Healthy, Natural Posture: Makes You Look and Feel Good
Based on the book 'Natural Body, Natural Shape' by Barbara Moroney
"She thinks her stomach is fat",
my friend said, exasperated at her teenage daughter. I observed her daughter,
a slim, willowy young woman, who stood with slumped shoulders and an "S"
shape to her spine that jutted her pleasant, slightly round stomach, forward.
While her stomach was not board-flat like a model's, her posture exaggerated
its curved shape. Some figure problems are posture problems.
Poor posture can also influence mood. My book illustrator noticed that
in the original photo for this drawing on the right?, I had a smile
on my face when I stood straight and tall, and a grimace when I slouched.
Try the following:
Look at your profile in a full-length mirror.
Notice your posture without changing anything.
Round your shoulders into a slouch (a posture that many of us assume as we work at our desks). How does the shape of your chest change?
Straighten your shoulders.
Close your eyes and focus on your pelvis. If your pelvic girdle were filled with water, would the water overflow from the front or the back? From one side or the other? Open your eyes.
Tilt your pelvis forward and backward, observing how shifting your pelvis changes the line of your body, especially the shape of your abdomen and lower back.
Slouch your shoulders and tilt your pelvis together. Try different variations of your own, of crooked postures. Notice the difference in the shape of your chest, your butt, your abdomen.
Now take a relaxed breath and stand up straight and tall. Elongate your spine, starting from your tailbone, stretch through the back of your neck and up through the crown of your head.
Take another relaxed breath let your chest expand as you ease your shoulders back and away from your ears,
Notice the shape of your profile now.
Good posture makes you look better and it benefits your health (see Put Your Foot in Your Mouth.)
During the next week or so, remind yourself regularly (in timed intervals, if you can) to sit or stand straight as you go about your daily activities. Take a deep, relaxing breath. The muscles that you use to breathe are also muscles that support your posture. Take some deep, relaxed breaths as you straighten up.Try Mountain Pose, the basic standing pose of yoga. Mountain Pose helps develop a healthy posture
Read "Put Your Foot in Your Mouth" about Natural Body Shape from baby Peter.
What difference does better posture make? Let me know what you observed in the mirror by emailing me. If you are a yoga practitioner who has a story about how yoga has improved your relationship with your body or the appearance of your body, I would love to hear about it.
