Coughing and Your Core

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Coughing and Your Core

On page 110 my book, The New Rules of Posture, there’s a sidebar about coughing. I’ll quote it here, to save you the trouble of looking it up. “The relationship between your diaphragm, pelvic floor, and core support is graphically demonstrated in the act of coughing (or laughing for that matter). If you cough with your pelvis rolled back, you’ll feel a tendency to puff out your belly and bear down into your pelvic floor. If you cough while sitting in a slight forward pelvic tilt, you won’t feel the same pressure on your bladder…

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On Pilates and Core Strength

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On Pilates and Core Strength

As the author of The New Rules of Posture, you might think I’d be a paragon of deep abdominal core strength. Sadly, not true. In fact, shortly after the book was published I was beset by an embarrassing bout of low back pain—a sure sign of low toned abs. And this wasn’t the first such episode—I’d been plagued by a back that “went out” pretty regularly for 15 years. Because I’ve been a proponent and practitioner of Rolfing© Structural Integration, I continued to assume that the pain was due to misalignment, and that more structural bodywork was what I needed. But I also saw the occasional chiropractor…

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A Message from Mary

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A Message from Mary

It is my great pleasure to share my first full-length DVD with readers and fans of The New Rules of Posture.  HEAL YOUR POSTURE–A 7-Week Workshop has been my labor of love for the past 20 months, and now, finally, I can turn it over to your hands and bodies.

The workshop format encourages you to explore the content over several weeks.  The extensive menu allows you to focus on the sections that most suit your needs and interests…

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The Passenger Seat

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The Passenger Seat

What’s the rule? A car length for every 10 mph? I don’t always follow that rule, but my friend drives way closer to the car ahead than I like. We’re in freeway traffic that is crowded but moving. Several times the brakes are necessary when our lane unexpectedly slows. I sense myself applying brakes of my own, griping my calf and digging my heel into the floorboard. I’m gripping a phantom steering wheel as well–my traps (upper shoulder muscles) clenched in an effort to gain control. My tongue presses back into my throat in a half-swallow. My mother was a nervous passenger, too…

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Stiff Eyes and Neck Pain

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Stiff Eyes and Neck Pain

This morning I happened to read an excerpt of a poem that described someone has having eyes that were “stiffened” in horror. “Stiff eyes”—what a striking description. And it got me thinking about the connection between stiff eye muscles and stiff necks.

To feel what I’m talking about, try this experiment. Lightly place your finger pads along the back of your neck, just below your hairline. Then imagine a fly buzzing around in front of your face. Follow the fly with your eyes, but without moving your head around…

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How to Avoid Holiday Shoulder Tension

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How to Avoid Holiday Shoulder Tension

This time of year, as many of us step onto a holiday roller coaster, tension along the tops of our shoulders becomes almost epidemic. Necks ache, shoulders are tender and the holidays begin to promise more chores than cheer.

If you’re lucky enough to have someone in your household who gives good shoulder rubs, you know that a ten minute session under those hands can give you a new lease on life. What you may not have noticed is that when you stand up after the massage, your posture is better. Not only that, but it’s easier to breathe and your holiday to-do list looks less overwhelming…

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On Feet

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On Feet

It doesn’t take long to lose the joy… Sitting on the subway I sense my toes curling, gripping inside my shoes, as I think about the upcoming hospital visit. My intent to stay open in my body has chased the tension down into the farthest corner. But I don’t want to hide; I want to feel. Yes, toes, it’s true: I feel anxious and afraid…

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New: 7 Week Workshop DVD

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New: 7 Week Workshop DVD

Since 2007, when The New Rules of Posture came out, I’ve had scores of requests for a video to assist readers in moving through the explorations and practices in the book.  We all take in information through various channels, but when it comes to body learning, there’s no good substitute for the senses.  Words, no matter how pictorial and evocative, have a hard time becoming flesh.After many months resisting the video project—I knew it would be a mountain–I finally jumped in.  The first step was to find a videographer—an easy task, you might think, here in Hollywood-land.  But I had a bite-sized budget and a yen for quality—two things that might be hard to match.  Eventually I found Ian Campbell, who, I learned after I’d hired him, studied yoga at my friend Mike Nalick’s studio.  (You’ll meet Mike in my DVD workshop.) This was the first of many good omens…

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The Best Way to Walk

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The Best Way to Walk

The waiting one does at airports is a good opportunity for blog writing. This time I’m people-watching at Bob Hope Airport (Burbank, CA). There is such a variety of ways to put one leg in front of another–the pregnant airport security guard, the woman with exaggerated movement in her hip joints, the men with none at all. I want to train other movement professionals to observe and intervene in clients’ walking patterns. How do I teach them to communicate effectively to someone who says, “You mean I have to learn how to walk all over again?”

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When to Build Good Posture

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When to Build Good Posture

When do you become most aware of your posture? When you’re checking out the fit of some new jeans? When walking into a new situation, uncertain as to how you might be received? You can be dressed to the nines, but if your posture projects shyness or uncertainty it sabotages the impression you want to convey. But by then, it’s too late to develop good posture…

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A Day at Dallas/Ft. Worth

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A Day at Dallas/Ft. Worth

It’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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