Please stand in a slouched and/or twisted posture with eyes closed. Begin taking a few deep breaths. What are you noticing? Is it easy to breathe here? Do you feel good in this position? Beyond being uncomfortable, when we look out of balance on the outside, how does affect our internal health? Imagine how being in this position affects the function and flow of your internal systems? Digestion? Blood flow? Your emotional state? Self-esteem? Confidence? Ability to think? Your energy flow?
With your eyes closed, stand upright and take a few deep breaths…….It is much easier to breathe here, right? Likewise, when we are standing tall, digestion, elimination, hormone flow, reproductive systems all function more efficiently. And we tend to think more clearly and feel better emotionally and energetically.
Our posture is one outward reflection of our internal well-being.
What is Design Posture?
Our amazing bodies have a brilliant design. Here is our very basic design posture – meaning how our bodies function most efficiently. Consider these views:
Front: From the front, you want to see symmetry and balance left to right. Ankles, knees, hips and shoulders all stacked and level.
Side: From the side, you want to see ankle, knee, hip, shoulder and ear all vertically aligned creating dynamic tension front to back so that you are not fighting against gravity to hold yourself upright.
S-Curve: Maintaining the gentle s-curve of the spine allows you to balance upright, remain flexible and take the impact from all the activities you do. Without that curve, you put pressure on your vertebrae and impair nerve function which is essential to health.
In today’s world how often do we see this ideal design posture? Not very often. And it is affecting the quality of our health and contributing to pain.
Check Yourself
Have you ever noticed any imbalance in your own posture or movement? If you are anything like me, I knew my head was jutting forward and I was self-conscious about my posture, but thought there was nothing I could do about it. So learning that I could change my posture was incredibly empowering and learning that my posture was related to my chronic pain was of course motivating.
What is Postural Alignment Therapy?
Postural Alignment Therapy is beautifully simple and FOUNDATIONAL. Very simply put, realign the joints, regain muscular balance and the body will naturally regenerate and heal itself.
Postural Alignment Therapy is a process that uses gentle corrective exercises to realign the 8 major load joints (ankles, knees, hips & shoulders). It looks at the body as a whole with the goal of eliminating the cause of pain and dysfunction rather than treating symptoms.
Some of the exercises are passive allowing gravity to do the work allowing fascia to reform. Some of the exercises are active requiring your muscles to work in a more balanced way. And some of the exercises focus specifically on diaphragmatic breathing and getting the diaphragm to function more efficiently.
Before and After Postural Therapy: Going off what you just felt when you stood in the slouch and twisted posture and looking at these posture photos. In which picture does she look more comfortable? More confident? Breathing better? In which picture does she look younger and stronger?
3 Tips for Preventing Pain
- Healthy postural alignment is foundational and essential for efficient, smooth, and pain free movement. Whole person balance and alignment are essential for creating and maintaining health as well as preventing dis-ease.
- Movement is Life, Life is Movement. Find joyful ways of moving. Move often. Movement doesn’t have to be exercise. It doesn’t have to be going to the gym. It can be if you enjoy that. Or it can be gardening, taking stairs, cleaning, yard work, walking, hiking or biking outside, etc.
- Listen DEEPLY to your body’s wisdom. When your body speaks to you through pain or discomfort, don’t ignore it, don’t push through it, INSTEAD get curious about it. Ask why? And take action to get to the cause so that you can prevent injury and / or imbalances from taking root and growing.
SPECIAL OFFER
If you are curious about how you posture is related to your chronic pain and overall wellbeing, I invite you to set up a 90 Minute Initial Postural Assessment. If you schedule by June 15th, 2018, then receive 50% off!! Just email me at anna@posturalhealing.com and put “Bhakti Newsletter Special Offer” in the title.
Anna Forliti is a Postural Alignment Specialist who coaches people to eliminate chronic pain and feel great in their bodies!
Postural Health adn Healing