Emotions are expressed in posture – both sitting and standing - and they interact with breathing and circulation. Here’s your chance to do some research on your own…
The next time you sit in a public place and watch people as they pass by, pretend you’re in your own private laboratory, privvy to observing who’s happy or sad, feeling good or not so good. You should even be able to figure out how those imperfect postures you’re seeing could be adjusted to improve their carriage and lessen the fatigue that’s unknowingly accumulating in those bodies. (I’m guessing you’ve unconsciously lifted and straightened your own sitting position, even though you really sat down to “take a load off your feet” and rest a bit. I know because I’ve caught myself doingjust that.)
Good! We can learn so much from each other.
As you’re sitting there observing the variations in human walking styles, visualize the spine – the inner, mechanical, bony infrastructureof the human body. Even though the perfect outer body position looks like a capital T making a straight vertical line from top of head to the floor, and a straight horizontal line if arms are outstretched, look from the side with x-ray eyes and you’ll see the flexible spine balancing that perfect T through three slight curves – neck, rib cage and lower back, with the muscles doing their job of balancing the curves of the spinal column.
If tension, discouragement, unhappiness and other negative emotions are at work in the people walking by you’ll see a tightly held mouth, facial wrinkles and a slumped upper body – a self defeating, negatively cumulative body expression that’s easily corrected.
It would be intrusive to walk over to that person and suggest that if they lifted their chin and upper body to correct the imbalance of their infrastructure they’d have a happier, healthier day. They’d be offended. And if you walked over to that person and thanked him or her for making it possible for you to learn something, they’d think you were crazy.
But you CAN learn from your observation of other people and apply it to yourself without them knowing. I’m not one to get tangled up in too much technical information, so think of posture, balanced gait and walking posture as basic body subjects, which advertise your mood. Negative “advertisements” don’t send a positive message.
Gravity is constantly trying to take us back down to wherever it is we came from. Maybe the people walking by who are looking at the ground and letting their shoulders slump have just given in to gravity.
Resist! You’ll have a happier, healthier life.
