Over the years as I have developed Posture Release Imagery, I have found myself developing a fondness for older, less currently common terms and a slightly unusual usage of words. These words and phrases (shown in italics) seem to have more value than more common and modern terminology in expressing what I want to about good use of the mind/body.
As an example, in this note and elsewhere, I talk about the maturing of posture, which says much more than the “improving” of posture, a phrase that is more open to interpretation… and misinterpretation. Postural maturing is coming out of whatever habits and inclinations that become ingrained in us in childhood, the teenage years, and early adulthood. Developing healthy lives requires what we call maturing. I think that developing healthy postures requires the same. And conversely, I think that the general term for what humans tend to suffer from posturally is immaturity.
A big part of postural maturing involves, to some extent, a return to innocence, another term not often used to describe healthy posture. Yes, I think that maturity involves at least a sense of innocence… odd but true. One can only bring about increased innocence through having a measure of humility, another word that should not be foreign to psychophysical/somatic techniques. Increased innocence will, in turn, give rise to honest generosity in movement.
Now this might all sound a bit strange and unnecessary, but what does a more common or modern phrase mean, like “freedom,” or even “freedom of choice,” in the body. I argue that postural healthismore than “freedom.” Freedom is a popular concept, perhaps more now than ever, but it is more or less a directionless term… freedom to what? freedom from what? It might suggest that the compression at the joints is less than otherwise, but is that even necessarily a good?
What else might postural health involve than freedom? Well, I suggest that postural health also requires postural formation.Postural formation is appropriate directions within the body structure. It is the forming of proper relationships between parts, not just willy-nilly freedom. It involves not only release of muscles but also the development of control, through contraction, of other muscles. Postural formation gives us a healthy caringposture that matures, not just a “free” posture that is extra upright.
Some may argue that simply inhibiting habits and freeing up the body automatically returns all appropriate relationships to our use. I, to the contrary, think that there are habits ingrained in our minds/bodies that defy easy removal because they are part of all of our cultural and spiritual and human immaturity. And these habits are impossible to inhibit until we have sensed them inside of ourselves as a result of experiencing, at least momentarily, a more ideal, well-formed posture. Ideal or archetypalpostures are best illustrated as sensations to be emulated (as in Posture Release Imagery) and not as specific human forms to be copied. Trying to copy people who have what one might consider “good” postures is doomed to be a postural24 health failure. Copying invokes the use of the wrong arrangement of muscles as well as the wrong hopes and dreams. We should want not to be like someone else but rather to be more like a greater ideal.
Let me carry on with other new language that I think should be present in somatic or psychophysical techniques and, most especially, in your ownlanguage as you consider your hopes and search for change. I have already mentioned humility and generosity but let me now suggest contrition, sacrifice, forgiveness, and grace.
Most of us are aware, at least in hindsight, of times when we abuse our bodies and brains. It might be with alcohol and so forth, but it also may be with breakneck multi-tasking, heavy endless concentration on something, or numbness-inducing hours of slouching and withdrawing into “entertainment?” on the television or internet. Contrition or apology to your body might be a useful first step to change these posturally disruptive activities. You are admitting that you are being immature and are the source of most all of your own psychophysical problems.
Sacrifice is required for a healthy nation, a healthy family, AND also for a posturally healthy individual. Not only must pleasurable and addictive excesses of various kinds be “sacrificed” or curtailed but, perhaps even more importantly, many little postural habits that we think that we enjoy and NEED must be released. The list of these habits that we think we must have or think that we enjoy are numerous… and everyone has several examples. When we have discovered that one or another of our habits interfere with postural health, which is a state that is ultimately more rewarding, we have a challenge… the challenge is to sacrifice and give up some “pleasures,” some perceived “necessities.”
Humans are works in progress… and always will be. There are various somewhat debilitating habits in all of us that will never go away… except upon our demise. For that reason, it is useful at times to seek a little forgivenessfrom the appropriate source. And you never can tell what that might release. For much of what we seek is something that comes not directly from us, but is naturally there and comes from grace. What else does graceful mean?
These words in themselves will not bring about all the experiences but they may help you to properly frame the problem you have and the process you may choose to go through.