“Proper posture is a way of blending with gravity. Proper attitude is a way of blending with life.” – Dan Millman, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior
Day 22 – Observe Your Body Posture
How To Do It: Today notice your body posture. Be mindful as often as You remember about the way You walk, the way you sit at the office, while eating or resting. To make it easier to practice you can imagine you have a scanner that you use to check out your body from head to toes. Remember that wicked device dr. Beverly Crusher was using in Star Trek to scan her patients? Something like that 🙂 Notice as often as you remember if there is any unnecessary tension in your muscles. Is there any pain? Observe and modify your posture or do some stretching whenever you feel it is necessary.
My experience with this: I tend to have a sloppy posture so I need to practice this exercise a lot. I’ve noticed that my posture improves when I am doing some kind of sport on a regular basis, at least 3 times a week. Whether it has been yogilates or tango, both of them help me get that body awareness outside the training gym and translate it into my daily activities. Whenever I don’t do enough sport for a while I notice I get back to my sloppy sitting.
So especially during those times, sticking to the 10 minutes of yoga and sitting in silence every morning is of great help for me. It keeps me flexible and aware of my body throughout my day.
Another trick I use is to make an agreement with my friends to help each other have better posture, by tapping each other’s back when one notices the other has a bad posture. That’s one of my tricks, I am sure You can come up with more creative ideas.
Besides the obvious physical benefits of having a good posture, bringing your awareness to your body throughout your day is an awesome tool to get You out of your mind and back into the present moment.
So this is my take on today’s exercise. Enjoy, have fun with it, and let me know how it was in the comments section bellow.
If You know anyone who might benefit from today’s body awareness exercise or share this post with them. Here’s yesterday’s suggestion in case you missed it.
With all my love,
Raluca
PS:“The body is a sacred garment. It’s your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honour.” – Martha Graham.
PPS: Here’s a scene with dr. Beverly Crusher scanning the body of Deanna Troi 🙂