Hello and welcome to this exercise for postural alignment.
My name is Doris and I'll be guiding you through this brief exercise where we try to focus on the posture and create an individual alignment for yourself.
And for this you don't need anything.
I recommend to be barefoot or at least wear thin socks and be on a surface that is even and where you can really feel the ground beneath you.
So we're going to start off in a stance and I recommend to have the feet about hip width distance,
Allowing the arms to relax by your side.
You can close your eyes if you'd like to or maybe just softening the gaze is enough for you to tune into yourself here.
Taking just a few rounds of breath as you stand here and really connect to the ground,
Connect the feet and to the rest of your body.
And then I invite you to bring the awareness into the feet and to feel where the weight is distributed or how the weight is distributed.
Does it feel like it's equal or maybe you leaning slightly more towards the balls of your feet or your toes.
Maybe you're leaning a little bit more into the heels and maybe you're going a little bit more inwards or outwards and whatever it is first just checking in and seeing how is my weight distributed.
And then trying to shift that weight a little bit more so whatever the weight seems to be leaning more towards I invite you to bring it ever so slightly into center and towards the other side.
Others can sometimes feel like you're losing balance so just go easy and sometimes a tiny little shift can be more than enough to realign you here.
And then I invite you to tune into the body and just feel how that little shift in posture and shift in weight distribution feels.
Continue breathing as you just explore the sensations and that can even mean that muscles in certain parts of the body are suddenly starting to work.
Allowing the toes to be soft maybe taking them off the ground and placing first the little toes and then all the way to the big toes like a little wave to the ground.
Perhaps lifting your feet once again and just trying to place your individual toes to the ground.
Finding your realignment in weight distribution and then bringing the awareness more towards the knees and just noticing how my knees bend,
Are my legs perhaps extended maybe even hyper extended so a sense of over stretching and over extending the legs so we push the knee inwards or maybe the knees go a little bit inward or outward.
First again just finding the awareness here and then ever so slightly bending the knees or maybe extending the legs ever so slightly depending on what you just experienced and allowing the knees to be just above the feet.
Noticing how it feels to have that sense of realignment in the body.
And then moving on to the pelvis and if you'd like you can place a hand on your belly and one on the lower back.
Maybe you can notice is there perhaps a noticeable arch in my lower back.
Do I have any connection to my pelvic area?
Then maybe bringing the pelvis ever so slightly forward so that the arch in the lower back is becoming a little flatter and maybe the core is slowly starting to engage and then releasing the arms and feeling into the body.
From the feet that are now balanced,
The knees that are in a healthy aligned and slightly bent position and a tucked tailbone.
How does it feel to start to stand now?
Then continuing our journey upward towards the chest and the shoulders.
First just taking note do I feel like my shoulders are rounding forward are they rounding backwards?
Do I feel like my chest is falling more inward or is my chest pushed out?
Perhaps am I even extending it a little too far out?
Simply taking notes.
And allowing the shoulders to become relaxed and if they were rounded forward just bringing them ever so slightly back and if you feel like you were over extending your chest towards the front maybe finding a sense of relief here as well and opening the chest forward while still relaxing your arms by your side.
Maybe just realigning ourselves from the feet all the way to the shoulders.
Traveling towards the head now and the neck.
Am I maybe lifting my chin a little too high so that my neck is crunched or is my default chin and chest?
My head may be a little bit shifted forward maybe a little bit shifted forward or am I pulling it back again just taking some notes.
And then as the shoulders are relaxed just gently find a comfortable position for the chin so not bringing it too close into the chest but also not lifting it too high and maybe having a sense of extension from the crown of your head so something that is pulling you up.
Notice how it feels to now be standing completely aligned with an equal weight distribution,
A healthy stance that supports your spine and allows you to carry yourself with pride and confidence out in the world.
Perhaps taking three full rounds of breath here.
Maybe finish this practice with a smile showing how proud you are for taking this time to work on your posture and then perhaps just shaking it off finding looseness in the body again allowing muscles that now have maybe started to work to relax again.
I know that this can feel different because standing is usually something that we've done a certain way for a certain amount of time but with practicing and practicing we'll slowly move forward practicing and practicing we'll slowly find a sense of realigning ourselves and once we know where our default is so perhaps over extending your knees like I do then every now and then just reminding ourselves to maybe bend the knees or distribute the weight amongst the feet equally.
Thank you so much for taking this time I'd really appreciate a review and make sure that you follow me and maybe attend one of my life classes.
Thank you so much and take care.
Namaste.
