Improve Your Health with Posture Analysis
If being physically fit is important to you, then you should be aware of posture analysis and how it can improve your physical, and even mental health.
Posture analysis helps you understand how your body moves, functions, and holds itself. It identifies imbalances in the body from different holding patterns. These holding patterns are a reflection of the nervous system.
In the book Your Body Speaks Your Mind, author Deb Shapiro explains how the body is a reflection of internal thoughts and emotions, and carries the energetic weight of all of your repressed thoughts and emotions. They remain there until they can be re-visited at a later time to be properly understood and released.
Fight-Flight-or-Freeze Posture
When the emotional brain (limbic system) detects a threat, our body responds to the perceived threat to keep us safe. We respond by deciding to either fight the threat, flee from the threat, or “play dead” if you can’t fight or escape. After prolonged fear or stress, our bodies can get “stuck” in the fight, flight, or freeze posture.
The fight-or-flight posture can look like stiffness due to the body’s increased blood flow to the arms and legs in preparation to fight or run, or to display dominance or aggression. The muscles are tightened including the psoas muscle which connects the legs to the spine.
The freeze posture results in hunched shoulders, forward head posture, and shallow breathing. This is an attempt to stay small by turning inwards to not be seen or heard.
Both of these lead to negative effects on how the body moves and functions, especially if they persist over a long period of time. Our body will compensate for these deviations from the natural form in order to maintain balance. This means that other parts of the body must accommodate to these changes because everything is connected.
Our biochemistry is impacted as well, because the nervous system has deviated from its natural process. Overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system due to prolonged stress can wreak havoc on our bodies, including problems with digestion, brain function, blood pressure, and more.
Fortunately, our posture can give us clues indicating what is happening on a deeper level. If we regard our symptoms as helpful and loving, we will listen to what they say so we can move towards balance and wellbeing.
It is important to identify the mental and emotional components to our posture if we are wanting to improve our physical health, because if we continue to live in a stressful or fearful state, no matter how much we exercise or see the chiropractor, our body will return to a fight-flight-or-freeze posture.
Your Body Is A Mind Reader
Posture analysis goes further and identifies specific holding patterns that reflect deeper beliefs related to personal power and self-worth. Do you not want to take up space and be noticed? Do you want to appear tougher? Are you seeking to control people and situations in order to get a “grip” on them? Or do you let yourself be molded and manipulated by the needs and wants of others?
All of these things impact your posture because your posture is a way of responding to the environment. You respond based on what you think is in your best interest - how to get your needs met and survive. However, these beliefs were often created when we didn’t have a healthy or accurate understanding of our own power or self-worth, so they may need to be updated.
Develop Mindfulness
Working with a holistic wellness coach can help you identify what subconscious beliefs are being expressed by the body. Maintaining a new way of carrying and expressing yourself is possible when you become aware of your subconscious beliefs related to safety, self-worth, and power. Mindfulness practices can help you recognize where you are storing tension or fear in your body.
Re-Wire Your Brain
Now that you are aware of the deeper impact of your thoughts and emotions on your body, you can use this to develop an even better fitness routine. Try movements that reflect a healthier belief about yourself. For example, if you fear taking up space and showing up in the world, a power stance can help you develop a positive relationship with power. Another example is a pushing motion outward for people who are overpowered by others. Research shows that this actually changes your biochemistry because it forms new connections in your brain and alters biochemical bonds. You can essentially “program” yourself to feel safe.
Movement therapies like yoga, tai chi, Pilates, and dance also have a positive impact on your neurobiology. You can also try simple movements that you intuitively feel is right for you.