Join Amanda for the last of the Heart Opening Yoga Monday March 27th at 8am.
This Friday, March 31st, is the next Friday Night Yin. You can practice with Sam In Person or Online.
Written by Aviva Tulasi
You don't always need to roll out your mat to do your yoga practice. The tools and techniques of yoga can be practiced in your everyday life and they can help you find good posture in your daily activities. Practicing sitting well in everyday life such as driving, working, eating or relaxing on the couch can help reduce stiffness and pain in the lower back and hips.
It is hard to stay still in the same position for a long period of time. The original yogis developed a system of postures that built an internal support system so they could sit for long periods of time in meditation without gravity and relaxation allowing the body to slump. 11 of 16 postures described in the ancient Hatha Yoga Pradipika are seated positions. In addition to preparing the body for sitting still, the numerous ways to sit well included sitting cross legged with different angles of the knees and kneeling which allows a person to find a meditation position that worked best for them.
When seated on the floor, teachers at Dogwood Studios remind us to sit on a bolster or a meditation cushion to take a load off our back. When we elevate our hips, the pelvis has the ability to move which allows us to find the natural curve in our lumbar spine. I like to add the cue that the sensation might feel like your lower back is arched. Although modern chairs might suggest that sitting upright means we should have a straight back, sitting well or comfortably depends on being able to maintain a natural double S curve in the spine. The natural double S curve is designed to equally distribute the load of the spine throughout all vertebrae.
Teachers at Dogwood Studios include standing against a wall or practicing hip hinges with a posture stick to bring your awareness to your natural S curve in your spine. The feedback of a flat surface helps you notice and internalize the sensation of habitual posture versus neutral spine. This cultivates a greater awareness of how we hold our bodies while standing. However, while seated, it can be harder to be aware of your natural spine. In a Hugger Mugger blog, Charlotte Bell suggests that “The position of your sacrum determines your spinal curves. The optimum position for the sacrum is an approximately 30-degree forward tilt.” Therefore we can gain the same awareness feedback by noticing the angle of the tailbone while seated.
In yoga and meditation classes at Dogwood Studios we sit high enough on something so that our pelvis can tilt forward allowing the natural spinal curves to fall into place. However, the awareness of the spine while seated shouldn’t be isolated in our yoga practice. It is important to maintain good seated posture, a natural double S curve, throughout the day. The last couple of days, I have been bringing awareness to the angle of my tailbone while I drive. I learned that I drive with my tailbone pointed down. This awareness has allowed me to experiment with my seated posture and how a deflated Gertie ball could help me maintain my neutral spine while driving.
Give yourself the permission to be your own experimenter. Find a technique from your yoga or meditation practices that support you sitting well and play around with how you can bring it into your daily routine. Maybe you find yourself sitting at the front edge of the chair or feeling your head against the headrest. The more you take time to practice sitting well in your daily activities, the easier it is to be aware of what neutral really means for you and the less likely you will have pain after being seated for a prolonged time.
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Aviva Tulasi is a team member at Dogwood Studios. She is a certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT). She applies the teachings of classical yoga to reduce the effects of negative stress and to balance the nervous system.
SAM Sather, founder of Dogwood Studios, is a certified yoga therapist (C-IAYT), individualizes the yoga practice with appropriate modifications for participants’ unique bodies and medical histories with a focus on finding calm and improving health. She offers several live, online and in person yoga classes as well as private sessions so you can focus on your needs one-on-one.