We need to make it cool that people of all ages sit and stand upright, in Balance.
A museum’s security guard took this image.
Many topics can spin off of this photo. Our concern is postural, the deterioration of the alignment of the human skeleton.
From studying young children, our ancestors, and native populations around the world today we know that our natural alignment is upright. We are designed to live with our skeleton on the gravitation axis.
Approximately a hundred years ago there was a shift in skeleton alignment — the pelvis moved forward, off the axis. It is now cool to sit and stand with the pelvis forward.
I often hear myself say, “Collapsed posture is a cultural phenomenon but the suffering is individual.”
You can’t turn off gravity. With the 14-pound head forward natural forces cause misalignments of joints, muscle tension, and imbalances in the skull and abdominal cavity. There would be minimal damage done if collapsed sitting occurred now and then, but we all know these postures are now constant. Most people sit and stand collapsed most of the time.
Remember the image below from a previous post?
The older guy didn’t even have a cell phone until he was perhaps 60. So the kids above are likely more doomed than he is to be bent over, stiff as a board, compressed in joints, hating their posture.
Last week I visited our granddaughter’s elementary school. She had somehow broadcast to people that I taught posture. Kids, parents, and teachers spontaneously lined up to have me place them in Balance.
One 14-year-old boy practicing Balance walked past me saying, “I feel better.”
It was encouraging to say the least.
We all know this was a one-off. Each person needs to be educated and aware. But what surprised me was their interest and eagerness to know more about themselves and their postural selves. You can let people know there is a way, the Balance way, to get the posture each of us is designed to have.
The most effective thing you can do is to practice yourself. Then, anytime a person talks about aches and pains it’s an opportunity to suggest that the root cause might be alignment, that is, posture. Best of all though is when you tell your story of Balance, why you took the course, and how you benefitted.
Here’s a gift for anyone with a backache. It’s Class 28 from the Self Study page of the Balance Center website.
