Walking is actually falling forward without falling down.

Somewhere long ago, you had your first serious fall. You may not even remember it, but it is locked away in the reptilian portion of your brain. The physical pain of that fall created an indelible imprint. Your body remembers.
 

Whenever and however it occurred, that uncontrolled fall happened in milliseconds. The hands hit the ground, and the gravel and grit dug into the flesh. You didn't feel the initial impact. The adrenaline instantaneously shot through your body. Your elbows slid along the ground, abrading your skin. Quickly followed by your knees sandpapering forward. At the same time, your body arched backward, attempting to thwart the imminent impact. With the head back, you take the blow on the chin. Over the years of teaching several thousand walkers and runners, about one in forty needed stitches to their chin from that fall. They took it on the chin.
 

The shock of the pain to your body hit. Your voice cried out, accompanied by loud wailing and a flood of tears. The body says to the brain: I will never let that happen again. At that moment, the body sets up a tiny, almost infinitesimal defense mechanism. That slight readjustment is there to prevent that fall from ever happening again. The body says: I will never fall down that way again. From that moment forward, the body adjusts, never to experience that pain again.
 

In that instant, that slight correction creates another problem. Should you fall again, if your body can help it, it will not be forward. Defending against any forward fall, the body has created the slip and fall. When you slip and fall, it will be backward, not forward. For a lifetime, the way you walk and stand is forever altered. If you fall forward, you won’t be able to catch yourself.
 

In the following months, I will share what I have observed over almost 50 years. I aim to help you regain what was taken away after that first fall. I will share my perspective on helping you or a loved one overcome the fear of falling. It is about sharing my theory and practice to save one life. If I can only save one life, I will have succeeded. We will have succeeded if it helps you, one of your loved ones, or someone you are coaching or training.
 

What drives me to share is a statistic I read in 2018: Three million seniors fell. There is an estimate that another million fell without reporting it. Of the three million, 750,000 went to the emergency room or hospital. Of the 750,000, 32,000 seniors died due to that slip and fall. There are no statistics on those who lived but whose falls incapacitated them because of bodily or brain damage. They were never able to return to their normal life.
 

CDC’s latest statistic for 2022: 40,919 older adults aged 65 and older died from PREVENTABLE FALLS of the 3.5 million treated in emergency rooms. (See graph on Home page)

Hopefully, we will lower that number together.