Postural Awareness

Most aches and pains are caused by muscular tension arising from poor posture.

How we sit or stand influences our postural development. Many of the poor posture habits we adopt are unconscious habits formed over years. Often, we may not even notice these habits until a problem arises in the body – say neck pain or a back ache – or we become more aware of our bodies – through taking up yoga or pilates for example, or through sitting still for long periods of time such as during meditation.

Strain can develop when you unconsciously use more muscular effort than you need to or when muscles remain contracted even when not in use – for example, hunching your shoulders habitually or clenching your jaw or fists.

Whatever the reason, tension habits often become chronic and cause muscle pain, restricted movement, fatigue and even low mood and headaches.

Poor sitting posture is a major cause of this muscular tension. Sitting for a large part of the day in a poorly designed chair is stressful for the body.

Another cause of muscular tension and pain may be emotional instability.

Sometimes, a person may be carrying around a lot of emotional pain or insecurity in the body. This is usually unacknowledged emotional instability that manifests in a person’s physical body. For example, a person who is round-shouldered and closed-chested may have a poor self-image and lack confidence. Holding the body in this position over many years can create tension in the body and constrict the emotions even more, making poor posture both the result and cause of negative emotions.

Look at the expression we use ‘the weight of the world on her shoulders’. We say this about a person with shoulders hunched forward and tight, head down, chest and heart collapsed inwards. This habitual, constrictive posture can make it actually feel as if your shoulders and neck are collapsing under a suffocating weight.

Developing awareness of how you carry yourself can improve your physical and mental state.

It’s certainly true that standing more upright, hunching less in the shoulders and relaxing the head and neck will improve tightness and tension in your body. Opening the body and standing in a more relaxed and confident posture can also lift your emotional state and make you feel more energetic. Even looking confident, when you don’t feel that way inside, can improve your mental state over time by making your body feel stronger and more relaxed.

A weakness in one part of the body can cause extra strain elsewhere.

If one part of the body has grown weak, the lower back for example, then either that strain will weaken the affected part or you will develop extra muscles to cope with it. If extra muscle does develop to compensate, the original weakness may degenerate further. This can lead to uneven development such as someone with one leg slightly shorter than the other who has to work the back muscles more on one side than on the other. This could mean that one shoulder is higher than the other to compensate with the head and neck leaning to that side. These slight, uneven developments in posture and muscle balance can go unnoticed for years.

The relationship between body and mind, emotion and posture, has many positive effects.

Working to address imbalances in the body and correct poor posture can lead to a more positive mental state, particularly if the person has been suffering muscular pain and fatigue. Over time and with dedicated practice on sitting and standing with awareness, the body learns to correct imbalances.

One way to improve postural awareness is to sit still and observe the body for five to ten minutes a day: You slow down the mental process and focus on the little niggles and aches in the body, become aware of where the weight is balanced, notice where feels tight or uncomfortable.

In the beginning, this will be challenging. Sitting still and observing automatically bring your focus to the aches and pains in your body and your mind will react. Over time, the body begins to feel lighter and more relaxed and the aches and pains may lessen. Soon you will feel your back start to straighten, your shoulders and arms to relax, your chest to lift and open.

All of this is a process. It is the beginning of awareness and the changing of patterns your body has clung onto for years. What you are doing is simply creating freedom in your body.