computer posture

Coronavirus is a quickly-developing story, and one we’re doing our utmost to address.

We’ve all had a rough week. The spread of coronavirus has led to major disruptions in our existing routines. Schools in many locations are closed and parents are navigating homeschool and childcare without as much support from teachers and caregivers as they are used to. Students and workers, whenever possible, have had their environments shifted from the physical to the virtual classroom and workspace. Countless workers in the service industries and in the arts are facing the sudden dissolution of their livelihoods with minimal safeguards. And healthcare workers are on the frontline of the fight to slow and contain the spread of COVID-19.

While we minimize contact with others, it can be tremendously helpful to optimize our new environments and changed routines and find a way to make our limitations more healthy and sustainable.

Working, attending class, and socializing only through a laptop is a new experience for many people. We’re finding and sharing ways to help you do these activities with less pain.

If you’re newly working or studying from home, you may have found that you’re having trouble settling into your new surroundings comfortably. Working hunched over a laptop can be a quick road to neck and back pain. Different table or desk heights and chairs than you’re used to can make a major difference in how you hold your body.

Similarly, if you’re suddenly faced with days structured very differently from the routines of your usual workplace or campus, you may find yourself sitting in one spot for hours at a time and not changing posture or moving. Or, if you find yourself temporarily unable to work as your workplace has shut down, you might fall down the Netflix wormhole. Hours can pass without noticing, and this is an easy way to end up with stiffness, pain, and even emotional issues like feeling lonely and isolated.

Higher-than-usual screen time can spell trouble for our mood and energy levels. Thankfully, there are healthy interventions available.

In light of these unique challenges, we are proud to debut two special teleseminars, both free, designed to combat cabin fever and help people settle into a new, healthy routine. There are two topics we’ll address:

• How to Set up Your Home Office in a Healthy Way, and
• Stir Crazy? Exercise Breaks for Calm and Productivity.

We hope you can join us today, March 20, for How to Set up Your Home Office in a Healthy Way and on Monday, March 23, for Stir Crazy? Exercise Breaks for Calm and Productivity. Each will be offered a total of 5 times over the course of the day. You can learn more and register here.

We look forward to making your new routine a more pleasant one. Please stay tuned for further upcoming streaming exercise offerings in the near future to help you stay active and healthy.

Some family members may be especially happy to have you home more than usual.

My passion for researching posture has taken me far and wide. I was in a village in Burkina Faso in western Africa when I first noticed how people there would track the conversation from speaker to speaker mainly by using their eyes, rather than by turning their heads. Along with their excellent body posture it contributed to a strikingly well-centered, dignified bearing.

This young man in Burkina Faso demonstrates the dignified bearing that comes with an appropriate amount of eye tracking.

Comparing what I saw in Burkina Faso with what I was used to seeing back home, I realized that in the US, and the wider industrialized world, we move our eyes a good deal less and our necks a good deal more. Why such a difference, I wondered, and what is its significance for our well-being?

In Paul Gauguin’s 1893 painting from one of his Tahiti trips, Woman Holding a Fruit, the unnamed subject shifts her gaze with her eyes, rather than by turning or twisting her neck. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Babies and infants in all cultures track actively with their eyes, both when they are still, and when they turn or reach. One possibility why this changes for children of school age in the industrialized world is due to the amount of reading, writing, and screen time they experience. It seems we grow into a more restrictive, “ahead only” habit.

Infants in all cultures track very actively with their eyes, as my daughter Maya demonstrates here.

My son Nathan tracks with his eyes while reaching for a toy.

As adults, this trend can continue with desk jobs and other prolonged, forward-oriented activities, such as driving. Perhaps this is why, as we age, we develop a more fixed “tunnel vision,” which results in moving our necks rather than our eyes.

Computer and desk work are possible factors in reducing our range of eye movement. Original image courtesy Studio Republic on Unsplash.

Excessive dependence upon neck movement to reorient our visual field often contributes to soft tissue strain and wear and tear on the delicate discs and joints of the cervical vertebrae. Far better, then, to try to reduce this dependence and reintroduce eye tracking now and then.

Time spent in nature provides us a chance to practice our eye tracking. Follow that movement! Photo courtesy Nathan Anderson on Unsplash.

How can we reintroduce this ancient technique into our industrialized-world lives? I am a great advocate for getting out into nature whenever possible to literally expand our horizons. Time spent with young children, especially babies and toddlers, can give us an opportunity to mimic and mirror them — to their frequent delight!

This dancer in San Diego demonstrates beautiful eye tracking. Image courtesy Avnish Choudhary on Unsplash.

Many dance forms, including, but certainly not limited to, classical Indian Bharatnatyam and Kathak, also offer us ample opportunities to practice eye tracking, which lends our dance gestures and movements a depth of emotion. By allowing our eyes to track while on a walk or hike — perhaps while watching a darting squirrel or rabbit cross our path — or while watching a sports game from the stands, or while trying out a new dance style, we can provide ourselves a chance to relearn this method of respecting the neck and maintaining an especially dignified composure.

These elegant dancers in Trinidad and Tobago show the gravitas and depth that can come from skillfully-employed eye tracking. Image courtesy Isaiah McClean on Unsplash.