Life is ProPulsion

The pulse of life. Propulsion. Pulsate. Propel. It never ceases to amaze me how linked the word “pulse” is to both the heart and the forward thrust of walking. “Walking is good for the heart” they say. The rhythm of our walk is part of the rhythm of our life, the rhythm of our heart, the rhythm of our blood flowing through our veins. Walking is our pulse… in a way.

However, in our modern living conditions, most of us do not walk half as much as we should. Perhaps that is why, even though we live longer, we are half as “alive” as we were when we had to walk places to get places.

Lack of dynamic walking is a problem for our overall health on many levels, not the least of which being our vascular health.

The heart pumps blood with fresh oxygen propelling it through our whole body, from the areas closest to it to those farthest away like our big toes, way down there where our feet are. The heart is helped in this arduous task by the muscular arteries, which echo the hearts beat in their own pulsating rhythm, and by the force of gravity. The blood that returns from the toes to the heart, rich in metabolic wastes, has no muscular veins nor force of gravity to aid it in its upward climb. It therefore needs an extra pumping force to propel it back to the heart.

Thankfully, this extra pump has been provided for us by nature in the form of our calf muscles. However, this pump comes with one caveat, it has no automatic pumping mechanism like the heart-pump; the calf-pump must be activated through dynamic movement of the legs: propulsion of the blood hence is dependent on propulsion of the body.

As you can see, without a regular beating movement such as walking that engages the rhythmic contraction of the calf muscles the blood that flows down into the legs with the beating of your heart cannot flow up again with as much vigor. This in turn means that the rhythm at which our tissues are “fed” oxygenated and nutrient rich arterial blood is not the same as that at which their metabolic wastes are removed by venous blood. This cannot be good for general tissue health, especially those tissues furthest away from the heart. In fact, an inefficient calf-pump is bad news for those who are prone to suffer from venous insufficiency (varicose veins).

I know that going out for a walk is not always a possibility. So, what to do?

Well, the good news is we can rhythmically contract the muscles in our calves without propelling us forward, but rather propelling us up. When we stand on tip toes we contract our calf muscles, and if we do so rhythmically we are in fact bouncing and rebounding in place. We can bounce almost anywhere, even sitting… although we won’t get as many benefits from it if we don’t get up on our feet.

Ruthy Alon, the creator of the Bones for Life© and Walk for Life© - Movement Intelligence© programs, recommends bouncing in place as a daily practice for those who can’t get out and walk about. Lightly bouncing on our heels we get to clean, realign and reboot body and mind.

Lightly bouncing or walking in place shakes us up. This general shake-up not only aids venous blood return, but also allows every bone to more fully rest on the one below it, spontaneously realigning our skeletons in the gentle pulsation that traverses our bones from heels to head. This spontaneous realignment of our skeletal framework in turn makes it possible for us to be on our feet using less muscular effort.

The combination of blood pump reactivation and skeletal realignment both conspire to breathe some fresh air into our minds. Moreover, the realignment in our posture has a direct influence on our emotional state and our self-image. So what’s not to love about a little light happy rebounding like a grinning Tigger?

To sum up, our general physical and mental health needs some daily dynamic movement.

I must warn you, however, to keep the bouncing really light. If your posture is less than optimal vigorous dynamic movement could put your more vulnerable joints at risk of collapse (your neck, your lower back, your knees). With every step or bounce you are mobilizing and accelerating your full body mass. This is why it behooves you to learn how to organize your posture consciously so as to be able to sustain more dynamic movements with efficiency and confidence. 

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I Move Therefore I Am

The Blessing and the Curse of Movement Habits

Habits are learned and stereotyped responses: set movements that once triggered get replayed verbatim regardless of context or appropriateness.

Habits are necessary; they save us from wasting time and energy in preparing new responses to the ever-changing, kaleidoscopic circumstances we exist in. Habits allow us to anticipate changes and be ready to respond accordingly.

And herein lays their problem.

Some of my now set-responses were originally new responses. They were successful responses at the time, so I chose to repeat them again and again, each new success convincing my system that this was a real keeper. Since it appeared like I’d be using these patterns repeatedly, I let them fall into my subconscious so they could become my automatic responses in all similar situations. The habituation of certain responses was a smart time and energy saving strategy.

Once a response becomes automatic I stop consciously observing and calibrating its efficiency (and sometimes even its effectiveness) vis-à-vis my ever-changing circumstances. What began as a good idea, a clever response, or a quick fix to a specific event, has morphed into the be-all-and-end-all of my response repertoire. The habit has become embedded in my neural repertoire in the form of trigger-happy synapses. The constant repetition of certain movements shape my body according to their logic; I embody my habits with my muscles, my bones and all my connective tissues.

These automatic responses thus become not only the hidden framework upon which I build my actions, reactions, and routines, but also upon which my shape is modelled and portrayed to the world. As the world responds and reacts to my self-projection, I receive feedback that confirms this is who I am, and voilà my self-definition begins to get set.

Moveo ergo sum. I move, therefore I am.

Hidden becomes the key word here. As the saying goes: out of sight, out of mind. Automatism makes me blind to my habits, I become dominated by them, I start confusing them with my self-definition: this is the way I do things. The problem with my habits is that they limit my freedom of choice, they default me to act always in the same way, whether I want to or not.

Can I be any other way?

I want to believe so. The framework of my habits is hidden only as long as I don’t start the process of discovering and uncovering them. My habits are the only option until I realize there are other options. I could perhaps learn to choose and build new responses...

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My Problem with “Posture”

Good posture is more about how you move than how you keep still. 

During my early twenties posture was a nagging concern for me. One of my grannies had osteoporosis and a noticeable hump and the general postural tendency in my family is towards a rounded shoulder outline. My other granny, who was blessed with naturally good posture and steel hard bones, would swear her secret had been walking around with a broomstick across her back during her adolescence and reminding herself to “roll her shoulders up back and down” to keep her back straight. My sister, who in her teenage years showed early signs of slouching, was constantly reminded to stand straight and keep her shoulders back. She even had an elastic-harness-strapping-thingy that promised to train her muscles into holding correct posture.

With this background, it isn’t surprising that I grew up believing good posture is something you have to hold on to, an ideal form to keep and train your muscles into. When in my early twenties I started seeing signs of my own postural deterioration, I also bought myself one of the harness contraptions and would try to wear it during work hours, strapped on as tight as I could (the tighter the better, right?). It was horribly uncomfortable, painful even; it would leave me with incredibly sore shoulders and neck. But the most disheartening thing was that the minute I took off the torture device, my shoulders would invariably slump forward, aching but grateful that the day’s ordeal was over. In other words, my posture would fall apart the minute I wasn’t strapping it into its “correct” position.

This view of what good posture is, and how to acquire and maintain one, is fairly mainstream. A quick Google search for “posture exercises” will throw results that speak to this idea: which muscles need to be strengthened to hold you upright (mostly core work, i.e. abdominal and back muscles) and which need to be lengthened from their chronically shortened conditions (namely muscles which attach your limbs to your trunk, like the pectorals, the psoas and the hamstrings).

I hold no issue against these exercises, for I still believe that the relative length and strength of certain muscle groups does play an important role in so called “good” posture. However, I do have an issue with the model of posture that is behind them.

From a somatic movement perspective “posture” (as the term is generally understood) is an irrelevant concept, hence it makes no sense to hold on to neither the term itself nor any physical posture whatsoever. The word posture (linked etymologically to the word post) implies something static, and life is everything but that.  When you admire someone’s “good posture” what you are really admiring is their “poise”, their “alignment”, their capacity to adapt to constantly changing demands for balance and counterbalance, in such a way that there is a relative “quietness” of visible effort in their bodies. This “quietness” of unnecessary effort, this efficient play of equilibriums, is what “good posture” is actually all about: an “attitude” more than a “shape”.

The main problem with our understanding of what posture is, is thinking it has anything to do with a set form, “set” being the key word here. We are always moving, even when we think we are standing, sitting or lying motionless. Think of it, even when we are completely “still” we are still breathing, and that is already a form of movement that requires adaptations in the relative position of certain bones (ribs), muscles (diaphragm) and organs (lungs) which in turn cause adaptations in all other bones, muscles and organs. When we are standing still, we are balancing upright against the pull of gravity on a structure that is most decidedly not a post. As we can see, maintaining the illusion of “good posture” is more a question of managing the dynamic equilibrium of perpetually moving parts that keep realigning themselves to adapt to constantly changing inner and outer environments, than of keeping certain bits of our anatomy in a fixed position (shoulders back and down!).

Posture is a dance, full of improvisations, micro and macro adjustments of tone and direction. Since all our parts need to be ever ready to move in relation to our other parts, trying to maintain a fixed “posture” is nothing but interference with the action of living (at the very least of breathing).

For example, when I was strapping my shoulders back and down with the harness I was interfering not only with my breathing, but also with my walking. My shoulder blades need to move as I walk, both as part of the rotation of my trunk and the back and forth swing of my arms. By fixing my shoulders firmly back I was disturbing the natural movement of my arms and the rotation and counter rotation that should occur between my shoulder girdle and pelvis as I walk. This in turn unbalanced my spine and anything that unbalances your spine automatically increases the overall effort you need to exert just to shift weight from one leg to another in order to walk. Needless to say, if you unbalance your spine, you unbalance your-Self, for few things are more terrifying to your system than the possibility of losing your balance and ending up with your head smacking against the floor.

In a nutshell, the whole stand up straight, shoulders back, chest out, butt in directives are not only ineffective in correcting posture, they also causes problems when the time comes to actually move (which is all the time). So, instead of trying to maintain good posture, why not ask yourself whether everything is moving with ease?

How can you know that? Well, I think the key is in learning two things. The first is learning a little about how you are built for movement, have some basic idea of what your inner structures look like and what movement possibilities they have. The second is learning to tune into your movement quality, to how your body feels when it moves (does this movement feel easy, elegant and graceful, or painful, stiff and forced?). Putting these two things together is the surer path I know to finally acquiring and constantly updating your posture.

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From Running-Hater to Running-Lover

This post was originally published in my new running and Alexander Technique blogsite, at www.joy4running.wordpress.com

Every time I took up running in the past it lasted me for no more than a month. My main reason for taking up this particular form of torture was fairly straightforward: I wanted to lose weight and I’d read that running burned far more calories than walking.

So, for a few weeks, I would drag myself onto the Rambla a couple of times a week for a 30 minute torture session of walk-run-walk. Although I enjoyed the post-workout feeling of accomplishment, I hated every minute of going through the actual ordeal of putting one foot in front of the other as I gasped for breath and ached all over. This needless suffering was the main reason I would start skipping sessions on any semi-justifiable excuse.

The more I skipped, the harder it was to break the inertia the next time. Eventually some silly injury or nagging pain would keep me off the road for a couple of weeks straight and that was the end of my running spree. The mere thought of having to build up my endurance once again until 20 continuous minutes of jogging didn’t feel like a death march was a sure motivation killer.

I decided running was not for me. When the running craze hit Uruguay I congratulated myself for not being one of those self-torturing crazies on the Rambla, with the pained expressions, heavy footfalls and heaving breaths.

I had also decided I didn’t need running. Having found Pilates (which made me fall head over heels in love with movement for the first time) and the Alexander Technique (which got me hooked into understanding and thus moving how nature intended) I considered my movement needs more than adequately met. And so it was for several years.

But the funny thing is that Pilates and Alexander Technique made me so comfortable in my own body they inched me ever closer to enjoying all the movement possibilities available to a human being… and running is just the natural evolution of walking.

So when my sister, who used to be a running-hater too, started training for and completed her first 5k race, I decided to give running another chance. To my pleasant and ecstatic surprise I didn’t hate it AT ALL, I actually LOVED it. My training in Pilates and Alexander Technique had made me an extremely efficient exerciser; I had more endurance than seemed possible for someone who’d shunned cardio for years. What’s even better, I discovered that even if I skipped a couple of weeks of running, I could jump right back on track without feeling I had lost much training.

Seeing that running comes so easily and joyfully for me now, my sister has asked me what the trick is. It’s not so much a trick but a set of organizing principles that allow body and mind to be better coordinated. This results in the ability to maintain good form and a deep breathing pattern even at times of great physical exertion. The best part is we’ve discovered these principles can be taught and learned fairly easily, so she’s improved her running too!

I’m writing this blog to document my approach to running, in the hopes that it can help you too. My sister will be the one keeping me real with what works and what doesn’t.  I’ll be sharing all my tips and secrets which meet her one basic criteria for a run: take no more than 30 minutes.

Please, if you are at all interested in enjoying running, leave a comment, ask a question, suggest a topic for investigation. If you tell me what’s keeping you from enjoying your runs, or what’s keeping you from running altogether, I’ll do my best to figure out a way to get you a step closer to lacing on your running shoes.

Happy Running!

-Vicky

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POSTURE FOR BEGINNERS (part 2): An (un)learning process.

Most sports and art forms have an “ideal posture” to practice them. Books and articles on them will describe this ideal posture, and sometimes offer muscular exercises that will help you achieve it.

However, if visually identifying what we need to change and doing muscles exercises to correct deviations from perfect form were enough, we’d all have good posture and no one would have back pain from bad postural habits.

This visual and muscular take on posture presents 3 problems.

Firstly, it assumes that he who receives the instructions knows his own body (has a clear body map) and can adopt the recommended posture without undue tension.

Secondly, it assumes that he who gives instruction and he who receives it, both interpret the concepts in the same way. Truth is we all have our own conceptual and sensorial definitions of our different body parts (“the neck” might not be exactly the same in my body map as in yours).

Thirdly, it assumes that we have to “work our postural muscles” with specific exercises, otherwise we’re bound to “go downhill” with gravity and age.* 

This view does not recognize that it is our heritage as homo sapiens sapiens to be proudly erect without undue effort if we do not interfere with the postural reflexes of our elegant design.

If instead we adopt the view that nature made us upright bipeds, and did so quite satisfactorily, then we shouldn’t so much “learn” to stand upright as “un-learn” to stand crookedly.

As homo sapiens sapiens we’re inheritors of a basic “software” that enables us to stand on our two feet in easy balance. This “software” is made up of a set of reflexes that we integrate, with greater or lesser success, during our early development. Since we all have the software, perhaps all we need is a little re-programming.

Hence, the best way to work on your posture is first to recognize what you must “stop doing.”

We must go to the deeper causes, to what is under the surface and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Self-knowledge is at the base of good posture.

* I don’t mean by this that you should not do exercise to correct muscle weaknesses that go hand in hand with bad posture and lack of joint mobility. What I do encourage you to do is to work those muscles ‘functionally’ and considering your body as a whole unit. You should be conscious of the balance and integration of your whole body during movement, and not just work the “weak muscles” in isolation.

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POSTURE FOR BEGINNERS (part 1): Getting to the Root of the Problem

Sometimes I too want quick solutions, instant solutions.

The problem is that these “express” solutions don’t last long; they are no more than a mask for the problem, not a real solution.

The same happens with postural problems and their “quick fixes”.

Posture is at the base of every discipline. Every sport or activity you practice has a certain ideal “form” or “posture” that allows you to perform the activity with the least amount of wear and tear and the highest degree of efficiency.

But saying, “a good posture is that in which, when seen from the side, the ear, shoulder, hip and ankle are aligned,” is merely giving a visual description of the result. This description does not include the steps of inner organization that allow for the external visible result.

The postural recommendations offered in every discipline have their logic. The problem is that we, who don’t know our own bodies, force ourselves into these recommended forms by sheer muscular effort. We end up habituating the requisite form but also the unnecessary tension of the effort.

How much better it would be if we could adopt these “postures” with total freedom, and be able to get out of them with equal liberty!

But… how?

The Alexander Technique is a “pre-technique”, it is the foundation for all other techniques and disciplines. The Alexander Technique teaches you how to organize your body in such a way that you can adopt in the most natural way any of the “postures” or “forms” recommended by other disciplines.

In fact, after working with the Alexander Technique your concept of “posture” changes. It shifts from being something “rigid” or “fixed” into something mobile and dynamic.

Posture stops being something you impose from the outside based on “how it should look” despite the tense muscular effort to hold it, and becomes something that springs from inside based on “how you perceive the shifting balance of your skeletal structure” and guided by a clear thought process which frees the muscles and decompresses the joints.

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Is Knowledge of Anatomy Necessary for Postural Work?

A blog about why some anatomy basics are useful in coordination work.

Welcome to the blog. We’re starting right away, so get comfy to read.

Let’s breathe fully and deeply once together, just so we’re both on the same page.

Ok. Let’s start.

Today’s blog will try to explain why I believe it’s important to know some basic anatomy in any attempt at trying to correct postural issues. I’ll be happy if by the time you’ve finished reading you are able to recognize anatomical knowledge as something alive, in constant development, something that grows from evolving ideas and sensory information.

What attracts you to the study of anatomy?

To beging with, let’s recap the paradigm from which we’ll look at the issue.

Unity: we learn with our mind and with our bodies, and we consider the body as an integrated whole.

Use-Function-Structure: we look at anatomy (structure) in relation to what function it performs, remembering that our use affects both.

The Coherence in our Design: everything in our anatomical design has a reason for being there.

Interferences to Accurate Perception: our ideas about our bodies and the feelings and sensations we get from it don’t always coincide, and sometimes our ideas are way off-center.

How above What: It’s more importante to understand how it works, how the bits and pieces relate to each other and to the whole, than to fill ourselves up with anatomical data and trivia that we cannot comprehend nor make practical use of.

The force of Habit: Old ideas die hard, like weeds… they come back again and again every time we let our guard down.

Let’s now consider why it’s a good idea to study some basic anatomy.

But before moving on, yawn and stretch. If we hold one attitude of mind and body for too long, our bodies and brains go numb. Move your tissues a bit to allow oxygenated blood to return to them.

Great. Let’s continue.

Does knowing anatomy guarantee I’ll have good posture?

No. If knowing anatomy automatically made you an elegantly poised individual, then all doctors, anatomists, physiotherapists and P.E. teachers would be paragons of good posture and carriage. Sadly, this is not the case.

What’s the use of studying anatomy then?

1. Good posture is a matter of coordination. If you’re not one of those naturally (and unconsciously) well-coordinated people, then you’ll have to learn conscious coordination. In order to do this, you need to be able to feel where your different body parts are and what they’re doing in relation to each other. And for this you’ll need to know your most important bits and how they feel.

2. Knowing basic anatomy (name, shape and feel of the main bones and joints) gives you a common language to be able to follow instructions in an intelligent way.

Even if you rank among the naturally well-coordinated, it’s not a bad idea to know how you’re doing it, for the following 4 reasons:

a) In case you lose it and want to get it back.

b) In case you get stuck in your progress in any physical discipline you practice.

c) In case you want to explain or teach someone else how you do what you do.

d) To open yourself up to other possibilities and choices you may not imagine you have.

Our bodies are fascinating universes waiting to be explored.

This is all for now.

See you next time.

Victoria

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Why you're finding it difficult to correct your posture, and 2 keys to ensure your success

“I’ve got a slumping habit.”

That sentence is missing some information.

A habit is a pre-set response to a specific stimulus. Slumping your spine is a response you’re giving to what stimulus?

What is this stimulus? Why did you slump the first time? Was it a physical (pain) or emotional-mental (fear) stimulus?

Perhaps the original stimulus is no longer there at all.

But, from that first time you used curving your spine as a response, to the present day, you’ve repeated the gesture so many times, that is has re-calibrated your inner compass, and your “feeling” of being “straight”, your inner map of having the bones of your skeleton aligned, has nothing to do with what true alignment really looks like.

Whenever, and for whichever reason (esthetic, pain, functional), you decide to return yourself to a truer sense of alignment, your first big challenge is going to be re-calibrating this “body compass”.

Why is this a challenge? Well, because the new alignment will “feel wrong”. Even though it will be more comfortable, lighter on your joints, and coupled with a wonderful sense of occupying all your available space, it will just not feel like the “real-you” at first.

¿How can you re-calibrate this inner sense of alignment?

You’ll need 2 things.

1. Someone or something outside of you that can give you necessary feedback for the re-calibration of your compass.

2. Application and experimentation in your daily life of your discoveries.

External feedback: If your feelings are off-target, then you cannot trust 100% in what they are telling you… That is, you cannot trust your interpretation of the info they are giving you. You need to learn how to more accurately interpret the sensory feedback you are getting.

If you have ample time, patience, and the soul of a detective-scientist, a mirror may be all you ever need. Mr. F.M. Alexander went that way, and that is how we have the Alexander Technique nowadays.

But if you are lacking that Victorian discipline, then the quickest and more practical alternative is to get yourself a teacher. The best part about getting some outside help from a teacher is that you have more avenues of feedback than the purely visual feedback a mirror offers.

A teacher can also give you:

a) bodily information through touch and movement;

b) aural information through the use of sounds and voice;

c) conceptual information through anatomy, philosophy, physics or any other body of knowledge, that can help you organize your ideas about your body, your balance and your movement.

Experimentation: Habits are strong and it is difficult to realize that we’re using them constantly. If you are decided to work on your posture and alignment, and you already have new feedbakc to work with, you need to start using it in self-observation.

Your answers will come in 3 stages.

First: You won’t even realize that you are slumping until something external to your bodily calibration tells you (a mirror, a crick in your neck, a reminder on your phone to check your posture). The impulse that leads you to slumping is still happening outside your conscious awareness.

Do not despair. The good thing is that you are becoming aware on a daily basis of how much you slump, and now you have the tools to do something about it. Give yourself your directions, re-align your structure, give yourself some space. Repeat this as many times as you are able to remember throughout the day.

Second: You new challenge is now to catch yourself earlier in the slumping process. Perhaps you need to set yourself more memory-aids (mirrors, alarms, post-it notes), anything that will remind you to scan you body for slumping tendencies.

The more you get into the habit of scanning yourself regularly, the earlier you’ll start catching yourself when slumping is starting to occur. This can give you the chance to practice stopping before being completely collapsed.

As an added bonus, all this periodic and regular releasing of unnecessary tension is in itself re-calibrating your sensory compass. You’re getting better at telling when tension is accumulating in places where it shouldn’t be.

Third: Your challenge is now to recognize what stimulus is tipping you into slumping-mode before the slumping appears.

This requires more self-knowledge, but since you’ve been practicing self-observation in the second stage, you’re well prepared to tackle this new stage.

This is the truly interesting phase of the process. It is this stage that really tells us a lot about ourselves. When you become an avid detective intent on catching the information your body sends as it is sending it, you start discovering fascinating stuff about yourself.

With time you’ll start to note all type of bodily sensations (tickling, tingling, expansions, contractions, changes in breathing, etc.) that give you a heads-up as to what your forthcoming reaction will be to the person, situation, thought or even weather-conditions you are facing. And all of this before you’re reaction has become a full-blown affair.

So now you have the option to stop before the habit-tsunami takes control of your reaction, and adjust your response to what is most effective for you and your goals.

This week’s challenge: Catch the Feeling!

If you already have the basic guidelines on how to align yourself without tension, then this week I invite you to observe the process of giving in to your impulse to collapse.

 (If you have no clue about what guidelines to follow to re-calibrate your inner-compass I reccommend you try my 4 introductory lessons or contact an Alexander Technique teacher in your area).

Simply give yourself your directions and get on with your day. Check to see if you can catch yourself earlier and earlier in the process of slumping, noting what thoughts, feelings or situations are those that tip you over.

If a “beter posture” is your end, then all your answers are in the means-whereby you reach it.

See you next week.

Victoria

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The 4 basic tools for posture changing

In my last blog I posed the following problem:

Going from your actual posture to your better posture is as simple as taking a step… but that single step can be so monumental in its transformative powers that we might be left standing with our foot dangling in the air, unsure if we want to take the plunge at all.

¿What to do then?

Today I’ll give you the solution.

What you need are 4 basic things:

·        attention

·        a compass

·        a map

·        a guide.

Let’s look at each point separately.

ATTENTION

Living with a new sense of posture (no matter how comfortable and elegant it is) is like moving neighbourhoods. At first you will be a little disoriented. If you’re not paying attention while you drive your car from work to home, you’ll end up in your old neighbourhood. It’s a habit, you’re just used to taking the old route without thinking.

This, believe it or not, is the hardest bit about change. Rembering to pay attention. When I’m working with pupils on their posture and movement, I remind them again and again before they move to: 1) stop (keep calm), 2) remember their general direction (creating space for movement), 3) release habitual tension in key areas (feet, around the sitting bones, armpits, eyes, jaw). Only then can movement start in a new direction, because only then are they able to pay attention to what is happening along the way.

A MAP

If you’ve moved into a new neighbourhood, you’re going to need at least a minimal notion of the layout of the place in order to move around confidently. A map allows you to know where the most important places are, which buildings and other landmarks can act as markers for you to orient yourself in space.

With regards to your posture, there are certain key bony structures and other areas of your body that are worth to know and recognize in yourself. They are your markers, and will give you an idea of where your different bits are in relation to each other. They are also key areas where tension tends to accumulate without us realizing. This unnecessary tension greatly affects your chances of comfortably keeping your poise.

The key areas I teach my pupils to recognise are:

-      the feet (your toes have their roots half-way down the soles of your feet, you can release them from there, instead of thinking only of the last two phalanges)

-      the sitting bones (those are meant to be sat on, as opposed to your coxis which is meant to be free to wag like a dogs tail. While you’re at it, release the space between your sitting bones)

-      the armpits (which is in reality your shoulder joint, and it needs space. Check this post where I guide you through an exercise for releasing the area)

-      the eyes (get back some of your peripheral vision, soften the focus for instant upper neck release)

-      the jaw (its joint is right in front of your ear. Think of releasing your jaw all the way from there)

I’ll be exploring specific ways to release these areas in future blogs. Don’t miss them!

A COMPASS

If you’re in a new place, and you want to go from your house to the mall, you need to know in which direction the mall is in the the first place. A compass allows you to define a direction that relates one point with another on your map.

When it comes to your posture, what you need is to learn to perceive not only where each key structure is, but, above all, what space relationship there is between key structures. As you enhance your perception of the spaces within your body, your sense of orientation within it gets better: you start to recognize and perceive your true length and width and depth.

A GUIDE

Imagine now that you have moved to this new neighbourhood, but the map you were given is written in a language you don’t recognize, and your compass (unbeknownst to you) is not correctly calibrated. You’re already all moved in and cozy in your new hood, but you have no idea how to move around in the place. ¿What do you do then?

You look for a friendly neighbour, one who speaks your language and who can help you navigate the new place.

A good guide fulfills some key functions:

·        Helps you recognise key features of the terrain so you can orient yourself better within it.

·        Can tell if your compass is off, and can help you adjust it, and teach you to use it.

·        Can give you clear and concrete instructions to get from one point to another.

·        If your destination is imposible to explain in words, your guide can guide you non-verbally towards it, perhaps even by walking with you the first few times. He or she might do it several times, until you can build your own mental map of the place, with your own references… Until one day you may find yourself giving directions to some new lost-neighbour!

Same thing happens when you’re trying to change your posture. It’s like your moving into a new definition of YOU. It’s not a completely unknown place, it is still your body (you’ve moved neighbourhood, not countries or planets), but you perceive it as different and strange enough to have you disoriented for a while. What you need is the possibility of asking someone who already inhabits that place to guide you through the basics.

All in all, if you feel like a change of postural habits is long due, and you don’t mind the added benefits of elegance and freedom of movement, you’re going to need to change some ideas, learn new things about you, and have a lot of patience with yourself, because adaptation can take some time.

Good news is you don’t need to go through this transition alone. The road is a lot more enjoyable if you have good (and knowledgeable) company. There’s people who have already travelled the road you’re only starting, and they have great insights to share with you that will get you to your destination quicker and safer.

Next blog, I’ll give you the tips to recognise these ideal neighbour-guides, so you can befriend one… because there’s no need to know on the door of the block’s resident grouch, and have his massive vicious dog come after you.

See you next week.

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