My partner is a nurse and an educator, and he spends a lot of his free time studying the senses. He says balance is another of our primary senses, just as important as the ones in the traditional five. It’s a sense we develop throughout our lives, through practice and upkeep, and not just when we’re children!
The activity for today is to go outside with your children and do some balance challenges. We sometimes call them “Jedi challenges” too, although I’m sure that’s a bit of a copyright issue… If you live in a place where there are woods and nature spaces, I bet your child will be able to find great things to balance on. Downed logs are ideal, or rocks crossing a stream, or hopping from leaf to leaf (make sure to be aware of how wet the logs and rocks are, to avoid major slipping).
We know how hard it is to balance when we’re riled up. We rush, we slip, we might even get hurt because we’re not ready. To truly be able to balance, we must be feeling calm, measured, focused, and even-keeled.
I’ve felt pretty off-kilter at many points throughout the last few days, but I’ve noticed that the times I’ve felt most balanced this week is when I’m turning my face up to the sun, or sitting next to the Winooski river watching the geese honk and slip all over the ice. My nervous system is balancing when I step outside. My breath balances.
So, with your children, before you start these balance challenges on your walk today, start by closing your eyes and taking a few deep breaths. Paul Rezendes recommends putting all your awareness down to the soles of your feet. Pretend your brain lives on your feet. Feel the textures underneath your feet, feel the sensation of the angles and textures under each foot. Pretend you’re a Great Blue Heron taking a slow step through the marsh—and see if you can stand on that foot until you count to 10 together. Then try the other foot. Open your eyes and now you’re ready!
What should you do if your child feels afraid, says they can’t do it, wants you to help them?
It’s ok to start with more support and then slowly move toward offering less and less, to help them feel their edge in a gentle way. With smaller children you could be helping the whole time, and then switch and ask them to do the same for you!
When kids are expressing that they feel unsure about balancing, I first check in with them and ask “Are you feeling like you could use some help?” Sometimes kids want to express their discomfort with how hard it is but they still want to do it themselves, so in that case, I would just validate and empathize with what they’re saying. If they do want help, I’ll next ask “How can I help?” and wait for their answer. I’ll give them choices like “Do you want me to stand next to you?” or “Would like a hand to hold?” or even “If you’re feeling done, I can help you down.”
I avoid rushing in, and leave a little space for them to decide what they need in the moment, but once they’ve decided, I offer them the help they’ve requested. My boundary is usually around helping kids get up on high places that they can’t climb themselves—I feel like if they can’t climb up there, it’s probably not safe for them to be there without pretty intensive adult supervision and assistance, and I want to set us all up for success!
SOME WAYS TO PRACTICE BALANCE TODAY
*Find logs (not too high off the ground of course) and practice walking across them as far as you can. If you fall off, keep trying as long as you’re having fun!
*Find something like a stump or a rock and see how long you can balance on top of it. First on two feet. Then, see how long you can balance on one foot. THEN see how long you can balance with your eyes closed.
*Try walking across logs like different animals. How might a chipmunk scamper across? A bear? A snake? Do snakes scamper?
*Extra bonus: Try taking your shoes off for any of these challenges and see how it affects your balance to have bare feet. If you live in VT or anywhere there’s still snow, I challenge you to walk through a patch of snow with bare feet! I did it yesterday and it actually felt quite refreshing.
ALTERNATIVES AND ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
*If you live in town, there are still balance challenges all around. You can find curbs, or cracks in the sidewalk to follow, step over step. Train tracks. Put a 2x4 out in your yard. You can walk to the park and find playground equipment to balance on there, too.
*If balancing with your legs and feet isn’t an option for you, or if you’re feeling ready to slow down a bit, have a seat and build a rock cairn or stick structure. See how many structures you can build out of stacking and balancing materials. If you live close to the New Haven river or Otter Creek, there are lots of river stones that are great for balancing atop one another and making cairns.
*Try balancing an egg in a spoon, and lifting the spoon up to the top of your head, then down the bottom of your chin. Gradually increase the distance, until you’re bringing the spoon all the way down to your feet. Next try it with your eyes closed! Have some paper towels on hand.
During these challenges today, is your child going to be thinking about the connection between balancing on a log and balancing their emotions? Probably not—they’re probably going to be whole-heartedly playing, unaware that playing outside is grounding and balancing for their nervous systems and emotions. No problem, that’s the way it should be.
May all of these activities may help us reclaim some balance today, for a little while at least. I’m doing them all too! Stay tuned for tomorrow!