCE in Homeostasis

Homeostasis is the state of steady internal conditions maintained by living things.^[1] This dynamic state of equilibrium is the condition of optimal functioning for the organism and includes many variables, such as body temperature and fluid balance, being kept within certain pre-set limits (homeostatic range). Other variables include the pH of extracellular fluid, the concentrations of sodium, potassium and calcium ions, as well as that of the blood sugar level, and these need to be regulated despite changes in the environment, diet, or level of activity. Each of these variables is controlled by one or more regulators or homeostatic mechanisms, which together maintain life.

Homeostasis is brought about by a natural resistance to change in the optimal conditions,^[2] and equilibrium is maintained by many regulatory mechanisms. All homeostatic control mechanisms have at least three interdependent components for the variable being regulated: a receptor, a control centre, and an effector. The receptor is the sensing component that monitors and responds to changes in the environment, either external or internal. Receptors include thermoreceptors, and mechanoreceptors. Control centres include the respiratory centre, and the renin–angiotensin system. An effector is the target acted on, to bring about the change back to the normal state. At the cellular level, receptors include nuclear receptors that bring about changes in gene expression through up-regulation or down-regulation, and act in negative feedback mechanisms. An example of this is in the control of bile acids in the liver.

Happy balanced lives everyone xoxoxo