Physical alignment—do you have it? Take a minute & check.
The first virtue of rationality is listed as curiosity—have you got it?
A minute of your time to increase self-awareness.
Find the following 5 markers on your body and consider their relative positioning.
Can you move your body in order to increase your physical alignment?
1. Pubic symphysis.
2. Navel
3. Xiphoid process of sternum
4. Jugular notch of sternum
5. External occipital protuberance
Keep thinking about these five midline markers.
Increase your awareness of your physical state, see how it feels.
Weird question, why bother mentally mapping two different ends of the same bone (sternum)? In fact, why all this trivia about bone knobs in the first place? If I want good posture, I’d be better off learning the lessons of the military, and if I want to relax, why bone knobs?
5 markers better than 4. There’s a lot of potential movement in the upper body so it is possible to align the pubic symphysis, navel and xiphoid process (aligning the linea alba between the rectus abdominis muscles) with the external occipital protuberance without the jugular notch aligning.
I’m try to get people to think about their body’s relative positioning and state of physical alignment. These 5 midline anatomical markers (4 bony knobs and a squishy bit!) are easily palpated—a simple introduction to begin mentally mapping the body’s relative positioning—to sow the seeds of thought as it were. More on our midline anatomy and using the median plane for body alignment here .
More on mental mapping here: conscious proprioception—our sense of position, movement and balance and the body map in the mind.
I don’t know what the military teaches about good posture (I image a lot of shouting about standing up straight) and a internet search hasn’t left me any further forward but if you’ve any links to lessons from the military I would be interested to see. My thoughts on posture are here, but summarised as: It’s muscles that create our posture. We should focus on the 5 ‘main muscles of movement’ for better posture. 5 main muscles made easy.
As for relaxation, using my body better, releasing physical tensions and regaining my natural range of movement has left me more relaxed than I ever remember!
My intro. post to LW said I’ve got something to share and ‘please rip to shreds’ - I meant it - so thank you for reading and questioning! Did you think about your midline markers?
Hey, thanks for this congenial reply to my fairly rude comment :)
So, I bring up the military thing because of a roommate of mine, but if I google “military posture tips,” I get this page, which basically says that if you’re hunched forward, you need to stretch the muscles causing that force, and exercise the muscles that naturally oppose it. In short, get a stronger upper and lower back! They also give specific recommendations (albeit mostly geared towards body-weight exercises easy for a home reader to do).
I had a quick read of the article, it’s not wrong (although I strongly argue that the strength for the abdomen comes from the rectus abdominis muscles rather than the lower back/lumbar muscles) - but I’m more right! The 5 main muscles of movement, the key to doing everything else, stretching, releasing re-balancing.
The expression “bony knobs” made up for any potential rudeness btw.
I am both a) desperate for the attention and b) mentally thinking ‘bring it on bitches’ so please do!
Something so obvious to me know but totally grounded in some basic anatomy if anyone cares to try to connect body and mind!