When you think about the word ‘posture’, what image pops up first in your mind? Is it something like a stiff straight board or the drill sergeant shouting, “stomach in, chest out, shoulders back, chin up”?

The Latin root word for posture means to ‘place’ or to ‘put’. However, true optimal positioning of the body must include evoking a line naturally, without strain, to hold the body vertically with a feeling of being uplifted from the top of the head. The major segments of the body, meaning the feet, lower legs, upper legs, pelvis, thorax, shoulders, neck, and head, all form a vertical framework to carry the weight of the body and perform the necessary functions of daily life. When the body is straighter and more balanced up through the segments, less energy is expended. The excess energy can go to other tasks like keeping the immune system up, to cope with stress, to promote creative thinking etc..

Omori Sogen writes, “The body is that in which the breath stands”. I find this true. It is through improving the way the body is consciously conditioned to support itself that optimal breathing becomes possible. The diaphragm is able to pull down and create a vacuum between the ribcage and abdomen, allowing air to fill the lungs from the bottom, into the lower back, expanding the space between each vertebrae up the length of the spine while feeling a lift at the apex of the skull.

If the upper body is constantly hunched forward, or backwards too far, the diaphragm cannot do its job, thus starving the entire body of precious life giving oxygen and the organs in the abdomen do not get massaged creating dysfunction in the digestive system and so on.

Your breath and posture can also be reliable indicators of the state of your mind and vise versa. The next time you feel stressed, tired, angry or depressed, take a mental note of how you hold yourself and the effect it has on the breath. Is the body held vertically and relaxed or is the breath shallow, rapid, weak or extra slow? When you make a mental note, stand up, take a few deep breaths all the way down into the belly and let the tension of the whole body go. Do you feel lighter, taller, more present to the conditions you are experiencing right now?

I would like to share a simple exercise with you for improving your posture and breath. First, sit on the edge of a chair making contact with the sits bones at the base of your pelvis and the knees and ankles at right angles to the floor. Next, find the top of your head by drawing an imaginary line from the center of the ears up to the top of the head and intersect it with a line running up from the bridge of your nose. Now imagine a string lifting you skywards from the top of your head allowing the length of the spine to follow the lift upwards without effort. This is your new ‘home base’. From home base, move just a little bit forward and then back to home base, making the movement smaller and smaller until you find a neutral point. Then lift again through the top of your head. This time start from home base and move side to side making the movement smaller and smaller until you find the neutral point again and then feel the lift up through the top of your head skywards. This is your new home base.

Now take a deep breath, feeling it flow all the way down to the belly button and expanding as it fills upwards like pouring water into a vessel, while keeping the shoulders, neck, and face relaxed. At the same time, feel the upward lift of the spine through the top of your head. Exhale slowly, allowing the chest to fall first and rolling down to the belly button again while feeling the skyward lift. A general rule is to inhale naturally let’s say for 2 seconds, then increase the exhalation to about 6 seconds or about 3 time as long or more. Practice this exercise several times a day until it becomes as natural as brushing your teeth.

You see, a new home base is created every time you consciously retrain the way the body moves and holds itself in relation to the field of gravity whether in sports, changing diapers, sitting at a desk or reading a book.

With this practice of sitting and breathing, the emotions are kept in check, the physical body develops better stamina with less pain, and greater possibilities of creativity emerge. What is your posture like? What does it tell you about the way you feel right now? Practicing a new way of breathing while adjusting one’s self may be uncomfortable at first but, really its only unfamiliar however, with a bit of pursuance, an increased quality of being is just a breath away.