Posture

Posture

I know right? 🥱

It can be a damn right annoying topic to discuss, debate or simply comprehend.

It's also really easy to get so fu*king sick of the subject.

But I hope this email today will help clear a few things up.

Posture is personal.
Period.

Posture is a fluid & creative process.
Which means, we move with posture, we do not hold a posture.

It's more than a physical interpretation of what you do with your body, but rather posture is our way of being in the world. 

It's our ability to adapt to change. 
It's our ability to design a gesture before its execution.
It's being able to control and correct.
But, it's also about ease and sensation.

Posture is the beautiful marrying of proprioception, interoception and vestibular.

Proprioception = the awareness and sense of our body in space and time.
Interoception = the awareness and sense of how your body feels in space and time, of what is happening internally.
Vestibular = automatic and subconscious, it's our awareness of gravity and balance.
It tells us whether we are moving or stationary or how fast we are going.

Posture isn't standing tall, spine straight, shoulders back, tucking the tailbone or holding the belly.

Oh no. 

Posture is the way we meet gravity in each and every movement, according to Ida Rolf.

Posture is personal.
Posture, eventually, is the realisation that we need to learn to work less hard.
Not to work harder.
But to work less hard.

Yet, a certain level of body tension is required to meet the forces of gravity.
Tension supports structure.

So I introduce you to tensegrity structures.
Tensegrity = the characteristic property of a stable three dimensional structure consisting of members under tension that are contiguous and members under compression that are not.

Aka our bones float in a sea of soft tissue.
Our bones are held via tension from our muscles and fascia.
We are not built like tables or houses.
We do not have rigid joints or dovetails.

But instead have a beautiful balance of tension & stretch across our entire tensegrity structure of bone and tissues.

Which means we have give, we have fluidity and we have adaptive form capacity.
We can shape-shift.
We rely on both effort and ease.

Because we move with posture rather than hold a posture, it means we are in a constant dance between proprioception, interoception and the vestibular system.

Posture is personal.
It is a reflection of our most preferred strategy.
It involves our emotions, our stories, our history.
So, our strategies will all differ.
Which means our posture will also differ.

Our strategies are a direct result and reflection of us feeling safe in the world.
What do we rely on when it comes to feeling safe in the world?

Here we welcome the autonomic nervous system.
Some of us float real well between the parasympathetic and sympathetic states.

At the end of the day, it would be really nice to have a regulated nervous system as often as possible.

Parasympathetic = allows the body to rest and digest, or, causes the freeze response, which can be described as alert immobility or hitting the brakes.
Sympathetic = prepares the body for fight or flight, adrenals release adrenaline, heart beats faster to create more blood flow where necessary to take action etc.

Simply, know this:
Your breathing affects your nervous system.
Your nervous system affects your posture.
Your posture affects your breathing.
Your breathing affects your nervous system.
See the loop we're in my friend?

BUT

Don't let this then fool you into thinking there's a good & bad posture.
Let's, for simplicity, look at it like this:

I want you to have as many movement choices as possible.
I want you to be able to breathe in as many positions as possible.
I want you to have a regulated, adaptive and responsive nervous system.
I want you to have appropriate doses of tension, stretch, strength and softness in your body.
I want you so in-tune, so aware, so vividly sensitive to where you are, how you are and WHO you are in time, in space and in the world.

Do you see a little more clearly why the platform is that way it is?
Do you see why I could never have a category just for 'posture'?

Because posture is complicated, ever-changing and personal.
I won't give you good posture, because there's no such thing.
But, I will make it better.
That means, my friend, I'll make your whole life better.

Amy xx