I was recently reading a book "Natural Posture for pain-free living" and it has me thinking more about simple ways we can correct our posture. Pilates teaches us about our inner core muscles and standing tall. But how do we transfer our core strength found on the mat to our everyday lives? The author, Kathleen Porter, discusses how we can sit, stand and move in our everyday lives to have better functioning, pain-free, bodies. Her description of "anchoring the pelvis and tethering the rib cage" really helped me think about my own posture when sitting. Reading her book leads me to think about 3 key movements:
1) sitting forward on my sitting bones - the bones under each bum cheek that you feel if you wiggle around on a hard chair;
2) Facing my pubic bone down - to avoid rounding in the low back; and
3) Relaxing my ribcage down so that it is connected to my hips (not up in a proud position putting pressure on my spine). I notice that this also helps relax my shoulders. I was just sitting in the bathtub with my baby girl and I realized that my pelvis was tilted back, therefore rounding my low back. So I thought about the above 3 steps and my spine came back into a neutral position easily and effortlessly.
Love, Jen xx
ps. this was a post I wrote 3 years ago...and I'm finally starting to blog now, no time like the present right?! ;-)
So, how are you sitting as you read this? Love, Jen