The following instructions will educate you on how to sit with natural alignment so that you can begin to experience more ease and space in your body right away. Start with one point per day. Stick with it for a few days until you feel you have a real comprehension of it in your mind and a feel for it in your body. Notice the sensation of contrast or what is different in your body over time. This is key in creating long-term shifts that will allow you to observe when something feels ‘off’ and recognize what subtle adjustments you can make to veer your ship (your body) in the direction of growth and progress.
1. Bring awareness to your pelvis and connect to your pelvic bowl.
- The arrangement of the pelvis is the foundation for easy upright The position of the pelvis determines the angle of the platform on which the spine sits.
- Your knees should be lower than your hips.
- This allows your pelvis to be tipped One way to remember this is to imagine the pelvis as a bowl of water. In this position, all the water would be poured out the front of the bowl.
- Most chairs cause a ‘sinking’ back where your knees become higher than your This causes your tailbone (coccyx) and sacrum to be tucked under, which disrupts the angle of the sacral platform on which the spine sits, causing the spine to collapse and round. This positioning equals you not feeling awesome in your body.
- Find your sit bones, aka Ischial Tuberosities (the bones under your butt). Slowly rock your pelvis forward and back to feel the front and back edges of your sit bones.
- Now, come to what feels like somewhere between the front and the middle of the sit You will want to be slightly more towards the front.
- Let your weight drop down onto the front of your pelvis or pubic From there, imagine a string gently pulling you up from the inside. Imagine that string as a plumb line going down the center of your body, your vertical axis, let your body relax and soften around that line.
2. Let your belly be relaxed and see if you can feel your breath in your low back.
- Relax your belly to allow for a deeper, more relaxed This contributes to your body being in a state that promotes healing.
- Bring your breath to your low back to release any unnecessary tension that you hold there.
- If you aren’t able to feel your breath in your low back, bring your hand to this The external touch from your hand will help you access your breath there. If you find yourself having difficulty experiencing the breath here, give yourself some patience. Start to track where on your back you can feel your breath, and then little by little, begin to move your breath lower. This is a process, and I invite you to enter it with gentle curiosity.
3. Get support from your feet and build an awareness of the front of your spine.
- Your feet provide you with important information on your They help you to orient in gravity, as well as help to gain stability from the ground up while sitting. As you are sitting, feel the floor coming to meet your feet. Feel it supporting you. Bring your focus there.
- Gently press your feet into the ground with a subtle reaching-forward push. When you do this, can you feel the inner line of your legs activate up into your core? If so, take this awareness piece a step further and imagine you can connect with the front of your spine from your feet.
- When you think of your spine, you most likely think about your back or the back of your spine. Your spine, particularly your lumbar vertebrae (lower back) go deep inside of Having a reference and awareness of the front of your spine is one of the most important steps in being able to find your own inherent strength while feeling vulnerable, open, and soft. I talk about this more about in Chapter 7 of my book, Radical Embodiment. For now, begin to be curious about this space and create a connection to it.
- See if you can allow your belly to be relaxed from here.