"Your body, mind and spirit are reflected in your posture.”
Joseph Sweere D.C., author of Golden Rules for Vibrant Health
Okay, you’ve probably heard the expression, “He’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders,” or “She gets all bent out of shape.”
It’s interesting how we use words like crooked, deranged and demented to describe unhealthy individuals, and at the same time we use words like poised, balanced and centered to describe wholesome, healthy people.
Have you ever stopped and wondered why?
The answer may surprise you. It’s because your posture is a reflection of your health. For example, if you are stressed or depressed you typically walk with your shoulders rounded and your head hanging low. On the other hand, if you feel great you walk with your body very upright and erect.
This is where it gets interesting. You can improve your health by improving your posture. As Joseph Sweere, a professor at Northwestern Health Science University, told me in an interview, “Posture can and does have an influence on the function of the nervous system, and your nervous system influences every tissue in your body.”
Simply put, if you carry yourself as if you’ve been beat up by life then your nervous system and tissues respond by going into a state of fight-or-flight. This survival response is a good short term strategy, but long term leads to heart disease, digestive disorders, insomnia, fatigue and a lowered resistance to disease.
The good news is that as you change your posture you change your health. Just try it. Next time you are tired or depressed try straightening up, taking a few deep breaths and you’ll likely notice the fatigue diminishing. It’s hard to be fatigued when you carry yourself upright.
So how can you start making improvements in your daily posture? Start with these three posture tips:
Adjust the rear view mirrors in your car so that you have to sit upright in order to use them properly.
Place items you commonly use in the kitchen (or popular clothes in your closet) in draws and shelves that don’t require you to constantly slouch down to get them.
Avoid working on a laptop computer for long periods. If you do use one, place the computer on a platform (even a stack of telephone books) to raise the monitor to eye level and then use an external keyboard and mouse.
These tips are great starters for improving your posture. Good luck on your journey to a more upright you in 2007.
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All Rights Reserved 2006 Nasoj Publications, LLC
Jason C. Steinle is a chiropractor at Health and Harmony Chiropractic, PC in Evergreen, CO 303 670 1001, the host of The Steinle Show talk radio program, and author of Upload Experience: Quarterlife Solutions which is available at HearthFire Books and http://www.uploadexperience.com/.
