There’s this thing I do when I’m sitting. I didn’t realize I was doing it until someone sitting across from me asked me about it.
She said, “Do you know you’re sitting there with your shoulders hunched up to your ears?”
I immediately dropped my shoulders and said, “Nope. I did not realize I was doing that.”
I took a few deep breaths, did a few shoulder rolls, relaxed my body and breathed in and out.
And I’ve been practicing NOT being in this stress posture ever since (it has been a couple years, at least since this person mentioned it to me).
Why do I sit like this? When did I learn to hunch my shoulders up and hold my breath? These are mysteries to me, still.
Meditation helps. Yoga really helps.
When I was regularly receiving body work, I healed my lower back. I radically improved my posture. Even my breathing was a million times better.
And my body remembers that healing – I can move this way and that and feel the popping and loosening.
Yet, it is a practice. One I have to be very persistent about.
It is worth it, though, to have a healthier, happy body. It’s no fun to go through life with my shoulders scrunched up around my ears. It just screams, “I’m stressed!”
Rather, I’d like to go through life relaxed and well oxygenated. It’s so much more natural.
Join me in relaxing your shoulders and your back. Join me in three big, deep breaths…the kind of breaths where you breathe IN and your belly pokes OUT.
Relax your body and breathe. Relax your body and breathe. Relax your body and breathe.
Feel better? I do!