Lifestyle Medicine
On day 40 of my 60-day wellness cleanse, I gave you a brief introduction to posture-movement education. For the past five days, I’ve presented movement principles. and you can review all the blog posts HERE.
Movement education is an underrated health science that hugely impacts our lifestyle. It is very often the solution to your body aches, including leg pain, knee pain, back pain, shoulder pain, and joint pain. It is day 46, and let’s continue with the 6th movement principle.
Break the Cycle of Unconsciousness!
Our routine tasks are performed unconsciously. If you have been doing something since you were a little kid, chances are you will continue to do it in the same way, without even thinking about how you can make it more comfortable. So you get what you get in your unconscious habits, both efficiency and overstrain. And that overstain will show itself in all your movements.
How you shift this overstain is by bringing your movements to your consciousness. Connect the feeling of the process happening in your body when you do a certain activity. As I said on day 43 that your feeling is the answer, you need to determine your comfort level in a posture, i.e., how you feel when you work. Remember, I talked about using the comfort scale? It helps you to maximize the power and minimize the strain.
Overstrained Postures Can Lead To Undue Suffering & Disease
A life lived daily with undue strain leads to a breaking point of suffering and disease. How much can the body endure? Overstrain leads to greater imbalances that can lead to a myriad of musculoskeletal disorders known as repetitive stress injury (RSI). Even with the best of form, repetitive motions can lead to injury if overstrain continues unchecked.
When you continue to sit or work in positions that compromise your body’s “form,” as we discussed yesterday, more and more strain mounts incrementally on the body. The increased pull-out pressure on your muscles, resulting from overstrained postures, causes discomfort, leading to aches in your body.
Let’s understand with this simple example. Suppose you have been watching videos on your phone for an hour or two. If you are sitting in such a position that your neck bends forwards, and your hands are holding the phone on your lap, it will make you severely uncomfortable.
Cut the Undue Strain!
This movement principle reminds you to look at how you move in life and notice the habits that cause undue strain on your entire body. In the above photo, bring consciousness to the alignment of your body on your feet, soften the knees a little, and align the head on your torso. Alignment (centering of the joints) is the first step, and then to keep the flow and lightness going at the same time. This requires a subtle movement that lessens the load of gravity. Not staying in any position for extended periods of time will keep your body more balanced without the buildup of excessive strain on the body.
The Mind-Body Connection
Here’s another exciting benefit of taking the “over” out of overstrain.
Physical = Mental and Mental = Physical. When we refer to balancing out our physical nature, we automatically affect the mental-emotional-spiritual nature of our being. When we set out to reduce our physical strain in life, this not only makes you use less effort and achieve more power but also helps you to be more spiritually grounded and emotionally balanced.
