August 2022: Posture

When you think about posture, what comes up? What were you told about how to have good posture?

In my Embodied Leadership workshops, we look at posture in metaphorical and embodied relationship to leadership. It’s also a common goal for Pilates clients.

What I find is that a lot of us are trying to force our backs to be a little more upright, and our shoulders to be a little further back, trying to force our structures into a static ‘correct’ shape. The desire to hold our structures in a healthy habitual manner is a worthwhile one, and yet, forcing a shape creates extra tension – and holding one shape does not set us up to be adaptive and responsive.

It turns out that human bodies are meant to move. We move away from danger and towards nourishment. We move to express and communicate. Maintaining healthy tissue and joints comes not from holding a particular shape – but from access to movement options.

How does your experience change when you think about posture as being available for movement? How does it feel to release ideas about “correct posture”?