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In our culture a loss of up to 50% of the height of the discs as we age from our twenties to our fifties is considered normal. It follows that the herniations, nerve pain, and arthritic change that accompanies this chronic degeneration of our discs is also not seen as unusual. Pain and reduced ability to function is normalized.
For many people, their first encounter with back pain is when they become parents. That was certainly true in my case, although, to be factually correct, I was a mom-to-be in the ninth month of my first pregnancy when a herniated disc brought me, literally, to my knees.
Some years ago I had a student who had difficulty engaging his glutes and leaving his back heel down while walking. I had guided him through my usual toolbox of techniques and principles, but this piece still stubbornly failed to land. All of a sudden something dawned on him, and he exclaimed, “Oh, it’s a jaunty walk!” and proceeded to do exactly what I had been trying to teach him with an additional spring in his step.
This can be a challenging time of the year. Some parts of the world have had extreme conditions in recent months. The Eastern US has had extreme snowfall. Across much of Europe and the northern temperate zone, this time of year brings cold, and daylight hours are short. After the celebration, lights, and parties of Christmas, or the ancient festivals of the Winter Solstice, plunging back into the gray chill of winter is notorious for inflicting the “winter blues,” sometimes giving rise to a depressive seasonal affective disorder, aka SAD.
My Gokhale Method® journey has unfolded in stages. I attended an in-person weekend Gokhale® Foundations course in 2016, seeking relief for a stiff neck. My neck had been a chronic problem during my long career as a professional oboe player, and it was now much worse after a freak fall down the stairs. As I began to incorporate the Gokhale principles into my daily life, my neck gradually improved.
In keeping with Laura’s wishes her student photographs are not featured in this blog post. We are always happy to respect our contributors' wishes for privacy. We are very grateful for Laura’s generosity in sharing her personal posture journey, and are sure that you, our readers, will appreciate it too. —Esther Gokhale
It’s that time of year again—we know we’re about to get one year older and we hope we’re also going to be one year wiser! If you have applied that wisdom to progressing your posture, you may also experience that you look, and even feel, one year younger. Or if you have a long backlog of ignoring your posture, it’s not impossible that you may feel ten years younger!
Over the years, I have often shown students with recliners that they can get a compression-relieving stretch in their lower back as the backrest slides away from the seat (assuming the mechanism is designed advantageously). This is something you might like to try out for yourself.
Have you ever lain in bed wondering when your feet will warm up? And why your knee injury is taking forever to heal? Or what you are going to do about those varicose veins? Why you feel so stiff in the morning? Or why your bunions are getting worse despite your ever-so-sensible shoes? Come to think about it, why have your back and neck decided to gang up on you? The short and sweet answer to all these woes may be in the way you are standing.