What is Body Posture?

Posture seems simple when it is boiled down to adjustments of the head, shoulders, thoracic and lumbar spine.

Many people are told to sit up or stand up straight, even have their lower limbs checked for leg length discrepancies and the like.

But really, posture is a function of the organisms ability to orient itself in space in a safe and efficient manner.

The nervous system will adjust itself around trauma, physical or emotional, real or perceived…the eyes will adjust to keep one’s vision clear at the expense of the alignment of spine all the way down the kinetic chain, even the position of the jaw will effect the way your foot hits the ground or how you sit.

If you find that you have recurrent pain, that despite all the yoga and postural adjustments in the world, all the surgeries and other manners of bio-mechanical alignments have been done and have never held; Consider the larger pattern of the body, the role the nervous system has to play in it, and your level of awareness.

Awareness is not just knowing you are moving a certain way or feeling a certain way but the ABILITY to change and adapt your movement according to life circumstance.

Posture is dynamic, the ability to stand or sit with ease AND the ability to move through space with relative freedom, with ease and freedom being different in any given moment.

Teaching the foundation of alignment and biomechanics in standing and sitting in the activity a person love’s can initially make for a beginning toward ease and the reduction of pain, but it can also become a jail sentence if the individual does not progress toward a larger awareness of the felt perception and movement of the body.

This philosophy is the basis of how I work work with people in my physical therapy and healing practice.