The Falling Book

This page will be dedicated to the development of my latest ebook, The Little Book of Falling (and Getting Up): Prevent Injury and Recover Quickly from Gravity’s Embrace.

I plan to have small embedded video clips in each chapter that clarify any questions about movement exercises.  And ultimately, I will record full length lessons that will be available separately for people who wish to explore in more depth the adventures of falling.

As I develop this book, I will be posting chapters in order to get some feedback from readers about the ideas in this book.  I welcome comments about sections that seem unclear, or things that you love.  Each chapter will explore aspects of falling and recovery.  Thanks for reading!

Introduction

I’ve been falling all my life.  As a child, I often found myself lying in the mud, grass or street without realizing how I got there.  One memorable fall pitched me down the stairs so precipitously, my terrified parents 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 once told me that we are successful when we turn our liabilities into assets. I became a mime and physical comedienne with a specialty in dive rolls, prat falls and kicks in the pants.  It was nice to get paid for falling down.

Offstage I still fell downstairs on hiking paths and sidewalks.  Sometimes my theater skills helped.  One memorable day after a rain, I slipped on some mud while jogging.  I tucked and rolled, then totally embarrassed by the streak of mud down my back, I 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 a couple of bloody noses.
In my late 30’s, I discovered the Feldenkrais Method®. Developed by Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais, it is a cutting edge movement technology that uses small movements and awareness to improve the function of the nervous system, and therefore of the entire human.  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 not just an avenue towards better posture, greater relaxation and more efficient movement. I learned that falling is an art and a science. If I can be comfortable with “a sudden change in my relationship to gravity,” as another teacher once called falling, life itself changes.  The exercises in this book are based on the Feldenkrais’ teaching.  He called his movement sequences Awareness Through Movement® lessons.  What better way to improve your balance than by developing awareness?

The experience of falling is so powerful that we use the word 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.    In both literal and metaphoric falls, the experience is one of irreversibility.  Moshe Feldenkrais often said that a functional movement needs to be reversible.  But  falling on your face is irreversible unless you know how to levitate.  And falling behind can seem like a trip down Alice’s rabbit hole – how ever will you get ahead?

Over the last twenty 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.  Many times, after studying the movements of the Feldenkrais Method for a while, people come 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 announcement ended with, “…and amazingly, I didn’t hurt a thing!”

Falling happens so quickly, there’s no time for the brain to make a choice. You have to rely on your kinesthetic intelligence.  How do you train yourself to fall? That’s what this book is about.  I invite you to join me on a journey into a system that is so elegant, so deceptively simple, you will feel like you’re doing nothing.  But by exploring the movements in this book, you will discover a new way to prepare yourself for the inevitable.  Because all of us are subject to gravity. Why not make it your friend?

I’ve organized this book as a user friendly introduction to all aspects of falling and getting up; from the biomechanical to the psychological and metaphoric.  There are plenty of books and videos out there that can help you in an emergency.  This book is designed to help prevent an emergency by making you more flexible, less fearful and therefore more able to recover.

When you get to the exercises, do them slowly, in a relaxed fashion.  The motto of the Feldenkrais Method® is “less pain, more gain.” Each person does the movements according to his own ability, understanding and interest.  If you find something is too difficult to understand or to do, then you are right, it is too difficult for you.  That doesn’t mean you should strain, and it doesn’t mean that you are a failure.  Work with the movements that feel pleasurable to do, and eventually, all the movements in this book will be accessible.  The sequences in this book are written in a condensed, abbreviated style so you don’t have to follow a lot of detail as you move.  However, if you want to study this in more depth, I have recorded expanded versions of all these lessons, which are available for purchase as either a CD or MP3 download.

As the Japanese proverb says, “Fall down eight times, get up nine.” See you on the floor!

Chapter 1

Fear of Falling/Failing

Marjorie came to one of my Falling Workshops.  She was an athlete and a trainer with a passion for tennis.  Marjorie informed me that she had recently lost her balance on the tennis court and had so severely sprained her ankle that she hadn’t been able to return to playing or even doing all her work.  A few months after the workshop, she stopped by the studio.  “I just had to share with you in person, “ she said excitedly, “that I fell!”

“Is that a good thing?” I asked.

“Yes!” She exclaimed. “When I sprained my ankle,” Marjorie continued, “I had felt myself losing my balance.  But I was so afraid of looking incompetent, or that my students would judge me if I landed on the ground, that I forced myself to stay upright.  To onlookers, it looked like I stumbled a bit, but because I was tense, I completely twisted my ankle.  Then I jogged off the court to look good, which made my ankle even worse.  This time, as I ran up to the net, my shoe got caught and I went off balance. Instead of trying to “hold it together,” I let the racket fly from my hand, softened my knees and rolled in the dirt.  I was immediately surrounded by a dozen worried people.

‘Are you OK?’ they all asked.

I rolled to my side, and spiraled up to standing, shook myself off, and thought about it.  ‘Yes, I’m totally fine,’ I replied. And I was! Even though I looked ridiculous collapsing on the ground, I had landed softly and injury free.”

There are three main reasons to fear falling.  Two of them: fear of injury, and the fear that you will be unable to get up are physiological fears based in our instinct for self-preservation. Who needs a cut lip, a broken arm or hip? As we age, and our bones become more brittle, this possibility becomes more threatening. If you don’t think you can get back up after landing, the idea of falling makes you more nervous. This book will teach you strategies for softer landings, ways of coming back to standing, and increasing your confidence in your own abilities.

The third reason people fear falling is psychological: a fear of “looking stupid.”  As in Marjorie’s case, we especially fear publicly displaying our inability to stay upright.  Let’s take a look at how this sinking feeling is related to our fear of failure.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? Vincent van Gogh

Statistics tell us that fear of falling actually increases the chances of falling.  If you are afraid, you are tense.  Being tense while walking limits your vision, range of motion and ability to recover balance in a dangerous situation.  How similar that is to people who live with fear of failure! There is hesitancy, tension, inability to focus on what’s necessary.  But failure, like falling, is like a date with destiny.  It’s a learning experience that’s bound to happen at some time. Marjorie’s connection between fear of falling and failing was literal.  For most people, the experience of “crash and burn” is financial, emotional or career related.  Some people so utterly fear failure, they never even attempt the dream they have in their hearts.

We have many sayings relating success/failure to falling.  “He fell flat on his face.”  “She landed on her feet.” “The higher you climb, the harder you fall.” When we fall in public, we remind everyone of our vulnerability. You failed to “stay on your feet.”  Slapstick comedy capitalizes on this. Everyone laughs at the clown who slips on the banana peel.  So even if the fall is painful, and no one around you is laughing, you feel as silly as the clown who just catapulted into a vegetable bin or mud puddle.  It implies you made a wrong move.  You weren’t paying attention.  You are obviously, in front of the entire world, not perfect.  That fear of embarrassment can paralyze you.  In some cultures, even up till modern times, embarrassment, or “losing face” could even lead to suicide.

Can learning how to fall gracefully help someone be willing to “take the plunge” in a new relationship, career move, or venture?  Science has not yet figured out an effective measurement for something like this. But common sense can tell you that if you are relaxed, you are more balanced, more ready to respond to whatever situations may arise.  If you fall, you know you have options for how to land, as well as how to get up.  Compare that to someone who is terrified of falling.  They are stiff, often looking down and therefore unable to see what’s happening around them.  Their tension throws them off balance making them prone to both falling and injury.

Feldenkrais often said, “It’s not flexible bodies I’m after, it’s flexible brains.” He was one of the first people to state that there is not just a mind/body connection, but that the mind and the body are one and the same. To call it a connection would be like saying the mind lives in one part and the body lives someplace else.  If the body is better organized then the mind also functions better.  If I know you know you have strategies for recovery, you may be more willing to “risk a fall” – whether physical or metaphorical.

Exercise: Falling from the Floor

In order to overcome the fear of falling, it’s best to begin close to the ground. That way you don’t have far to go and can easily recognize when fear inhibits movement. I often work privately with people who have a lot of pain.  We work on a low table, where I use gentle movement to help them discover new options for better function.  I sometimes encounter people who while lying on their side, are very stiff, as if holding themselves in place.  Sometimes, as I encourage a little rolling action to the back, they will suddenly pull back to the original position.  When I ask them what happened, they often say, “I was about to fall!”

“You felt you were going to fall off the table?” I ask.

“Noooo,” you can already hear the shock.  “I was afraid I would fall from my side onto my back…onto the table….” At which point, they usually start laughing.

So before we begin to learn “how to fall” we want to address the fear in a safe environment, by practicing the feeling of falling “from the floor.” You will need some space for this exercise, at least an arm’s width to each side of yourself.  If you can’t find a floor space like this in your home or office, you can do it lying sideways across your bed.  Bend your knees and bring them up over your chest.  Hold your right knee with your right hand, your left knee with your left hand.  Begin to gently rock left and right.  Notice how you do this movement.  Do both of your legs go together, or does one lead?  What does your head do?  As you roll, do you inhale, exhale, or hold your breath?  What do you feel in your head?  In your neck? Let go of your legs and take a rest.  Give yourself a moment to check in.  How do you feel?  Relaxed?  Stressed? Tired?  All of this is information. If you feel stressed or tired, give yourself permission to rest longer, or even give it up for today, returning to it later to try again.

Take the same position as before.  This time, as you begin the movement, can you let one of your legs lead to the side?  When you roll to your right, let your right leg separate from your left leg, and then the left leg follows, and vice versa.  Now what happens?  What do you feel happening between your legs?  Are you rolling more or rolling less?  Pay attention to your head.  Is it rolling or staying still?  For a few movements, keep your head still.  How far can you roll holding your head in place?  Now roll your head along with your leading leg.  Can you roll further?  Can you roll all the way to one side?  How does that feel? And now what are you going to do?  How do you roll back to your back? How do you roll to the other side?  Or are you stuck?

Many people get stuck on the side, feeling that their only option is to hurl themselves up and over.  But what would happen if you just let your top leg lift up and start going over to the other side?  Can your pelvis roll with your leg?  Can your head roll?  So your other leg comes up last, after everything else has rolled over.

Rest again.  Notice if this sequence has been fun, scary, painful, interesting.  Maybe you have some other adjective to describe it. If you felt anxiety, fear or tension as you did this, try the exercise again at another time.  This doesn’t mean you can’t go on to other exercises in the book.  In fact, sometimes doing the other ones can help you improve this first movement.