For a while, walking was difficult and painful. Now when I walk, mostly without problems, I try to concentrate on keeping my head from jutting forward.
According to Scott Forrester, the way we move reflects our whole self. We display our emotional, physical, and mental habits when we are moving.
If my head is habitually jutted forward, a habit I’m working to change, I wonder is it an outward sign of my tendency to push and rush in order to get things settled and decided? Probably.
Much of our daily life is spent in the forward position which is not good for our posture. Please join me as I ramp my head back, stand up straight and feel tall. We can also sit up straight and avoid slumping.
Scott might tell you your head weighs between ten and eleven pounds, more than his book The Aware Athlete. What can people tell you when they see you move? What do you notice about how others move? Watch and see what people do with their heads. Please let me know in comment section or an email.
Thanks for exploring the mystery – Nicky Mendenhall
CLUE: Really watch how others move. Do most people look at ease? What can you learn about yourself by seeing how others move?
Image: I love shadow pictures especially when my head looks like a bowling ball!
6 comments
Hi Nicky! I had heard that about the weight of the head! No wonder my neck and shoulders often hurt! (I am guessing that has more to do with how I carry stress–and my posture.) In my past life (about 20 years ago) I used to teach yoga. I have not practiced for quite some time now–all this talk about posture may just might inspire me to take a class and get back into it! Thanks!
Have a wonderful weekend!
XOXO
Hi Diane,
So good to hear from you! I didn't know you used to teach yoga. I hope you will find a way to use your skills in yoga to help your posture. It is so important if we want to age without lots of pain. Let me know how it goes.
Thanks for your comment and for reading.
Nickola, it is good to be able to sense little things that make a difference to us. Feldenkrais of course did not like the idea of standing up straight since when you look at the skeleton there is nothing straight on it. He preferred talking about vertical standing. Being human involves standing and walking in an upright position and learning to do so optimally. A well organized vertical position offers several advantages, bearing weight most comfortably, aiding balance, and being able to turn quickly around a vertical axis as an ice skater or dancer would do in a spin or a bullfighter would do to avoid the bull at the last moment or simply to be able to turn quickly and face another direction or see what is coming.
Feldenkrais also like the idea of action rather than static poses and so he liked acture as opposed to posture, the idea being that good posture is the best arrangement of ourselves for the action being performed at the time. If we only know how to do things one way then slumping may cause pain or discomfort. However there may be a time and place and a way to slump skillfully too. 🙂
Wow Scott – you are educating me about the body and Feldenkrais! Thank you for this interesting perspective. This is my first exposure to "acture" as opposed to posture. Your words remind me that movement matters.
Now instead of only focusing on ramping my head back, I will pay attention to how my movement either helps keep the weight off my neck or makes it harder.
I hope you know how much I appreciate your input. Thank you!
I, too, am very aware of how often I jut my head forward and am always working on it. There is a little device you put on your back to monitor that. It has appeared on my Facebook in the past, but I'm not turning it up now. When it appears again, I will send you a link.
Glad you are walking well.
Hi Karen,
Glad to know I'm not the only one walking around thinking about pulling my head back. You also wrote me about the head forward position when reading. I have solved that by putting a big bean bag cushion with a flat pillow on top of it and the put my book on that so it is eye level. It's a pain to do but helps me keep head up so worth it to me. You might want to try something like it.
Thank you for reading and commenting!
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