Has that got you confused? Isn't that what we are told all the time, stop slouching, correct your posture, stand up straight, sit tall, and put your shoulders back and down. Crikey, makes me feel uptight thinking about it.
So... does the cat in the above meme have bad posture. Well technically, I have no idea, but as a cat, I doubt it. The cat probably has an incredibly supple, flexible, and dynamic posture, this is just a snapshot of a moment in time. Imagine this cat was an athlete, this was their rest day and they are lounging and letting it all go. would you then criticize them for slouching? I doubt it. Its all about how long, how often and most important, it is about bodyfulness. Whats that? Mindfulness as an embodied practice.
Let's take the cat in the chair again. If the cat uses the chair every day for long periods, sat in that slouched position and never sits or lies on the ground and limits it's movement potential, there starts to become limitations in the cats' movement. This will affect the cats' full range of joints and muscles in the future and will become less able to be agile, play, jump, and run with ease. In truth the cat will age faster.
Sitting for hours, without regular breaks and then finding out at 50 the floor is a long way down and its effort to get back up. Frozen shoulder starts to kick in and you can't lift your arms above your head anymore; or you fall because you've quickly lost balance, or taken a side step and travelling laterally is something youre not familiar with anymore.
Then there becomes a fear of falling and then we hold the body more rigid. It starts to spiral pretty quickly and this is aging through neglect.
Aging doesn't have to be like this....
A healthy posture is a moving posture, one where throughout our lives we continually experience these movement sensations-
Flexibility
Mobility
Strength
Stability
Agility
Pandiculating
Yielding
Assesing our Posture.
We are all unique in our posture and movement, both with our bones and muscular structure; born with and how our life has shaped us. Correcting a posture or imposing a 'correct' posture can be a tricky or potenitally dangerous thing to do.
Look at the differences above of these femur ( thigh) bones and the angle of the ball head of the hip on the far left photo above, this would be hugely different in how these two people moved at the hip.
The first image is the hip, femur joint and the middle photo is of two pelvis'. Look at teh immediate differences. The left pelvis you can see the forward facing hip sockets but on the right they are not visible as they are side facing. This would hugley change the way these people can move the hip.
The third ohoto is of a scapula, shoulder blades, the person on the right would struggle linking hands behind their back,
All these skeletal differences will show there is not one size fits all in our posture.
This is why it is important to fine tune your own self awareness, to listen to how your body moves and to trust yourself. You may never get into some wide hip opener because your bones weren't designed to.
YOUR BONES CAN CHANGE SHAPE
Bone growth, or bone spurs start due to long periods of excessive unblanced compression or tension in parts of myofascial system. In otherwords, where a tendon from a muscle 'connects' to the bone is consistently put under high tension through prolonged fixed posture it starts to calcify, eg bone spur.
Heel spurs and bunions are more well known but these are becoming more common in the neck, spine and shoulder.
The growth of these bones , as seen on the xray withthe yellow arrow is becoming known as tech neck, having the held in for long periods in forward flexion.
In the case of a severe Dowargers hump there also becomes a fatty deposits around the base of the neck, this is caused by multiple micro-compression fractures, which is the bone being repeatedly broken and re calcifying, rather like a sand dune; caused by the head in continual forward position, internal rotation of upper arms and muscles tension around the whole area. Eventually this is un-reversable.
While researching I found a seemingly odd one about the spiritual meaning behind your bone spurs.
Now there was some other rather dubious points in the article but when you get past the woo woo, pause and think for a moment. This is what it said... '
'The spiritual meaning of bone spurs is that they can be a sign of your spirit’s unwillingness to grow and evolve. If you find yourself unable to move forward in life, it might be time to take a look at why. This can be caused by ][ being unable to release negative emotions from your past.''
Its a bit like old wives tales, its often worth sifting through to find what the wisdom was. This could all make sense....
YOUR POSTURE TELLS A STORY- How has Life shaped you?
Ever had someone tell you they recognize you before they see your face by the way you walk?
We inherit many of our postures from our primary caregivers and the people we spend a lot of time around. When you are in a long term relationship you will start picking up gestures and mannerisms from each other.
Sometimes this becomes more apparent when you have children of your own. Do you ever feel like you laugh like your Father or do a gesture of rubbing your nose you got from your mother? How about your choices and behaviour?
Stand up Straight !
Standing up 'straight' could be rigid and full of trauma. How about an ex Sargent in WW2, always bolt upright, standing to attention, full of tension and shouted angrily most of the time. Or a child who often hid under the stairs when their parents were arguing and whose posture as an adult was stooped and head held down. What about a dog that has been hit as a pup regularly and as a grown dog its tail is always tucked under and down?
MINDFULNESS and BODYFULNESS
Mindfulness is about living more fully, present moment and about being more aware of our choices and actions, so we can get more joy in life
When we include the body in our mindfulness practice, when we learn the mind and the body are not separate, it becomes and embodied practice, that is Bodyfulness.
This is the true practice of any holistic body-mind practice.
To understand ourselves.
A bad posture is more accurately described as an unhealthy posture and perhaps an unconscious posture. You know, when you sit for hours not listening to the fact you pelvis is twisted and your head forward,feeling to heavy and getting a pain in the neck, or the moment you feel self conscious as you walk into a busy room and assume the posture of your mother.
It begins every moment, being bodymindful, being gentle and kind with our inner talk; being aware, so we have choice in our actions, our gestures, creating a healthy posture, our expression of ourselves in the world.
Heather Parsons
Bodymind Movement Coach
30 years experience as a Bodyworker
LOVE this Heather! I trained as an NLP Practitioner so recognise much of this thinking x