Almost every parent has experienced the frustration of telling their child to “sit up straight,” only to see them sink back into the same familiar collapsed heap within minutes, if not moments. This is because the way we’ve all been taught to “correct” our slouching posture—lifting the chest up and pulling the shoulders back—requires a lot of muscle tension to maintain. In no time at all, we, too, like our children, are struggling against collapse.
What if there were an easier, more natural way of sitting “up straight,” that was truly more comfortable and required no effort? It turns out, there is such a way, and it is discovered by all healthy babies when first becoming upright. This same upright posture that babies discover is also the secret to those legendary women in the world who carry enormously heavy loads on their heads without strain. Moving with ease and gracefulness, these women carry water jugs, rocks, bricks and wet laundry as if it were a feather on top of their head. Just like very young children, these women have a pelvis that is “parked” at just the right position to support a fullly lengthened and aligned spine. The spine, in turn, carries the head, a heavy bowling ball-like structure that balances on top of it.
Tucking the tailbone under, even a little bit, unparks the pelvis and changes the dynamic support of the entire structure. The head, no longer carried from below, now bears down on the spine, compressing it and triggering a whole chain of gravity-fighting events.
Learn more about parking your (and your child’s) pelvis in my new book, “Sad Dog Happy Dog: How Poor Posture Affects Your Child’s Health & What You Can Do About It.” here . Read more about natural skeletal alignment and why it matters so much here.
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