Who Hasn’t Found Themselves in a Whacked Out Position Like This?
You may not even notice how you are sitting. You are lost in conversation, focused on work, watching a movie, or just plain spaced out.
Then you notice your neck is killing you or your back is stiff, or you ache everywhere. The problem is, spend enough time in whacked-out sitting, and the discomfort you feel can settle in for good.
In time you may hear yourself say, “If only I knew what I’m doing to injure my back, my knee, or my neck.”
What you’re doing is living off the axis, or gravitational line. Whacked-out sitting is an extreme example. But unless we know how to come into healthy alignment, all of us will spend our days creating tension and stress in our bodies.
Once you learn Balance guidelines, you will improve your posture and begin to dissolve those pesky aches and pains. In the course of your recovery, you will not only feel better, but you will understand what to do when something hurts.
Say you stand up and you feel an old pain you used to have in your right knee. From your Balance education, you know how you used to misalign your knee which caused that pain. So right away you pay attention to how you stand up checking that the knee is aligned.
Balance guidelines give you the tools to not only stop injuring your knee but in time the know-how to keep your knees healthy and strong. You know how to take care of yourself, so you are independent and self-empowered, independent of therapists, teachers, and coaches.
More important, your awareness of your body changes. You might easily fall into whacked-out sitting, but never again for hours at a time. Your notion of comfort changes, and you quickly become aware of the discomfort you’re causing, long before it has a chance to settle in.
I used to sit in “whacked-out” positions, but I can’t anymore. I have clear memories of being at our son’s house where they have a sofa that converts to a lounger for watching movies. I have been on that sofa half sitting, half lying with my spine curved and my head pushed forward, constantly shifting around because comfort was elusive.
But there came a time when I just couldn’t do it. I had to sit well, or I faced a continual battle of aches and pains. Instead of being whacked out, I now push my butt back to the corner of the sofa and rest my upright spine on the backrest. My shoulders drop and the weight of my head sits on my supportive spine. Finally, I can enjoy the movie.
