I’ve been working hard to create a habit around running two times a week and this photo shows another five and a half weeks of success. Each run may be only one mile, but (combined with a small amount of yoga 4-5 times each week) there is no doubt that I feel holistically better as a result.
The other thing that has been on my mind for a while is posture. Those of you who know me will confirm that I’ve been ’round’ in the shoulder department since I was young… despite the number of people who have encouraged me to ‘stand up straight’ over the years. I typically ask for critical feedback at the end of workshops and one group was forthright enough to use those exact words!
When I started teaching presentation skills a few years ago I had to figure out how to explain to other people how to stand up straight (even though I found it difficult)… bizarrely I discovered that this requires only brief focus on your big toes and heels.
Later, when I was trying to sculpt the collar bones on an alabaster figurine (that’s another story, but the photo below shows the drawing on the original block and the finished piece), I discovered a further layer of insight… those people with great posture seem to have collar bones that are almost horizontal.
Put these two insights together and you have a simple recipe for improving posture.
The American organisational theorist, Russel Ackoff, suggested that there are three things that we can do ‘to problems’: we can solve, resolve or dissolve them. Solving is akin to curing a disease; resolving is managing the symptoms (like taking hay fever tablets); and dissolving is changing other factors such that the disease does not manifest (like staying inside to avoid pollen).
My sense is that the insights above are dissolving the postural problem… it doesn’t go away (at least in someone at my age) but by developing new habits elsewhere in the body, there’s a chance that the round shoulders will not manifest. Then the challenge is simply about keeping that basket of habits going until they become second nature.
I’ve been trying for a few months now and can report that its non-linear… nothing seems to happen for ages but the body starts to recognise the movement that is required, the muscles start to develop as they get used a little more often and that means that the desired posture can be held for slightly longer each time before it lapses.
Like my weekly runs, it’s about finding triggers that cause you to act with the least cognitive input, such as running Tuesday and Friday mornings before breakfast, standing up straight whenever I clean my teeth, sitting up straight when I first sit down and smiling each time I remember to do these things as a way to connect them to positive feelings.
Whilst I am eternally grateful for the positive attributes that I have been afforded, I often feel that I have learned way more through working hard to solve, resolve or dissolve one of my (numerous) flaws. One step at a time 🙂