flexibility

Esther Gokhale explains the many proven benefits of dance for physical and mental health, and how it delivers much needed healthy posture reminders.

As the world tunes in to the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina from February 6–22, we’ll marvel at skiers flying downhill, skaters carving ice, and athletes who’ve trained for years to make a few minutes look effortless. We know about the grueling workouts—in the gym, on the track, on the snow. What we rarely consider are the thousands of quiet hours in between: how these athletes sit, walk, stand, and recover when they’re not officially training or competing.

Several years ago, I was struggling with sleep apnea, knee pain, and chronic neck pain from an old diving injury—all despite my committed yoga practice. Something was missing. When I found the Gokhale Method®, I experienced a profound shift. My pain reduced. My stamina increased. I felt calmer, more confident, more capable in my body.

If you have been in a field for several decades, you end up taking a long view of trends and guidelines. You see how fashions change. Some things go, some things come back around, and new ideas are the best thing until the next new idea. This cycle of innovation and rediscovery is a hallmark of our society.

This blog post explains how some common yoga injuries occur and how applying the principles of healthy posture to yoga postures replaces this scenario with movements that are good for your body. Yoga postures and back pain Growing up in Mumbai, India, my Dutch mother was a student of BKS Iyengar and the Satyananda yogis, and keen for me also to learn yoga asanas, or postures. I practiced, and, being reasonably athletic as a child and already trained in Indian classical dance (Bharata Natyam), did not find it particularly difficult to choreograph the back bends, forward bends, and twists that were asked of me. I became a yoga model, demonstrating postures alongside visiting swamis’ presentations to induce the audience to sign up for upcoming yoga courses.

This is the third post in our multi-part series on floor-sitting. Read Part 1 on floor sitting and Part 2 on squatting!

It’s very common for women in Africa to sit with their legs outstretched. I’ve seen rows of women use this position to spin yarn, engage in idle chatter, sort items, and more. I’ve seen babies massaged by women using this position both in Burkina Faso and in the U.S. by a visiting Indian masseuse who does traditional baby massage in Surat, India. In Samiland I saw this position used to bake bread in a lavoo (a Sami structure very similar to a teepee).

The Sami, who I visited in July 2015 (see my post Sleeping on Birch Branches in Samiland), bake with outstretched legs in

This is the second post in our multi-part series on floor sitting. For Part 1 on floor sitting, click here.

Why squat? Squatting isn’t something we do much in industrialized societies beyond childhood, but if you can do it healthfully, it is an eminently practical posture for resting the body while keeping the backside elevated off the ground and the clothing clean, as this woman from Orissa demonstrates.

This woman from Orissa demonstrates a healthy, full squat with foot arches intact and a long, straight spine.

It is also the posture used for toilet activities in places with floor toilets, a trend which has recently made its way to the industrialized realm in the form of popular footstools