How to improve your posture with Yoga

Everyone has heard of posture these days, however maybe some are not so aware whether they have good posture or how to correct it. This is where yoga can help you to become more aware of your posture both in your daily life and in your yoga practice.

I am going to share a few simple pointers that I hope will benefit you, your body and life.

Through Yoga you learn how to hold yourself correctly. You will discover how standing properly can make you look taller and slimmer. Yoga postures like the Tree, Vrksasana and Mountain, Tadasana promote balance and you require awareness and strength to hold the pose and this will give you better posture straight away.

So let’s look at some key tips to help you sit or stand correctly that you can use in your yoga practice as well as everyday life.

Let start with the feet, try to ground the energy downwards and spread every toe, so that the big toe and the little toe are evenly balanced into the ground. Drawing upward through the both legs, which are both straight. Then draw your core in, this means standing tall through your abdomen and tuck your tailbone under slightly so that your back is in its natural alignment. Then bring your shoulders back slightly and open your chest, whilst the arms loosely hang by your sides. Finally lengthen your neck and imagine a piece of string coming from the top of your head and being pulled up. These small adjustments mean you are standing tall and in a natural alignment.  You can observe any one of these adjustments in daily life or when standing in Mountain Posture.

For sitting postures, like cross-legged, Sukhasana, Siddhasana, Padmasana it is essential your sitting position is comfortable. It is always a good idea to have the hips higher than the knees so I find sitting on a cushion or block, brings the knees below the hips so the back becomes more upright and tall from the pelvis area and puts less strain is on the knees. When I sit on my cushion I remove the flesh from my buttocks so that my sitting bones are open and this tilts the pelvis forward slightly, bringing the back into its natural alignment or curve from the base. I then rise from my core, my abdomen and I open my chest lifting the “heart” i.e opening the heart chakra, the anahata chakra, by easing the shoulders back slightly and of course lowered so they are relaxed away from the ears. When you find this comfortable stable position, which takes just a few seconds preparation time, you can sit for longer periods of time for meditation, chanting and pranayama.

For forward bends, Paschitmottasana the same principle applies for removing the flesh from your buttocks so that the sitting bones are exposed and the pelvis tilts forward slightly so that you can start to bend from the hips and keep your heart open and shoulders back and relaxed as you move into the posture.

Be aware of your shoulders, the idea is to draw the shoulder back and down, so when in a lunge posture, you can come up onto your finger tips, which opens the heart are and then draw the shoulders back. When in any postures when you are raising your arms, try to draw the shoulders down and back even thought the arms are raised. The tendency for these is to raise the arms and the shoulders, you will work the shoulders more by drawing then back into a natural alignment.

In downward facing dog, Adho Mukha Svanasana, you use every part of your palm and fingers and thumb to ground the hands, pushing away from the wrists up through the arms you rotate your shoulders outwards and away from the ears. Then relax your neck and head as you draw the abdomen in at your core creating a neutral spine. Then those sitting bones you spread then high and open so the hips are high and the tailbone tucks under slightly, then finally the backs of the legs are being eased back so that the heels come towards the ground.

Little steps make the perfect posture, however when you are aware you do all of these things quite naturally and apply any of them to any posture.

You can also bring this into your daily life, for example when you are seated at your desk for example, remove the flesh from your buttocks, exposing your sitting bones and open your heart area and draw the shoulders back and bring the chin back slightly so the jaw is relaxed. When you are standing waiting for a train or bus, stand in tadasana the mountain pose.

So hope you are sitting correctly and use these tips to stand tall and in alignment.