The Last Sapien | one fall away

One Fall Away | It takes us more than a year from the time we are out there in the world before we learn to stand on our feet, nevertheless walk. We fall so many times and being comforted by our parents. As toddlers we master the art of falling and we probably practice every possible posture landing on our face. Our body is built to recover and then we grow older . . .

The older we get the more humiliating the act of falling is getting. We enter the danger zone of breaking bones, risk of concussion and a tossed up ego, not sure what is risking us more.

We forget that we once mastered it and forget to 'practice' the perfect fall.

As I am out there running, I am always on the watch to lean forward so if anything happens I can just stretch forward and land with the help of my arms and toes, smile, get up, make sure I was not seen by anyone and continue. I recall one day running outdoors on a short trail that had raised tree roots, it took me three seconds to trip on one of them and land face down on the muddy soil. That was the wakeup fall for me to refresh my toddlers' memory on proper landing. I do not run in fear, but with cautious mindset, I make sure to have my arms ready to catch the rest of my body.

But time doesn't stop here, we are always one fall away that can change the quality of our life. Our confidence in our independence is placed in doubt as soon as our butt meets the floor. The 'what if' scenarios are rushing to the head in an overwhelming speed like an angry bull is just released from its cage.

The main muscle we need to train (as always) is our brain, there are no emotional airbags to be deployed to hold our thoughts in place or rafts to jump onto to survive the tsunami of thoughts that feel like drowning. Our brain has the powers to shut us down using ancient instincts that used for survival when caves sheltered us. We have come a long way since without re-programming our mindsets and instincts. The couch potatoes we become is adding weights to our body making it impossible to balance, nevertheless lifting it up from the ground just introduced.

One fall away is not saved for the fat and the hopeless, it collects the skinny and happy to its list of subscribers as well. It is our programming that needs the suspension built into it making every hard hit softer than it is, allowing us the strength to get back on our feet dust off our shuttered pride, stretch our head high and move on as if nothing has happened, off to the next one. Not again . . .!