So what is posture? In the context of natural medicine it’s, “the position of the limbs or the carriage of the body as a whole”.
Is there an ideal posture then? A neutral spine or good posture refers to the “three natural curves [that] are present in a healthy spine”. Here is the difference between good and poor posture.
Why is posture so important? If posture is poor then an increase physical stress can accumulates in the area of imbalance. This stress can reach a critical point where it causes symptoms one day out of the clear blue sky.
When is posture the most crucial? That’s simple. Sitting, standing and lying are the 3 main situations in which the effects of poor posture can be seen.
So how does one acquire better posture? I thought you’d never ask. One of the biggest things I think people can do to help themselves is first and foremost is to be AWARE. In my practice I call this postural awareness or P.A.
If you are aware of what you are doing with your posture then you can make the assessment of whether you need to make a change. Most people know what is good or posture looks like but we get so caught up in our environments that we lose awareness of what we are doing with our posture.
We sit down in our chair and automatically get in a slouched posture, we fire up the computer and our head starts moving forward, the phone rings and we cradle it on one side and the story goes on. All these situations and more are leading to bad posture and a lot of times we have no idea of what's going on because we are not aware.
The take home to having better posture is first being aware of your posture. I’ll tell patients to put a sticky note on their computer monitors with the initials P.A.(postural awareness), this gives them a visual cue to be aware and check their posture. If you’re in a situation that you don’t know what to do to help yourself with better posture, always feel free to consult with me.
Good posture = less stress and that’s is a win for better health.