Hello beautiful friends,
"I've always had flat feet".
"My back has always been rounded."
"It runs in the family."
I hear this all the time. People saying, "it's (their body is) just the way it is". In other words what they're really saying is ... "I have no control over my body". But that's just not true.
When people are saying, "it's just the way I am" they're also implying that their body is in a static state. Again... they couldn't be more wrong.
The only constancy in our bodies is one of 'flux'. We're constantly changing. Therefore we have the opportunity every single moment of the day to participate in this process and direct it where we want to go.
If you're imbalanced now and do nothing about it, you're going to become more imbalanced as you age and your body will slowly but insidiously close down.
I get it, that it's easy to think that we can't do anything about our structural patterns because, although I've been an active person all my life and still am and I'm also a physiotherapist, it's taken me years to distill the essential elements necessary to changing the body's structure.
We've all no doubt done exercises at some point in our lives to relieve pain somewhere in our body. But traditionally these exercises haven't been designed to effect real and lasting change in our bony structure. Often they're just building struts around the imbalanced tissues, thus perpetuating the imbalance. What I've learnt is that true healing AND good mobility are only guaranteed when we make a change in our structural alignment.
Whether it's bunions, bursitis or back pain, you experience, there's usually a pattern of imbalance that precedes it, a pattern that you CAN change.
The only way to change your structure is to change your posture, tangibly, measurably and visibly. When you practice a new posture regularly enough and for long enough, you will find quite naturally that your whole body structure starts to morph into something new. With practice, you can remodel your feet and create higher arches and yes, you can straighten your rounded spine!
Sometimes all it takes is a few degrees of greater mobility in a certain direction to create better alignment, ease your pain and take yourself a step further away from the insidious process of degeneration.
When I see people who have good posture I feel really happy. But I get especially excited when I see an older person who is upright, agile and vibrant. I feel joy in this moment because the opposite it true.
It saddens me deeply when I see older people who are stiff, stooped and are clearly struggling to move around. Their bodies have closed down. It feels like a tragedy to me – I literally feel my heart ache – because so much of this decline in function can be prevented with some education and a few regular exercises. This is what motivates me. The joy of feeling and remaining free in my body as I age. And I want that for you too.
A pattern of good postural alignment has the potential to restructure our genetic imbalanced patterns, relieve pain, maintain our mobility and in many instances prevent surgery because with alignment, the health of our tissues is preserved.
One of the most profound things you can do to bring about positive change in your body and enhance the quality of your life is to establish a regular home exercise routine. Especially one that's targeted to your specific structural needs. This is where Karana Posture comes in.
The Karana Posture Program
The Karana Posture Series of exercises incorporates four distinct aspects to create lasting, beneficial change in the health of your body:
mind-body re-patterning training to change your habits;
stretches for where you need it;
essential Core and strengthening exercises where every body needs it and
functional training for good postural alignment in your daily movements ... effortlessly.
I'm feeling very satisfied because, after years of honing this program, I finally spent hours with my Graphic Designer to create clear, easy to follow, diagrams and instructions of the Karana Posture Series. The Series is adaptable for many bodies and they're exercises you can continue to do for a lifetime to fine-tune your posture and restore it when you've strayed off your centre, which we all do from time to time.
So please don't ever think... "this is just the way it is".
If you have a problem, a pain, a stiffness, an imbalance ... be curious. Open up to the possibility of change. You don't have to just live with it. There is a way to create lasting relief and in the process you just might end up feeling better than you ever were before!
Book an appointment today to start your journey to ease and grace or review your progress and refresh your Posture Program.
In love with life and liveliness in each and every body,
