Happy Hallow's Eve! 

With Halloween upon us, I bet you're starting to feel the holiday spirit in the air. I sure am! 

In fact, just this past weekend, I attended a daytime Halloween Festival that I enjoyed with a few of my young friends. We strolled along Benicia's mainstreet with all sorts of spooky spirits, cute critters, superheros, and more current characters like Angry Birds and SpongeBob. What a delightful time we had! I loved seeing all the colorful gourds, haystacks, turning and falling leaves, homemade goodies, decorated storefronts and many smiling faces. In my opinion, the holidays have been officially launched! 

I wonder what types of uplifting activities you are filling your days with during our beautiful autumn harvest time. Are you doing any gardening or taking walks in nature? Traveling? Are you inspired to express your creativity through baking, writing, painting, music or making crafts? Perhaps you're spending more time indoors socializing with loved ones or relaxing with a good book? Though the days are growing shorter and the nights are longer in our northern hemisphere, I hope you are counting your blessings and taking pleasure in the many abundant foods and gifts that autumn brings...especially since the chill of winter is on the horizon! 

 Photo credit: Getty

A Myth About Balance Loss

Although aging may cause some decrease in balance, in fact, it is actually near the bottom of the list of risk factors for falling. The primary cause of balance issues (except for those with certain diseases) is years and years of decreasing activity levels placing less and less demands on our balance system. The body is capable of less because less has been demanded of it for a long time! This is empowering to know because deteriorating balance is something that we 

can very successfully address through a thoughtful training program. We may not be able to stop the advance of time, but we most certainly can be proactively involved in our own health care. 

(In photo: Marge and Carol doing balance training in my Still Going Strong Class. 

Woo-hoo!)

Our bodies are amazingly adaptive, at every age. Really they are!  If, on a regular basis, we ask our bodies to do things that require balance, then we'll maintain the ability to balance. However, the adaptation concept is a two-way street. If we spend a lot of time sitting, not moving much at all, then our bodies will adapt to being sedentary, with increasingly more muscle, bone and balance loss. I'm sure you've heard the expression, "use it or lose it!"  

I like what Dr. Wayne Pickering says: "Age is not a matter of years; it is a matter of condition."  And I'm a big fan of JOYFUL movement, as opposed to just exercising by rote. If your fitness practices are fun to you, then you'll more likely keep doing them over the longterm. On that note, have you been sitting for more than an hour? If so, stand up and take a walk around the house! I'm going to do the same thing because I've been sitting here working on this newsletter for a while now. Let's get moving so we feel good and function well! And, if you're currently not able to stand, then experiment with how many ways you can move around while sitting.