Why Posture Matters
When someone walks into a room, how do you tell if they’re feeling confident, shy or having an utterly rubbish day?
If you’re feeling open to new ideas, if you’re in a defensive mood – all can be revealed by your posture.
Your posture is not a fixed position – it’s a moveable feast (as Ernest Hemmingway said about Paris); it’s constantly changing and adapting to your environment.
We all have natural postures – there’s no such thing as a good or bad posture perse, but being in a balanced posture that is best for you and your muscles, will make you feel, walk, sit and stand much more efficiently. Just as the wind shapes trees, our environment shapes our posture.
Do you sit for long periods? Are you standing for most of the day? Are you hunched over a computer a lot of the time? Spend a lot of time driving? What hobbies do you enjoy doing? Are you under a lot of stress?
All of these things can impact your posture. Your body is a result of your environment.
Poor posture does not automatically mean being in pain, there are many people with ‘bad’ posture who are entirely pain-free, and there are many with ‘good’ posture who are in pain. They don’t always equate to each other.
However, as one of my mentors, Paul Chek, says, and I quote;
“…imagine a bicycle wheel out of balance. When you take the bike out for a ride, chances are good the bicycle won’t handle well. The stress of riding on a crooked wheel could cause the wheel to fall apart.
To get a crooked bicycle wheel to roll straight or true, you must shorten and tighten the loose spokes and lengthen and loosen the tight ones.”
That’s the same with our bodies; strengthening the weakened muscles and stretching the tight muscles will free up your body in many ways and allow you to have a smoother ride throughout your life.
There are many other ways a balanced posture can improve your life.
Breathing
Every time you breathe, your spinal column does a little wave. As you inhale, your spinal curves become straighter, and you become a little bit taller. This spinal wave does many things – it allows the flow of spinal fluid up to and away from your brain, it gives your organs a little mini massage, and it helps to release toxins into your lymphatic system and be transported out of your body.
All of this good stuff doesn’t happen when sitting in a hunched position.
Your neck muscles will become taut and weak and probably begin to ache.
Antenna to the Universe
Your posture tells the outside world how you’re feeling, but it also allows the flow of universal energy into your system. When you’re in a poor posture, you don’t feel that electrical surge. You become more fatigued, and your energy will deplete. I know it sounds a bit woo woo here, but as Einstein said, ‘energy is everything’.
Trust me, it’s true.
The good news is, just thinking about your posture can improve it. I bet you’ve just sat up straighter whilst reading this? Self-awareness is key. We spend too much time in our heads, thinking about anything and everything, well apart from ourselves, that is!
Once you bring your awareness to your body, you can naturally feel where you should be placing your body. When you start doing this regularly, it becomes automatic. It now hurts me to be out of good alignment,
I stop getting messages from the universe, and I never want that to happen.
Being in a balanced posture can do the following for you;
- Improve brain fog and help you to get clarity
- Reduce stress
- Improve your digestion
- Help remove toxins
- Reduce fatigue
- Give you more energy and make you feel alive
- Improve your confidence and self-esteem
- Get rid of aches and pains
- Make you an active participant in your life
- Improve your circulation
Just a few of the good things, and who doesn’t want a bit of that?
How can you improve your posture today?
Jill x
AND…if you want me to teach you how to improve your posture, then come along to my next ‘Posture Project’ 6 Week Program to Improve Your Posture – what are you waiting for? Click here to book for my next event.