Mountain View News June 6, 2026 
1010 
Mountain View News June 6, 2026 
1010 
Michele Silence, M.A. is a 37-year certified fitness 
professional who offers semi-private/virtual fit-
ness classes. Contact Michele at michele@kid-fit. 
com. Visit her Facebook page at: michelesfitness 
Visit her Facebook page at: michelesfitness. 


GET DOWN 

At one time or another, we’ve all probably had a fear of 
falling, but there is another fear many adults quietly carry 
and rarely talk about: not being able to get back up again. 
In fact, it doesn’t take much to start avoiding the floor 
altogether. Maybe you no longer kneel in the garden, sit 
on the floor with grandchildren, stretch on the carpet, or 
reach under the bed because you worry about how you 
would get back up. 

If that sounds familiar, you have plenty of company. 
This problem is much more common than many people 
realize. More than one in four adults age 65 and older 
falls each year, and studies have found that 47% of older 
adults who experience a fall are unable to get up without 
help, even when they are not seriously injured. 

Weight gain, arthritis, surgeries, inactivity, and fear after 
a fall can all make getting down and up more difficult. 
Often, it happens gradually. One day you suddenly 
realize you have not been on the floor in years because 
you are afraid you may not be able to get back up. You do 
not have to be elderly for this to happen. You may already 

struggle with this in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, especially if you have knee pain, extra weight, 
balance problems, or have become less active over time. 

Unfortunately, avoiding the floor often makes the problem worse. When you stop using 
certain movements, your muscles weaken and your joints become stiffer. Confidence drops 
too. Over time, simple things like getting out of a low chair, climbing stairs, kneeling down, 
or getting up from the ground may become harder. 

The good news is you can improve these skills. The key is moving slowly, using support, and 
progressing gradually. You should not simply throw yourself onto the floor and hope for the 
best. Safer methods use sturdy supports, cushions, checkpoints, and controlled movement. 

One important thing I have learned over the years is that many people are actually more 
afraid of getting DOWN than getting UP. Lowering yourself toward the floor can feel like 
losing control. You may worry about falling forward, hurting your knees, or getting trapped 
halfway down. That fear is real and should not be ignored. 

This is why safe progression matters so much. You may need to start by simply practicing 
getting out of a chair more easily. You may begin by lowering yourself to a higher surface 
such as stacked cushions before attempting true floor work. You may feel safer using both 
arms and both legs together instead of trying to push yourself up from one leg alone. 

There is also no single “right” way for everyone to get down and up. If you have arthritis in 
your knees, balance problems, shoulder pain, weakness, or extra weight, your safest method 
may be very different from someone else’s. Some people tolerate kneeling well on thick 
cushions while others cannot kneel comfortably at all. The goal is not perfection. The goal 
is finding the safest and strongest method for YOUR body. 

Strength training can also help. Exercises such as sit-to-stands, leg strengthening, calf 
raises, supported squats, and arm strengthening may improve your ability to move safelybetween different levels. Even small improvements in strength and confidence can make a 
big difference in daily life. 

Fear is another major factor. When you feel unstable, your body often becomes tense. You 
may panic or rush movements. Learning how to pause, use supports, and move in stages 
can help you feel more in control. Confidence often improves as you discover you can safelylower yourself partway and return to standing without pain or panic. 

Improving this skill may help you feel safer and more independent. You may become 
more comfortable exercising, stretching, gardening, cleaning low areas, or playing with 
grandchildren again. Most importantly, you may reduce the quiet fear many adults carry 
about what might happen if they ever ended up on the floor unexpectedly. 

Because this issue is so common, I am starting a new 6-week Zoom class called “Get Down... 
And Up!” The class is designed for people who struggle with getting down to the floor 
and back up, or who are simply afraid to try. You will learn safe, supported methods using 
cushions, furniture, gradual progressions, and strengthening exercises. The goal is building 
confidence, control, and safer movement one step at a time. For more information on the 
class email me at michele@kid-fit.com or message me through Facebook at: michelesfitness. 
Because one of the most liberating feelings is being able to know you can get down, and 
then back up again. 


UNLOCK YOUR LIFE 


THE BOULDER IN THE ROAD IS NOT 
WHAT YOU THINK 

Have you ever noticed that right before something really good was 
about to happen, something really icky showed up? A problem. A 
setback. Some old mistake is crawling back out of the shadows. A 
feeling that made you want to freeze, or hide, or quit altogether.
That feeling has a name. I call it the boulder moment. 
Most of us, when we hit that boulder, assume it means stop. We tell ourselves the dream isn't 
working, the goal isn't meant for us, the universe is sending a signal to turn back. But what if 
we looked at it completely differently? What if the appearance of the obstacle was not a sign 
to stop, but a sign to keep going? What if it were proof that you were not failing, but on the 
exact right path? 

What if the boulder was actually a stepping stone? 

What I Saw in the Courtroom 

This conversation isn't just personal growth theory. It comes from nearly 30 years of sittingbeside people in some of the most consequential moments of their lives. As a capital defense 
attorney, I watched something heartbreaking happen, over and over again. 

People who had made serious mistakes would walk out of a courtroom determined to start 
over. They'd get back to school, find new work, return to church, put their heads down, and 
grind. They turned the corner. And the thing they were ashamed of? They left it over there, 
somewhere behind them, and decided to simply become someone new. 

The problem is, they didn't resolve it. They avoided it. 

And here is what I watched happen, almost without exception: the exact moment their life 
started getting really good, that unresolved business came back for them. An outstanding 
warrant. A probation term they'd ignored. Something that could have been handled quicklybecame an arrest. A weekend in custody. A conversation they'd been dreading, now mandatory.
It wasn't punishment from the universe. It was the incomplete that finally demanded 
completion. 

We All Have an Outstanding Warrant 

Yours may not be actual legal trouble. Maybe it's the difficult conversation you've been 
avoiding for months. The bill that keeps getting shuffled to the bottom of the pile. The tax 
return was not filed. The neglected health practice you know would change your life, if only 
you'd start. The dream you abandoned and never grieved. The promise you made to yourself 
that you still haven't kept. 

These things, large and small, are what Gay Hendricks calls our "incompletes" in his book The 
Big Leap. And whether you are consciously thinking about them or not, they are running in 
the background of your body and your nervous system. They block creativity. They interrupt 
peace. They prevent expansion. They drain the very energy you need to step into your next 
level. 

Shame is usually the reason we avoid them. Shame convinces us that avoidance is safer than 
facing the thing. It tells us: if people knew what I know about myself, they'd respect me even 
less. It traps us in an identity we're desperately trying to escape, rather than allowing us to use 
that experience as a foundation for something new. 

But here is the hard truth I learned from watching people rebuild their lives: shame does not 
transform anyone. It only keeps people small. 

The Identity Underneath the Obstacle 

Real transformation is not a graceful, linear climb. It looks more like adolescent growth, dips 
and surges, two steps forward and one step back. What looks like a setback is often your 
current identity being challenged by the person you are becoming. 

That roadblock is not there to stop you. It is there to introduce you to your next level. 

You cannot carry your old identity into your new life. As the scripture says, you cannot put 
new wine into old wineskins. The new thing that is seeking to be born within you requires a 
new container, and that container is built through completion, not avoidance. 

Your Invitation This Week 

Try the Gay Hendricks incompletes exercise. Take out a piece of paper and write down 
everything that is hanging over your head. Conversations. Bills. Health promises. Old stories. 
Broken commitments to yourself. Get it all out. 

Then circle one thing. Just one. 

What would it look like to approach that one thing imperfectly, not to tackle the whole 
enchilada, but to make one small, honest micro-move toward resolution? What would it feel 
like to simply tell yourself the truth about it?
Growth happens not when we pretend the boulder isn't there, but when we step upon it and 
let it lift us to a new vista. 
The obstacle in front of you is not a punishment. It is an invitation, an invitation to heal, to 
release, to complete, and to finally become the person you have been ready to be all along. 

Lori A. Harris is a Life Mastery Consultant, Integrative Change Coach, and host of the Unlock 
Your Life podcast and the Discovering Black Walden Retreat. You reach her at loriaharris.com. 


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