Fix Your Problem Areas
After spending a month focusing on Tall, Elegant Posture in the studio, I have a PSA.
You don’t have any "problem areas," nor do you need fixed or improved. Even if you don't feel tall and elegant most of the time, it’s okay.
I know I made a big deal a couple of weeks ago about how if you stop doing something, you stop being able to do it. And I pointed out that your alignment has suffered over the three years of the pandemic. Those things are still true.
And we turned over every stone last month to help reveal what keeps us from a tall, elegant spine. We looked at why we get neck pain and ways to stop it. People reported ah-ha's that rippled off the mat and into their lives.
That's all great.
But the crux of it is this: we live in human bodies and human bodies go through all sorts of stuff, some brilliant and some painful.
The practice becomes compassion and gentleness, a long exhale and the presence we hold for ourselves and others. It’s how we work with what's happening and how we relate to ourselves while we’re working with it.
There are so many practices and workouts and trends... it's easy to feel like you need this other thing in order to be fixed or better or whole. Maybe THIS practice or modality will finally be the answer... or there’s something else and you just haven’t found it yet.
Even as I’ve been talking about tall elegant posture, partly it’s the outer thing and mostly it's an inner thing. It’s more for your own internal sense of freedom - freedom in your breath, in how you inhabit your body, how you express yourself.
It's deeper than just walking around like you have a book on your head. :)
If you’ve got a little hump starting at the back of your neck, it’s
okay. You just live in a human body. The shame we are told to feel (by media and consumerism) is merely a way to control us and keep us from seeing our own sacredness. (To get us to buy more stuff.)
Obviously, I want you to feel as vibrant and well as possible. And I can help with that! Our theme this month is Relieving Low Back Pain.
My deepest wish is for you to have your own back and hold all parts of yourself as sacred and worthy. I can support you with that as well.
With love,
