"To Be" Aware Of How You Hold Yourself Up

It begins with being mindful of posture. There are a lot of moving parts with our bodies (hence our sweet ability to dance). Yet, without a clear understanding of proper anatomical positioning... we are roaming about our day without acknowledging the impacts. There are many habitual habits I have formed in my life that have created tension on my spine, diaphragm, shoulders, and pelvis. Even though I started my yoga practice at 14 years old, I never clued in much by the cues of "lengthen your spine/tuck your tailbone under/ feel your ribs expand on the inhale." Who knew I spent most of my years solely breathing into my chest (it is quick and easy). MANY of us just don't know better plus, the thing is, it requires more muscular effort to draw our shoulders towards our spine to open our chest and neutralize our low back (limiting the sticking your butt out stance). This is what happens when we slouch in our cars, couches, by our desk, and in bed:

• We over-extend our neck (this is when we draw our chin too forward and the back of the neck is too arched)

• We compress our spine (this is when we round our upper back too much and stick our butt out).

• We draw our shoulders forward (the upper back becomes weak from over stretching & chest muscles is what needs the stretching)!

• We over extend or flex our wrists while driving, typing, mouse scrolling, texting.. pretty much everything (this puts tension on your wrist).

• We weaken the core (one of the jobs of our abdominals is to posteriorly tilt the pelvis (tuck tail bone under - that looks like flatting your low back and have it rest flush along the back of a chair).

• We compress the hips during sleep when we lay on our side and our top knee is placing pressure on the bottom one... & potentially overly side bending which also compresses our spine.

• AND a side note while standing: our feet bears the weight of our body and its best to spread it evenly into all 4 corners of our feet to prevent negatively impacting the rest of the body. (We tend to place the weight to one foot more, to a particular side of our feet, or sprawl our feet too out or in).

How do I know all of this? My learning began in my yoga teacher training but most of this has sunk in since learning anatomy more solid in massage school. I am excited to learn more about how to asses for the perfect alignment. Until then, I just keep catching myself when slouching at work or when I study.

There is a lot to be said about the impact that proper posture can have on your mood. A more confident and proud you will emerge. Our hearts ready to receive love and crush a job interview when we open our chest and relax our shoulders. Our brain gets a lot of messages in a day and if we repeat the same movements or positions our mind will think:

(any excuse for a bb yoda meme).

In yoga, judgement of ourselves and to others is not the way. So when you find yourself feeling like a lazy body or only breathing in for half a second, take the opportunity to reset. You will get to remind yourself each time and that doesn't have to be a negative response. BE proud you have a body and BE eager to protect your spine. You are a rock star!

Be well,

Zoey Fern xoxo