This exploration is one I share with nearly every one of my private clients. Awareness of the space around our bodies is uplifting. It emancipates joints, making movement freer, as I hope you’ll be able to feel for yourself..
Read MoreAs a Rolfing® practitioner, I've observed that tension in the elbows affects the whole body. Habitual flexion there, however slight, pulls the upper arm forward in its socket, starting a chain reaction that pulls the shoulder blades forward, and the collarbones and chest down, and the neck forward. Elbow tension often corresponds with flexion in the spine just behind the diaphragm, and that interferes with fullness of breath. The postural end result feels, and certainly looks, nothing like the upper crust ladies of Downton…
Read More“My tongue?” you say. “What does my tongue have to do with my posture?” Actually, quite a lot…
Read MoreI like this illustration for The New Rules of Posture so much that I’ve begun using it as a logo for my work in general. It depicts one of the characters in my book as she cleans a chandelier. Here’s the story with its “posture moral” at the end.
What I’ve called “posture zones” are muscular and connective tissue structures that lie roughly perpendicular to the body’s vertical mid-line. When we’re under stress—even a pleasant stress like Alison’s excitement at discovering an Art Deco treasure in her new apartment—one or more of the posture zones tightens in order to keep the body stable. The posture zones are like valves whose closing deforms the body’s mid-line and in so doing distorts posture…
Read MoreMaybe you’ve had one of those headaches that seem to start in the nape of your neck. Surprisingly, tension in the neck is often a result of tension in structures that lie in front of the neck: the jaw, throat and tongue.
For most of us, concentrated thought involves verbalization. When you’re puzzling over something, your tongue and back of your throat (think of the place where you swallow) unconsciously become active, even though you’re not speaking. Next time you review your bank statement, notice what’s going on in your throat or tongue…
Read MoreYou’d think, having spent the better part of 30 years teaching people about posture, that my own would have paragon status. It’s pretty good, I’ll admit, but that doesn’t stop me from being unconscious about my body use in certain situations. Like sitting at my computer and getting lost in a project…
Read MoreIt’s not always easy to walk my talk. The truth is that my current situation here in Dallas challenges my own sage advice to replace compressive, destructive, teeth-gnashing tension with sincere and steady shifts in perception
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