Change your POSTURE | Change your POSE

Change your POSTURE | Change your POSE

Not only do we change and liberate our body, but also our mind and our comprehension of ourselves. When we take the time to lift, change, adapt and transform, we continue to grow. Following on from last weeks theme of words and world – look a little more deeply this week into your posture.

Not only on the mat, but also whilst at work – Sitting during the days do we lose our core stability and start to slump, do we start to hang the head or collapse onto the neck and jut the jaw. Do we stick the out in front to compensate for lifting our body, do we tuck under the tail or stick it out to try and create a shape. Do we lock into our joints of the body in fatigue or fear to try and hold ourselves up. Does our core body weaken and we drop our chest onto the belly and collapse into the diaphragm, then we don’t breathe fully and this also creates fatigue through the day – then what do we do to try and create energy once more – instead of re-aligning our posture do we reach for the supplements of sugar and caffeine as a quick fix to try and re-energise the system, when in fact a few moments to stand up and move around and change our posture would make us feel much better.

Where and what is your postural shape?

 

Re-build

“Posture doesn’t just reflect our emotional states; it can also cause them.” – Amy Cuddy

 

When we change ourselves we change all aspects of ourselves. Our emotional states and our energetic states. Our nervous system and our physical conditioning.

It won’t happen overnight but it will happen.
There is no magic pill, but the ongoing shift of energy will occur and if we continually work at it then the shift occurs. We cant hope that one day of sitting upright but the next of staying slumped will provide on-going change, and the change will happen when we’re ready for it.

Have you ever noticed people’s footprint -they’re physical signature – you can see someone coming and know who it is by the shape of them or some distinct postural signature. Is it a slumped shoulder, is it a locked out leg, is it a rigid hold of the body – upright and tight, is it a swagger, is it a swinging hip gait, there are so many variants to each of us and so many distinct traits to notice. In tiredness do you lock out or slump?

Have you ever noticed people driving and how they hang into their necks and lean on the door/window or slump into the middle and lean on the console? Have you noticed the car seats are turning in at the edge and may cause you to round into your upper body? Noticed on a long car trip that when you get out of the car and walk around and come back to sit in the seat again, you feel different?

 

We are all different…

AGAIN!!! When in class this week, take some time and try and create a different shape in the posture. In that change what do you experience?

Look at the image above and you can see the different alignments of this pose in each body. In life we are all different shapes and sizes and one instruction may work for someone but not for you! Become more attuned to what works for you and the more you practice the more you feel and understand what is best for your body, mind and soul. Practice brings awareness and understanding.

Like a ballerina – the pirouette is clumsy to start with and then becomes more and more refined – so too our consciousness of how we hold ourselves in time and space. We become more refined and present, our posture and pose, our words and world, our awareness and presence.

 

Re-align, re-structure, re-calibrate…

Starting from the foundations up where can you / do you ChAnGe??? From the inside out…core, bandhas, feet, legs, hips, glutes, spine, abdomen and chest, shoulders, arms and hands, neck and head?

Blessings and Namaste Lou xo