Burkina Faso

There are so many things in my life that I feel thankful for, and Thanksgiving gives an opportunity to reflect on these feelings of gratitude. For our newsletter I wanted to share the deep gratitude I have for my personal journey out of back pain, and for how that journey continues as a growing ability to support and empower others in this direction. 

When I came to write this blog post, I quickly realized that this is a daunting task! The truth is that so many people have played invaluable parts, both great and small, in helping me to create the Gokhale Method® that it’s impossible to pay tribute to everyone in a short piece of writing. So I decided there will be other posts of gratitude, including to my teachers, to the people around the globe on whom this work is based, and to our team of dedicated teachers and staff. But on this National Day of Thanksgiving, I’d like to focus on things related to living and working in the US.

The settling of people from all over the world in North and South America has brought innovation and enthusiasm for new ideas. This is Sebastian Münster’s Map of the New World, published in 1540. Wikipedia

The US has a uniquely multifaceted heritage

I feel grateful to live in the salad bowl that is the US. At its best, the US benefits from embracing ideas and traditions from all over the world. It has a track record of weaving together influences that enhance the richness of life and result in vibrant, new, and exciting ways of solving problems. 

One of the ways in which the Gokhale Method® is quintessentially American is that it draws on healthy inputs from different cultures, theories, technologies, and more. We actively search out kinesthetic traditions of people all over the world, past and present, and learn from the best of what works. Since so many people visit and settle in the US, studying other movement and bodywork traditions becomes especially accessible, whether we are looking at massage, dance, or gardening.

Nirmala, a baby masseur from India visiting friends in California, prepares to massage a baby on her lap.

Gokhale Method alumna Joan Baez dancing in her kitchen with her friend Jesus Morales (better known as Chuy), who hails from Mexico. He has typically excellent form—his behind stays behind, his back is upright, and his shoulders remain back.

American “can do” can help to solve back pain 

Americans have some qualities in common with teenagers—a boldness to experiment and reinvent ourselves, and a willingness to put ourselves out there without necessarily having the training or experience to get the job done. A can-do mentality with readiness to learn along the way doesn’t guarantee success (according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 35% of new businesses survive for 10 years), but the businesses that do survive often couldn’t have gotten off the ground at all through more conventional progression and do provide valuable services and products to society. 

I don’t have an MBA, and I started the Gokhale Method 30 years ago with no idea of how to launch a business, manage staff, or use an Excel spreadsheet. Many mistakes happened along the way, and yet our small raft of a company became seaworthy, is still afloat, and continues to set sail in new waters to bring relief to an increasing number of people. 

We have evolved a highly efficient and effective solution to back pain and other debilitating musculoskeletal problems—15,000 people have taken our courses to date, and over 250,000 copies of 8 Steps to a Pain Free Back have sold. There’s much more to be done, though—back pain remains the number one cause of disability globally, and 80% of people in the US alone are expected to experience a significant back problem during their lives. The Gokhale Method mission “to make back pain rare” continues. 

Each statistic represents a personal story of pain, disability, and often financial stress. www.thegoodbody.com

Innovation is recognized and valued in the US 

I’ve been promoting the J-spine paradigm for over three decades now. (You can read more about spine shape here.) It’s a radical departure from conventional wisdom’s S-spine paradigm, but based on compelling arguments and a growing body of evidence, the Gokhale Method has been welcomed into physician training courses, retreats, and conferences, and will now be the subject of a randomized control trial (RCT) at a major university. This level of openness and acceptance of disruptive approaches is more common in the US than in many other societies. 

Americans love new ideas—even when they’re old ideas!

Back in the 1990s I was studying posture in Portugal, because the average posture in southern Europe was still notably healthier than in the US. While I was carrying my baby on my back, using an African wrap, concerned people who saw me would give well-meaning advice on how to carry a baby properly. Of course, this came from their best intentions to help me take care of my baby, but still, back in the US, I found people around me much more amenable to incorporating such techniques. Here I encounter people wanting to learn this traditional skill I had originally learned from an African friend. 

I am carrying my youngest daughter on my back. This way of carrying infants encourages healthy posture in both mother and child. 

Philanthropy and support

For most of my time in the US I have lived in the Bay area, which happens to have one of the highest densities of philanthropic donors in the US. Innumerable students from the Bay Area and elsewhere in the US over the years have stepped up in a variety of ways to offer support to our organization by way of legal advice, mentorship, business strategy, and funding for research. In 2020 we managed to raise enough money in donations for the randomized control trial (RCT) that is happening in a major university next year, from students who wanted to see the benefits they received from this work extended to a wider public.

Of course it’s natural to have the largest following, and therefore the largest number of supporters, locally. In fact, in spite of the distances, people from all over the globe have stepped up to offer a variety of kinds of support—back pain is truly a global problem.

Our company continues to receive much “behind the scenes” help. Often these supporters stepped up without me asking. A number of people eminent in their field, including musician, artist, and activist Joan Baez, have been extremely generous with their endorsement of our method. We have also received donations—of antique photographs and artifacts showing healthy posture—to the Gokhale Method Institute’s collection. People have come forward and offered us accommodation and venues. There is truly no way that our organization could have reached its current level without all this help.

It especially touches my heart when students are courageous and willing to share their story, be that by talking to others, writing a blog post, or giving a testimonial. This is never an expectation, but another gift for which I am truly thankful as it inspires others to have realistic hope that they too can learn the Gokhale Method and live without pain.

Many of our students generously share their stories. Here is Sheila Bond, who was featured in our most recent blog post.

Americans are at the frontier of wearable tech 

Over the last seven years, we’ve developed ground-breaking wearables, including our user-friendly PostureTracker™. No door was ever closed to us for lack of formal training in technology or tech enterprise. We learned as we went along and persisted through to the finish line and now have a unique and sophisticated tool to assist our students in transforming their posture education into posture habits. PostureTracker is now available as an add-on to our in-person Foundations and Pop-up courses, our online Elements course, as well our in-person and online Alumni offerings. Our next deep-dive online Alumni PostureTracker Course starts on January 11 next year.

This clip from our Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting DVD shows students using our PostureTracker wearable.

Being positive is cool in the US

Positive reinforcement as a teaching style, as well as a tenet of company culture, is a data-supported choice that has been widely embraced in the US. I was raised with some degree of the Calvinistic notion that a little negativity is a necessary part of being real. And my own posture training included spurs like, “How can you stand to be so ugly?” (To many of us this will be surprising, but as part of “old school” pedagogy, it’s nowhere near caning school children, which used to be a common practice). So I’m grateful I got to see that authentic positive reinforcement works, works really well, and leaves no scars behind.  

I believe a positive approach is especially important in the field of posture because posture has historically been laced with negative reinforcement, ridicule, and even racism. Posture is a very personal matter for most people, so it is important that people feel safe, embraced, and encouraged as they go about their journey of improving themselves. It is an integral part of our teacher training that a positive stance is woven into our teaching, our touch, and our vision, and I feel grateful for my 45+ years in the US for supporting this. 

Julie and I celebrate with our most recently trained teachers—this time in Germany! (Left to right: Michal, Ines, Julie, Me, and Johanna.)

If you would like guidance on any aspect of your posture and spine shape, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online or in person, with a Gokhale Method teacher.

If you would like to find out more about how the Gokhale Method can help support you, sign up to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops. . .

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 their traditional lavoos (teepees). This is my friend Fredrik’s family.

Sitting with legs outstretched is useful when you need an extended flattish lap and your hamstring flexibility allows it. The ground needs to be dry and clean to make this an inviting position. It’s a particularly useful position for childcare. In addition to the aforementioned baby massage, our team member Angela Häkkilä has observed Anatolian women using their outstretched legs as a cradle for babies and toddlers, who are rocked to sleep with a sideways motion of the legs and a gentle lullaby.

 
In this case, the Burkinabé woman at the left is leaning against a wall for extra comfort while carding wool. With her degree of hamstring and gluteus maximus flexibility, she’d be fine without a wall, too!

The problem
Many people don’t have the hamstring and gluteus maximus flexibility to sit on the floor with outstretched legs and not round the spine. Tight hamstrings and gluteal muscles cause the pelvis to tuck under, preventing upright and relaxed stacking. Over time this can lead to a rounded back, degenerated discs, and pain. 

The fix
Place something under the bottom to encourage the pelvis to antevert, and/or consider sitting against a wall, tree trunk, or other surface to counteract the tendency to round the spine. 

With the modification of adding a support under or behind you, you will not only have expanded your repertoire of healthy sitting positions and possible activities, you will also be elongating your hamstrings to better garden, clean, and hip-hinge in general.

Though this Orissa woman would probably be just fine sitting on the ground, her technique of elevating the seat is very helpful for people in modern societies.

 
This Burkinabé massage therapist is testing the temperature of the water she will use to massage a newborn baby. Note her outstretched legs, sitting stool, and seated hip-hinge, all of which support the baby, the action, and the massage therapist to be healthy.

If this way of sitting would be helpful in your life, or if you’d benefit from increased hamstring and gluteus maximus flexibility, we recommend beginning by sitting on a support that will help antevert your pelvis, or with your behind against a wall for support. Since it’s only an issue of muscle flexibility, it’s certainly possible to work up to sitting with your legs outstretched without other support.

My students sometimes lead me to particularly juicy nuggets that enrich my understanding of posture-related practices in other cultures. Sometimes they simply send me a link to an article; sometimes it is an introduction to a special person. Recently, my private Gokhale Method Foundations Course student Alpana informed me that her friend had a visitor I might be interested in meeting. She was right.

Two days later, my daughter Monisha and I showed up at Nirmala’s host’s home in Saratoga. I was immediately struck by the woman’s presence, regal carriage, slender and strong frame, and sparky energy, especially for a 60-year-old. Nirmala does traditional Indian baby and post-natal massage on newly delivered babies and their mothers in Surat, India. She speaks no English. Thanks to Alpana’s fluent Marathi and my broken Hindi, I was able to communicate very effectively with her.

She described her daily routine, which begins with chai upon waking and chai again as she is about to leave for the day’s work. Her workday goes from 7am – 3 pm. In all that time, she rarely accepts offers to consume anything besides water. If a host insists, she might eat a small morsel of food. She bikes from home to home, massaging babies and mothers and sometimes taking care of an elderly person. She wears sandals to ride her bike but goes barefoot when she walks in her neighborhood. It was hard not to notice her especially kidney bean-shaped feet, and she was tickled that I wanted to photograph (and touch) her feet. Touching someone’s feet in India is a way of bestowing honor on them and also puts you below the person in some essential way. I was happy to touch her feet, and I was happy to hang on her words. I usually have to travel far and wide to find subjects like Nirmala.

Nirmala’s feet have a particularly strong kidney bean shape. Walking barefoot often probably helped keep her natural foot shape intact.

Nirmala described various aspects of her massage practice and her life, but also insisted that it would be much better if she could show me what she does. We settled on an afternoon two weeks later to meet again so I could observe her in action. Alpana offered to provide her transportation and be the translator for us once again.

I was able to find an 11-month-old baby in my network whose mom brought him along for this event. No one knew what to expect and the experience made a deep impression in many ways.

• The base position was identical to what I had observed in Burkina Faso. Nirmala sits with her legs outstretched with the baby lying on her lower legs, the baby’s head close to her ankles.

Nirmala prepares to massage the baby with her legs outstretched.

• When she massaged my daughter Monisha (as though she were a post-partum mom), she stood astride her and hip-hinged beautifully.

Nirmala hip-hinges to perform a post-partum massage on volunteer Monisha.

• The baby massage was quite rough, comprehensive, rapid in the strokes, and unrelenting. Front and back, every organ, limb, and crevice received its treatment. I was reminded of Piglet pretending to be Baby Roo in the Winnie the Pooh story. Kanga pretended not to notice the switcheroo and paid no attention to Piglet’s squeals. But Nirmala was not meting out punishment, but rather helping the baby be strong. Some of us reached out to the baby to offer him solace. Nirmala explained that she was doing a light massage since the baby’s skin was light and might redden if she were more vigorous. She wasn’t sure how the baby’s mother would feel about that. Nirmala explained that the baby would sleep really well following the massage, giving the mother a rest. After the oil massage came a warm water massage in the bathroom. In Burkina Faso, the massage was done with shea butter and warm water at the same time, instead of sequentially. That massage was also vigorous, and the baby seemed a little in shock during it, but being only days old, didn’t have as developed a cry as the 11-month-old baby we observed.

• The baby cried for the entire 10 minutes of being massaged with oil and then warm water — Nirmala seemed unphased and said that this usually happens for the first 2-3 massages, after which the babies get used to being massaged and don’t cry.  She also said crying makes the lungs and baby strong. Mom was impressively able to withstand what must surely have been a stressful experience. All of us were too taken aback to say or do much, banking on the premise that Nirmala knew what she was doing. In Burkina Faso, the baby (only days old) cried only during the part where it was held upside down by the ankles (Nirmala did not do this).

The baby faces Nirmala’s feet as she works on every part of him.

• Part of the massage included leg and crossbody stretches. This was quite different from what I observed in Burkina Faso, where the focus of the stretches was on the joints between the limbs and torso. Nirmala drew the opposite arm and leg toward each other, and both legs up above the head to stretch the back.

Nirmala’s baby massage involves various kinds of stretching.

• Nirmala has additional expertise for conditions in both the baby and mother. She described what she would do in case the testicles hadn’t descended. Also what she does in case the mother has had a C-section. The masseuse in Burkina Faso was also comfortable doing procedures in some instances; for example, in case of a kink in the spine, she would have used a corn husking device to straighten the baby’s spine out. In both cases, the knowledge is passed down within the family. Nirmala’s daughter and daughter-in-law are able to provide similar services, and are, in fact, filling in for her during her U.S. visit.

My quick takes from this experience: massage for babies is an old tradition spanning many cultures. Babies are particularly targeted for massage post-delivery. The massage covers the entire body, is vigorous, and includes stretching. Oil/butter and warm water are used for baby and mommy massage. Crying is not a show-stopper. The masseuse maintains healthy posture throughout the act of giving the massage.

Have you seen or experienced baby or post-natal massage? What was your experience like?
 

When the weather is cold, we bundle up in gloves, scarves, hats, and sweaters. But these aren't the only extra burdens we carry. From Kleenex and chapstick in our purses, to holiday shopping bags, skis, and umbrellas, being prepared for the season means taking on extra weight. If carried incorrectly, extra loads contribute to neck and shoulder tension, fatigue in the arms, and back pain. If carried well, winter loads provide a welcome exercise opportunity at a time when exercise is harder to come by.

The following tips can help you reap benefits, rather than back pain, from carrying a purse and other bags.

1) Let the weight of the purse pull your shoulder gently downward. Don't tense your shoulder upward against the weight of the purse. This gently stretches your trapezius muscle, instead of tightening it, and gives your muscles a rest.

2) Carry your purse closer to your spine than your belly button. Use your elbow to nudge the bag or straps towards your back. This way, there's less torque on your back, the purse doesn't slide from your shoulders as easily, and the weight of the purse helps settle your shoulder backward instead of forward.

On the left, Maya uses her purse to keep her shoulder 
back, and to stretch her pec and trapezius muscles.
On the right, she has unhealthy shoulder posture.

3) Use your inner corset so that carrying your purse/bag becomes a healthy workout for your abdominal and intrinsic back muscles. By using your muscles to carry the weight of your bag, you spare your spinal discs and nerves. Chapter 5 in 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back teaches you how to use your inner corset. Click here to download this chapter for free.

If this woman from Burkina Faso was not
using her inner corset, the weight of the bucket
would compress her spine.

Cheers,
Esther