Oct 2009

It hit me again the other day just how all pervasive posture is.

It affects everything we do and the way we do it.!

What made me take note again was a vigorous lady in her seventies who has a scoliosis.

This is a curve in her spine that goes one way way then the other and for her, tends to put most of her weight over the left side of her body. Lots of people have more weight over their left foot than their right and this causes lots of balance problems and sets up the muscle imbalances that are so common.

But it’s even more-so with this lady.

When someone comes to see me for help one of the first things I do is take down their history. It’s amazing what people tell you and how often they have the entire picture – problem, aggravation, relief and recovery, in their story. They just haven’t put it together or don’t know how to put it all together.

One thing that I often ask is about bowel habits and regularity. Many people complain of constipation. Back in the 1970’s I read a small paper back called “The Culture of the Abdomen” Amongst other things this book recommended we should all squat in order to best move our bowels, even on the toilet seat! I never quite managed this but I took the idea on board.

As right handers tend to stand more heavily on their left foot they also tend to sit more heavily on their left buttock. One place where people hardly ever think about their posture is sitting on the loo, but they should.

You can feel this under the ‘bones of your butt’ on the chair or seat and if you check, you’ll also notice that your left hip and pelvis are further back in the chair, or on the toilet seat than your right. You’ll probably lean your trunk over to the left side as well and this will compress the left side of your belly.

In our abdomen the last part or our bowel runs up the right side of our belly, across to the top and down the left side to our anus. If you sit with the last part of your bowel compressed then you squash the tubes and make everything more difficult.

The lady I was speaking with told me that she had just had some investigations for her constipation. After we’d talked about her positions a little she said “So that’s why the left side of toilet seat keeps breaking, the bolts break!”

Check it out next time you go to the loo. Do you sit away to the left? If you do, try lifting your right buttock and turning / pulling it further back onto the seat. Then sit up ‘off’ your belly to the right to find centre.

Sit up central and straight from your hip joints and let your belly relax and get on with the job. Don’t forget to thank you belly and bowel for getting the job done each time. Gratitude is a great way to avoid cancer and to notice the joy of the day.

Posture is important. The way you do the most basic and everyday things can have a profound affect on your body.

You may never have noticed these effects or imagined that you could, or needed to change them.

This is just an example of our unconscious postural patterns and the way they can effect our actions and wellness in unexpected ways.

I mean, whoever thought they needed a lesson on how to sit on the toilet!