COVID-19

ALL OF ME

In December 2020 I received an email from Gokhale Method® offering a five-day trial period of exercise classes and dance parties with posture lessons. Every day for five days! I was thrilled to receive this email and joined on January 1. From day one I knew I had found something very special.  

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I swam to stave off the pain I felt in my back and hips. But when the virus struck, I wasn’t able to swim. Eventually my back pain returned to being constant. This showed me that being dependent on an external circumstance, swimming in this case, to feel good, could not give me everything that I needed to heal. 

January 1, 2021, day one of my five-day free trial of the Gokhale Method daily program. It was about the inner corset and how it protects your back.

Those first five days were like a prayer being answered. I thought, “this is the place where I can learn how to care for myself day by day." Three weeks later I decided to take the online Elements course. With each lesson, I learned new ways to relieve pain in my body and gained confidence that I could help myself if pain returned. Fortunately, I could take the lessons at my own pace which allowed me to take my time and savor what I was learning. Some positive results came very quickly for me, and yet there is a lot more depth left for me to appreciate. For both these reasons, it was with deep gratitude that I came to write this article.  

As a very young girl I was confident in my body. Being athletic, I felt I could do anything. I was just me. . .whole. That all changed growing up in a troubled family. Mine was a childhood of great conflict and uncertainty. But I was resilient, so I forged ahead.

Here I am, aged 18.

In my late twenties I fell through a porch, leaving one leg on the deck and the other dangling below. Alone, I pulled myself up. It was a terrifying experience and had a strong physical impact. Sitting became possible for only short periods at a time. I was profoundly uncomfortable with no ease or let up. Doctors couldn’t find anything “wrong” with me —no broken bones or serious injuries that X-rays could detect. A chiropractor told me my pelvis was twisted from the fall. This was a helpful diagnosis but he treated me for nine months with no change. So began my search for something that would permanently help me. Yoga, swimming, massage, physical therapy, chiropractic; you name it, I tried it—everything mainstream and more. All were helpful in some ways, but none resulted in lasting improvements.

Me in 1997, aged 40. I would tend to lock my knees and park my abdomen forward, creating sway and compression in my lower back. 

My search continued for 32 years. My back would give out, I would have to lie down for days, and then slowly over weeks I would loosen up and go on. My chosen profession in the Fine Arts is of a physical nature, allowing me to move around frequently throughout the day. This was my saving grace, because moving kept some of the muscular tightness at bay. 

Leaning in to paint book covers contributed to my hunching. I needed to learn how not to round my back and hunch my shoulders.

Sensing there was an emotional connection to my physical pain, I continued searching and exploring different avenues for a deeper understanding of why I was still “not right.” Talk therapy was enormously helpful. The fall had scared me. So had other experiences in my early life. Even with all this therapy work, the pain persisted. Over time I gained in self-confidence and felt reconciled to what I had to deal with—occasional debilitating bouts of back pain—and I moved on with my life. Things could be worse, I thought to myself. Years later the answers to my predicament became clearer as I took on the role of a caregiver. I imagine as I write this that many readers will understand from personal experience what it is like to care for someone who is ill and relies on you heavily.

Caregiving became a central focus in my daily life as I cared for my mother and later my sister. Caring for them made for conflicted feelings. As my mother’s condition worsened I took on more responsibilities for her care. One day she asked me, “why are you helping me?" It floored me, though I knew why she asked. Why would you care for someone who did not care for you? All I could say to her at the time was “because I love you, and you deserve it." She did not believe it—I was conflicted. But deep in my heart I knew she did deserve my help. This is what family does, right? I had to care for her, love her, show her that she was worthy. I do believe that we are all worthy of love and care. For myself, I wanted to learn what it is to have a positive experience of family.  

The Dust Bowl book. (Buttons, tin type photos, hand-painted paper, birch bark.) A central focus of my work is to give attention to the unseen in plain sight. From the tiny bits on the forest floor to the unrecognized work that women do daily. Now after many years I understand hiding was my main way to feel safe, unrecognized, and unseen.

But it wore me down. It was almost more than I could bear, and my body caved in on itself. I stiffened with fear and worry. My shoulders slumped forward and my back rounded. It was a relief when my mother quietly passed away in her apartment.

The Dust Bowl, closed. Its insides are hidden.

Several years later I drove to Georgia with my husband and our pup, Ace, to bring my older sister home to Massachusetts so I could care for her. We had seen each other only a few times in 40 years. We were sisters but you wouldn’t know it. She needed help and care desperately. I knew I had to step in.

I made this piece when my sister was diagnosed with cancer. Dark and light come together. My photographs are not enhanced—these are printed on tissue paper, then applied to the frame like gold leaf. The black handmade paper is arranged edge-on.

That was nine years ago. Through those years we got to know each other and grew as close as she would allow. Several times she asked me nearly the same question my mother had, “Why are you helping me?" And again I said, “because I love you, you deserve it.” But I was angry with her for the hurt and pain she caused in our childhood. Even though I had grown a deep emotional understanding of myself by that time, I still didn’t recognize what was happening in my body. Again my body stiffened and caved in.

My mother and my siblings. I am the worried looking one on her lap.

Caregiving wore me down and filled me up, leaving room for little else. The burden from stress, worry, responsibility, and physical strain, is exhausting. Along with that, the sense of connection and privilege of being trusted and important to the people who needed my help filled me with wonder, love, and self-confidence. I held up and helped out. This is as it should have been in many ways, except one—I could not find effective or adequate ways to care for myself at the same time. 

I have learned for myself how interconnected everything is. I used to think that we were made up of separate parts—a mind, soul, spirit, body. I sought out solutions to my pain as though I was made up of these different parts. It was as if, like jigsaw puzzle pieces put together in the right place, I could become whole. This did not work for me.  

A limited edition of 39 copies, published by 21st Editions. As a bookbinder I co-designed and created many editions. This is one of my favorites. I painted linen papers for these covers. Each set is different. All stages of production are by hand.

Book cover opened. It took me a long time to find the integration within myself that I could create in my artwork.

Now I understand things differently. I believe there is an interrelated dance to the patterns we develop. These patterns play out over and over again. Our own individual ways of moving our bodies are part of the constellation of being who we are and how our life experiences inform our reality.  

While I was still taking the Elements course and attending the daily program, the puzzle pieces started coming together. Sometimes, while dancing in class, I’d be swept away in movement, crying and integrating the grief my body was holding. All while moving with better posture!

Tucking my pelvis and rounding my back as I am doing here was a self-protective postural habit—almost like a turtle’s shell. 

Now I prefer to hip-hinge and my spine, back muscles, and neck are much happier!

It’s been 13 months since my first Zoom classes. I still show up for the daily classes and dance my heart out. Moving as freely as I can, feeling myself move through space, sensing the physicality inside of me. How does it feel to anchor my ribs? What’s it like to roll my shoulders back and feel their weight as they hang by my sides or float around? I feel alive and connected to me. I feel wonderful sensations of flow as I move around the room. 

I loved painting these lines, which are covered in tissue paper. This is the flow I had been searching for and have now found for my body/self.

This work with the Gokhale Method teachers and the online community continues to be full of opportunities and I am still learning. My latest adventure with this wonderful work is using the PostureTracker™! This is an amazing tool that gives real-time feedback on my body’s movements and is rapidly deepening my understanding of my posture habits.  

PostureTracker used to show how I habitually contracted the back of my neck and lifted my chin up (left). Now it is helping me to learn and maintain a much healthier, tall neck position (right). 

Aligning my body in healthy posture so that I can move with ease is my goal. I am simply engaged in the process of making the unfamiliar familiar. Over time I will be “at home” standing tall with ribs anchored, shoulders back, arms hanging comfortably by my sides, and strong feet beautifully supporting all of me.

Here I am seeing that my back remains unswayed using the Upright and Relaxed PostureTracker™setting.

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…

Claudia Cummins is a yoga and meditation teacher, poet, and talented writer. Already familiar with Esther’s book and DVD, she joined the 1-2-3 Move program on Thanksgiving last year. It quickly became a favorite way to lift her spirits and do her body good throughout the darkest times of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this essay Claudia generously shares her beautiful account of discovering the 1-2-3 Move dance party. You are invited to visit and enjoy more of Claudia’s writing and expertise on her website.

Dancing Through the Dark

When I log on to my computer just after lunch, the dance has already begun. Bodies sway and bounce to the beat all across the checkerboard tiles that fill my screen. The instructor smiles and shimmies from her own makeshift dance floor, while others move in their bedrooms, their kitchens, their offices, and on their porches. First there are 40 and then 120 and finally more than 200 people logged on from all over the world, here to share in this strange and lovely stay-at-home pandemic dance party.

I’ve come to this class to learn more about healthy movement. I’ve read about Esther Gokhale for years and am eager to learn more about living in a body with strength and ease. It’s the dance, though, that intrigues me most. I suppose you’d say I’m a closet dancer, happy to turn up the music on my own when life feels like it’s ready to burst out of my bones, but puritanically shy about dancing with others.

I scroll through the Zoom screens like a voyeur. I see a mother dancing with children. I see an older man exercising with weights while swaying to the beat. I spy a grey-haired woman who looks so very familiar dancing in her kitchen and an older couple in their living room who seem to move as one. My eyes land on a tall fellow dancing alone with such élan that he must have been a samba dancer in a former life.

I close my bedroom door, turn up the volume, and begin to dance. Shyly, at first, but curious. My feet tap. My shoulders sway. And then I begin to let the music carry me, growing bolder in my movements. I skip. I spin. I sing. My brain grows quiet, my body leads the way and my spirit begins to lift. For the first time in a long while, I smile.

Our free-form, no-rules dance party lasts 15 minutes, and then Esther guides us through the day’s movement principle. She explains why strong muscles support a healthy back, she shows us images of healthy bodies with long and spacious spines, and she offers up a few movements that can cultivate ease and stability in the body. Then the music returns and we strengthen our muscles again on our virtual dance floor.

“ She shows us images of healthy bodies with long and spacious spines…”

I’ve tried this class on a whim. The world feels so claustrophobic right now, with winter darkness settling in like a shroud and the pandemic driving us all to our knees. I walk, I meditate, I practice yoga and qigong, but still my footing feels unsteady and my fears are vast. I’ll try anything to keep my heart afloat through the dark tunnel of winter ahead and into next year’s promised summer sun. Dancing suddenly seems like a not-so-crazy way to shake off our sorrows and perk up our souls.

And strangely, it works. After my first class I find myself moving lightly through the house, a little more chipper and cheery than I’ve felt in months. My body feels refreshed and renewed. My spine feels longer. My legs feel steadier. The troubles of the world seem a little less difficult to carry. My shoulders feel more willing to bear life’s heavy load. 

And so I return the following day. And the next, and the next. In short order my lunchtime dance party becomes a bright light and an anchor to my days. You could say I’m hooked.

“ I am so thankful for my fellow dancers…”

I keep my computer camera turned off because I’m still a little shy about this unlikely COVID survival strategy. But I am so thankful for my fellow dancers who keep their screens on as the music plays. They fill me with a sense of community and shared movement. I follow their leads and imitate their moves. I learn their names and begin to recognize them by their trademark footwork and signature shoulder shimmies. 

My dance partners and I have never met in person, and likely never will, but I feel such kinship with these lovely souls who show up with me, day after day, to shake off the world’s heaviness and reclaim our freedom and light. Dancing alone just wouldn’t feel the same.

This happens every single day. At 12:45pm I leave my kids to their algebra and American history and walk away from the work of the day. I slip upstairs to my bedroom and log on to my computer to dance. I leave my COVID thoughts at the door and let the rhythm of the music transport me to a clean and wide-open space. I stomp my feel and flail my arms and for a little while, at least, forget about masks and stay-at-home orders and the latest round of test results. I feel like a kid again, as light and carefree as I was so long ago when I sashayed around the house and carved out cartwheels in the summer sun.

“Shaking off our sorrows and shimmying to our unlikely delights…”

In these moments, dancing seems like the most natural way to keep life flowing even when the outer world comes to an icy standstill. Every once in a while in my body I catch a glimmering of a whirling dervish or an Indian dakini or a child stomping through the mud. Occasionally I even slip into a place of utter absorption where my sense of self melts away entirely into the greater flow of life. In these moments my bones tell me that the secret to this strange time is to keep moving to the beat, whatever it takes, refusing to let life freeze us in our tracks.

Our daily dance parties aren’t going to make COVID disappear or keep the hospitals from overflowing with patients. They aren’t going to cure hunger or cancer or racism or global warming. We could do worse, though, in this strange and lonely time, than to strengthen our bodies and our souls, to cut loose every once in a while and turn again toward joy.

We show up with whole body and unfettered heart. We swing to the rhythm of the beat, shaking off our sorrows and shimmying to our unlikely delights. We strengthen our spines and our lungs. And then we carry our fancy footwork and unburdened hearts back out into the larger world to cast a little light into the darkness so that others, too, may find their way to the dance.

   
If you’ve found yourself in a slump these past months, you aren’t alone. Exercise can support mental wellness if you go about it skillfully. Image courtesy United Nations COVID-19 Response on Unsplash.

It’s no secret that depression and anxiety are rampant these days. So many people worldwide are feeling the effects of the ongoing pandemic, and dealing with its many, varied results, not to mention other stressors. It can seem that there is so little in our lives that we can have influence over, exacerbating feelings of powerlessness and depression.

In addition to the range of standard therapeutic interventions like psychotherapy and medication, there’s something all of us can adopt that will help boost our mood: adding exercise to our routine. However, it pays to be skillful in trying this approach. Here are a few practical pointers for how to realistically approach exercise when you’re depressed.

When you’re just starting (or even simply trying) to emerge from your chrysalis, it’s important to be gentle with yourself and set modest, realistic goals. This extends to starting exercise while also dealing with depression. Image courtesy Miriam Fischer on Pexels.

If You’re Depressed, Set Small Exercise Goals
When someone is depressed, it’s crucial to have realistic expectations for how much exercise they are likely to be able to do. A depressed person isn’t merely being “lazy,” and can’t simply “snap out of it” and go run a marathon; there is a physiological cause at work. In severe cases, it can take significant effort merely to get up out of bed. Because of this, setting the bar low and taking a gentle approach is the most likely to yield good results.

Could you commit to taking a few deep breaths when you get out of bed? Or how about a little no-judgment, freestyle dancing?

Finding alternate ways to connect during COVID times can be a great boost to our well-being, both physical and mental. Image courtesy United Nations COVID-19 Response on Unsplash.

Exercise in (Virtual) Company to Combat Isolation
Just like the “oomph” to easily get out of bed, both motivation and accountability can be hard to come by for people dealing with depression. I recently came across a great quote by Keith Johnsgård, PhD, emeritus professor of psychology at San Jose State University and author of Conquering Depression & Anxiety through Exercise. “Having social support for exercise is crucial when you’re depressed,” he says. “A lot of folks won’t exercise on their own, so I tell patients to enlist a family member or good friend to be their exercise partner. It should be someone who is willing to help them...exercise every day.”

Considering the limitations of the pandemic, virtual fitness is a great option for connecting with others safely. If you have a low day you have the option to turn off your camera and still participate without “showing up” — you won’t have missed a session, and odds are you will feel all the better for it.

Exercise in ways that improve flow in your body
According to Chinese medicine, “liver Qi Stagnation” is a common contributor to depression. The solution is to get the Qi flowing; exercise and movement are important ways to make that happen. If you prefer to think in terms other than Chinese medicine, exercise stimulates both blood circulation and our natural “happy hormones”. At a moderate intensity, 20 minutes or so of exercise stimulates the body to release endorphins, giving the “runner’s high” that joggers so enjoy. 

Less talked about are the benefits of low-intensity exercise sustained over time. Even at this level, you can feel better because your brain chemistry changes. Dr. Michael Craig Miller, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School writes "In people who are depressed, neuroscientists have noticed that the hippocampus in the brain—the region that helps regulate mood—is smaller. Exercise supports nerve cell growth in the hippocampus, improving nerve cell connections, which helps relieve depression." 

Just like the rest of nature, our bodies require a lack of impediments in order to function optimally. According to traditional Chinese medicine, getting your liver Qi flowing with exercise is one way to help clear the stagnation of depression. Image courtesy Tom Fisk on Pexels.

Some forms of exercise offer benefits beyond the usual and customary. Exercise that improves your body architecture, posture, and movement patterns, sets you up for benefits 24/7 — your flow is augmented even as you sleep, sit, and stand, and you are much more likely to proceed doing your daily activities with the same health-enhancing form.

In the Gokhale Exercise program, born on January 1, 2020, the focus is on one movement principle a day — this keeps it digestible and fun, even if you are starting off feeling a little (or a lot) glum. Even through a Zoom window, it’s possible to siphon a little of the high energy that has built in this community over the past year and uplift your mood. In addition to high spirits, the community is generous in sharing their discoveries, thoughts, and feelings. For many who have written emails to me, as well as for myself, the support has been invaluable through difficult times.

Would you like to let us do the heavy lifting and just show up to one of our daily programs? Change the course of your New Year with a new exercise program, new habits, and bolstered spirits. 

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According to Dr. Tammy Chen’s NY Times column, dental patients are suffering from an “epidemic of cracked teeth” due in part to posture. How can we avoid a similar fate? Image courtesy Engin Akyurt on Unsplash.

I recently came across a New York Times column by Tammy Chen, DDS, a prosthodontist with a practice in Manhattan, describing the “epidemic of cracked teeth” she’s seen in her patients during the COVID pandemic. Dr. Chen names two suspected culprits: the slumped posture many people adopt while working from home with improvised furniture, and excessive anxiety and stress. Both of these culprits lead to jaw clenching and tooth grinding.

This man’s C-spine — an intensely rounded upper back and tucked pelvis — are all too common in people working from home and on laptops. As Dr. Chen pointed out, such postural habits can have deleterious effects on the jaw.

The dangers of a C-spine
While working remotely, people are slumping and hunching at their computers more than ever before. For many unaware of how to sit healthfully, lack of access to office workspaces (and in some cases, ergonomic furniture) has been difficult to adjust to. Anyone plagued by a C-spine — with an intensely tucked pelvis below rounded, hunched shoulders — is doing themself some real damage if they don’t learn new ways of using their body. I’m always calling out the unhealthy stresses this puts on discs, nerves, bones, and ligaments in the back and neck, but the consequences of poor posture don't stop there.

Gaming posture also often tends toward a C-spine, to the detriment of gamers’ long-term spinal health, as well as jaw health.

As Dr. Chen points out, nerves passing through the neck and shoulder lead directly to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). TMJ dysfunction is a widespread problem in our culture and can lead to pain, clicking, and popping in the jaw. So it stands to reason (and I’ve seen in my decades teaching) that hunched, slumped posture in the upper body, including the neck and shoulders through which nerves pass, has detrimental effects on the jaw.

The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) connects the jaw to the skull. Original image courtesy Wikipedia user Jmarchn under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Healthier posture = healthier teeth
Thankfully, learning new and healthful ways of using the upper body while sitting and sleeping is within all of our reach. When sitting, the alternative to collapsing into a C-spine is to first fix the foundation of the spine, which is the pelvis. When the pelvis is tucked under, it provides a wonky base for the spine to rest on. Like a building with poor foundations, the spine is then distorted as a consequence, rounding out the back to then cantilever forward with the upper body. This obliges the muscles in the neck and shoulders to do overtime supporting the substantial weight of the head, creating tension and compression all the way through to the jaw.

The remedy is to learn to position the pelvis well by stretchsitting or stacksitting — so named because they either allow the spine to stretch out straight (stretchsitting), or for the bones of the spine to stack upright and relaxed (stacksitting). Both enable sustainable shoulder placement, and a well positioned neck and head. Bingo! Their harmonious arrangement of bones and soft tissues gives our nerves the space and pathways they need to function happily.

Our jaws and teeth are among the body parts where anxiety and stress most noticeably take their toll. Image courtesy Nhia Moua on Unsplash.

Anxiety and stress affect the jaw
Jaw clenching and tooth grinding at night while sleeping are typically the result of anxiety and stress, both of which are increasingly common in 2020. This added pressure and friction on the dental surfaces are another factor Dr. Chen suspects in the high number of cracked teeth she’s seen in her practice since June. How can posture help here?

Learning stretchlying brings our students a level of comfort and rest many have never experienced before. Image courtesy Minnie Zhou on Unsplash.

The luxuriously comfortable and relaxed postures we teach for sleep help relieve tension all throughout the body and improve sleep quality. Better, deeper sleep gives us a more stable footing on which to meet the day, even in stressful settings, and can help our mental health considerably. Why not take steps to improve our sleep quality if it can help our health, both mental and dental?

We recommend stretchlying on the back because it supports and gently tractions the body in ways that allow muscles that have been overworking to finally relax, releasing their grip on the back, the neck and, yes, the jaw. It may seem surprising to link healthy posture and dental health, but it actually makes perfect sense that jaw tension and teeth grinding can have positional causes.

If you’d like to revamp your understanding of comfort and perhaps invest in something other than your dentist’s next vacation, try an Online Initial Consultation with one of our online teachers. We also have a new Free Online Workshop all about how you can use posture to relieve stress! We look forward to supporting you (and your pearly whites) in these challenging times.

I’m a longtime cyclist, former elite-level mountain bike racer, and Gokhale Method teacher. Learning and applying Gokhale Method techniques helped me reduce lumbar strain caused by unhelpful posture habits I used to employ while riding. I continue riding to this day, along with my whole family — now free of lower back pain.

Riding a bike can be a fantastically fun way to get away from devices, boost energy, and practice healthy posture, all in one...and of course we always want to wear a helmet, and ideally have our shoulders more posterior than this rider does! Image courtesy Ümit Yıldırım on Unsplash.

In my humble opinion, bikes are the most perfect exercise equipment of all time. This is especially true for the COVID era! What else serves as a human-powered vehicle that allows you exercise as it transports you to various destinations, all the while engaging your senses and doing no damage to the planet? Furthermore, it is something you can do by yourself or with your family or friends, while still maintaining social distance and is, perhaps most importantly, done outdoors. The wheel base between two bicycles is around 6 feet, so riding with others can be done safely. Add Gokhale Method techniques to the mix, and you’ve got a recipe for full-body health.

This rider is wearing a helmet, always recommended! Also, her shoulders stay posterior, with a nice give/relaxation in her arms, and her head rotates on its axis. Her behind is not tucked; her tail appears to be behind her. Image courtesy Victor Xok on Unsplash.

Freshen up your routine
While many of us are sheltering at home, and/or working from home, fresh air and movement are vital to our health and well-being, perhaps even more so now than ever! And when more of our time than usual is spent indoors due to lockdown restrictions, experiencing the outdoors more intimately, through our senses observing the horizon and peripheries and making judgements about traffic and road conditions, as well as minute adjustments that occur as a result, can be really invigorating and refreshing and provide a wonderful reset to the stresses of daily life.

The roads are quieter these days, with less traffic than before the pandemic. This makes it an ideal time to dust off your bicycle, put some air in your tires, and if it’s been a while, visit your local bike shop for a tune-up. Or perhaps think about increasing the riding you do! You definitely want to make sure your bike fits you well; a good fit will help with comfort and safety.

My daughter Wilhelmina Brown, age 5. She hasn't been formally taught how to sit (this photo was taken before I knew better myself), but since she is not yet spending hours in school, she still sits well, with her lovely J-spine intact. Image courtesy Ken Richardson.

Adjusting seat height to support healthy posture
If you are unsure about the right fit, or if you feel too stretched out or too cramped in your torso when on your bike, consult a bike shop. People who work in bike shops love bicycles and want more people to enjoy them too! Your seat wants to be high enough so your leg has only a slight bend at the 6 o'clock position, with the knees not coming up too high either. You want to feel safe and balanced when you are stopped and standing over your bike, with at least a couple of inches of clearance or standover height. Bike shops will be able to guide you about specific bike components — the seatpost and stem, for example, can be adapted to better fit and support the rider. You can also read our founder Esther Gokhale’s blog post on choosing a bike style to support your posture while riding if you’re thinking of picking up a new 2-wheeler.

The changing season brings with it more comfortable riding weather than even a few weeks ago, whether you’re in the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern. And air quality is thankfully improving in the West. There’s never been a better time to saddle up and hit the road!

Cycling is a great way to experience community while maintaining social distance and practicing healthy posture. Win-win-win! Image courtesy Ahshea1 Media on Pexels.

This is the first post in a 3-part series on cycling and posture: stay tuned for more to come! For more information on Tiffany’s teaching in the Boston area, contact her here.

This is the first post in our series on home exercise during shelter-in. For Part 2 on Toning the Gluteus Medius, click here!

Making the most of shelter-in by practicing chair pose Gokhale-style in my backyard garden.

Whether you are on the road, in a campground, or just stuck at home during quarantine, you can always exercise. In the daily lead-up to our ongoing Posture 1-2-3 Challenge for alumni subscribers, I often turn to dance as a way to process whatever baggage might have set foot in my psyche that particular morning, and also to get the group moving and warmed up for the main program. I’ve been dancing since I was a young child, so I have a very strong bias for dance as a way of exercising, but I also like to change it up with other types of exercise. It turns out that we have a lot of options, even when we can’t access the gym.

First up is Chair Pose, from yoga. Chair Pose (Utkatasana in Sanskrit) is a great example of an at-home, equipment-free exercise which can strengthen a variety of muscles in very little time. You don’t have to spend forever and a day in Chair Pose to reap its benefits. This makes it a perfect fit for our busy lives.

In the image above, Cecily's behind is well behind, and her J-spine visible — both good details from a Gokhale Method perspective. The overlaid graphic conveys her Gokhale SpineTracker™ readings. Note on foot placement: in the Gokhale Method, we teach placing the feet about hip width apart and facing slightly outwards as a way of optimally supporting primal leg architecture.

Chair pose with a Gokhale Method filter:

1. Prepare your lower body. Start with kidney bean-shaped feet, and do a little squat, to let gravity assist in settling your pelvis between your legs. Then come back up, but not to a parked position (that is, avoid locking your hips forward and knees backward). A parked position allows the muscles to “check out” (that’s why we find ourselves drifting to this position repeatedly!), but is damaging to the joints. Rather than parking in your joints, get your body into a “ready position:” that is, a position with a little spring in it that is easy on the joints and also enables you to move on a dime.
2. Prepare your upper body. Use the rib anchor technique, with your shoulders rolled and the back of the neck tall. Now we’re ready to begin with Chair Pose.
3. Bending the knees slowly, go down-down-down, keeping the knees from crossing over the toes. Yes, this detail makes it harder, and you may have to grip on the floor with your feet.  This is good for your feet! The main reason for this is to minimize stress to the knees and maximize challenge to various leg muscles.
4. Add in the inner corset. If you are able, raise your arms ahead of you or, even better, up above your head. In this case, be super-attentive to ramping up your rib anchor to not allow your back to sway. Now, you just stay there. It’s challenging, and that’s the point. Visit your boundaries, but stay on the healthy side of them.

Let’s review: Chair Pose actively recruits your inner corset. The action of raising the arms above the head can be used to recruit the inner corset especially strongly. If you were to look at your belly (in a mirror) while in Chair Pose, you may come out looking a bit like a greyhound with a slenderized, sleeker abdomen below your full ribcage. To finish, return to a ready position with a little spring in it (again, not parked).

This practitioner demonstrates the “greyhound look” of an activated inner corset. Note on foot placement: In the Gokhale Method, we teach placing the feet about hip width apart and facing slightly outwards as a way of optimally supporting primal leg architecture. Image courtesy Elly Fairytale on Pexels.

I’ll be describing other favorite exercises in future blog posts — in the meantime, try “sitting” it out in Chair Pose during work breaks and as part of your exercise regimen. Consider setting your timer to go off every 20 minutes to remind you to do Chair Pose (or some other future pose) for about a minute. In this way you will make rapid progress in tone, form, and your experience of life! I look forward to teaching you Gokhale Yoga 101 and Strengthening Exercises - The Gokhale Way. Let’s make the most of our ongoing situation!

Working from home looks a bit different for our animal companions than it does for us humans. Image courtesy Bruno Cervera on Unsplash.

How are you faring? Here in California, we’re still squarely in shelter-in-place mode, perhaps settling into “normal-for-now.” Some people, whose professions allow it and who didn’t already work remotely, are still acclimating to the experience of working from home full-time. How can we optimize our home work environments?

I recently had a discussion with a friend of mine who’s a full-time writer: let’s call him “Steve.” Steve recently decided to have someone build him a new writing desk to specs, and was curious to get my take on how to make sure his new desk, and home working environment more generally, is supportive of healthy posture.

What’s the best desk height?
Steve: My first concern is desk height. My laptop is a smallish one with a 13-inch display, so the screen doesn’t extend very high up from a desk surface. My existing desk feels low to me and is 29 inches tall. Apparently the industry standard is 29-30 inches. Is 29 inches too low or do I need a taller desk, especially if I’m working with my relatively low screen height? If I have a smaller display, do I need a desk which compensates by being 31 or 32 inches tall?

Esther Gokhale (EG): as long as the screen doesn’t induce your upper body to curve forward, it’s fine to have your screen lower than your eye level. Your eyes are perfectly capable of looking down to that degree without causing strain. The key thing is not a number, but rather what is happening in your body. Some people use floor-sitting desks that are only 6 inches off the ground perfectly well because they have good form while doing so. A custom-height desk as tall as 31 or 32 inches off the ground isn’t necessary unless it’s for comfort.

Floor-sitting with a wedge lets me comfortably use my Bellicon trampoline as a low desk.

How high should my monitor be?
Steve: Is the screen being 2 or 3 inches below eye level a problem? With my current desk height, I have to look slightly down at my display while writing. Should I be worried about the possibility of neck and back strain if I’m looking down that much and for that long?

EG: That sounds perfect, actually. Think hunter-gatherer: the line of vision would slant down since you have to be looking for animal tracks, signs of buried tubers, and watching where you step. Our bodies are perfectly capable of this behavior as they’ve been doing it for many millennia.

90-degree knees?
Steve: I’m curious about knee angle. I’ve heard that my knees should create a 90-degree angle while sitting. Is this true?

EG: There’s no research I know of that says this. People like even numbers and just make them up, even if they rarely exist in the complexity of nature and biology — parallel lines, 90-degree angles, etc. This reminds me for some reason of how rhino horns are supposed to be an aphrodisiac.

Humans are skilled at pattern recognition, which sometimes predisposes us to make conceptual leaps not grounded in fact when we see patterns that aren’t really there (i.e. rhino horns being thought of as an aphrodisiac). Part of the cultural baggage of having looked so strongly to Ancient Greece during the “Enlightenment” era of European history is a somewhat reductive expectation for symmetry and geometry, not only in the field of mathematics, but also in the human body. (More on that in another blog post.) In any case, worrying about human knees always being at a 90-degree angle while seated is not really a concern of mine. In fact, externally rotating the legs is a more constructive goal, and one among many other posture nuggets you can learn to achieve in our online posture coaching courses.

It’s also worth mentioning that, for seated desk work, the chair we painstakingly designed is both conducive to good posture and extremely durable. I’ve had mine for around 10 years and it’s still in great repair.

Modifying my laptop height with books, coming in close to the computer, and keeping my shoulders in a healthy position help make this seated desk arrangement gentle on the body, as well as sustainable. And with my decade-old Gokhale Pain-Free™ Chair, I can actually stretchsit while I work.

Keyboard placement: what’s the right distance?
Steve: How important is it that I be able to come in close to the keyboard?

EG: Very. Though your arms are certainly capable of reaching out to a more distant keyboard, this takes more muscular effort. If you have the choice, come in super close — the feeling wants to be almost like you're surrounded by your desk or as though you're in a cockpit. When the keyboard is further away, this can easily play into old habits of curving the upper back forward, craning the neck forward, or displacing the shoulders forward, all of which compromise the body.

Standing desks: what’s the best approach?
Steve: I want to fashion a standing workspace out of my new seated desk. I figure I’ll probably get an additional place-on-top appliance to make the desk work for standing as well as sitting.

EG: I use a simple wooden footstool on top of my massage table when I want a standing desk — I just place my laptop on the stool and work away.

This simple footstool on top of my massage table is my preferred standing desk setup.

Sometimes my Congolese drum can be useful too, but it’s not really stable enough. Whatever you use doesn’t have to be formal — just a nice height.

My Congolese drum is another option for a standing desk surface.

The home work space posts on the Twitter thread started by @julesforrest illustrate this nicely.

Whatever your creative desk arrangement, make sure you use healthy posture while standing — tallstanding comes to mind. Get creative and experiment: changing your work location and/or position can inject a fresh burst of energy into your day. Give it a try!

Back, neck, and joint pain may be flaring up for many of us, especially those who have come to depend on palliative interventions such as massage, chiropractic, and physical therapy.

Does it seem to anyone else like the ribbon of life just tangled dramatically? It makes sense to feel this way — we’re living in a rapidly changing world with new information coming our way all the time. One way we may be physically experiencing that change is in our daily pain levels, which can increase due to myriad reasons: working from home on unfamiliar furniture, stress manifesting as tension in the body, eroded sleep quality from anxiety flare-ups, childcare we are suddenly having to do unassisted. Now, more than ever, we are forced to visit the root of the problem because our usual methods for temporary relief — such as massage therapy and chiropractic — are unavailable or inaccessible. These are marvelous interventions, but now we have an opportunity to address things ourselves. What do we do when we can’t physically visit our massage therapist or chiropractor or physical therapist and our aches and pains are spiraling out of control?

Massage is a worthy therapeutic intervention, but largely inaccessible during shelter-in-place restrictions. Posture re-education, on the other hand, is something you can learn online and put into practice immediately.

This is actually the perfect time to learn, revisit, and refresh skills to relieve your own back, neck, and joint pain without relying on recurring treatments from outside professionals. In the new world of COVID-19, the ancient wisdom and Primal Posture of the Gokhale Method are even more relevant than usual. We’ve had these tools on our side for decades, and our ancestors and forebears have had them for countless generations. Let’s now put them into practice with the goal of self-sufficiency.

To help with this, we’d like to remind you of our no-cost offerings which you can regularly access from your home. Here’s an example to introduce (or re-introduce) you to the fundamental Gokhale Method technique of stretchsitting, a way to gently lengthen your spine through traction and take pressure off compressed discs, nerves, and tissues. You can use equipment already found around your house, such as a rolled-up towel, or a Stretchsit® Cushion if you have one available. If you are even more fortunate, you own a Gokhale Pain-Free™ chair. Even if you’ve learned stretchsitting previously, refreshers are great at a time like this.

In the coming weeks, we’re further expanding our online offerings to include practical new material you can access from the comfort of your own home. Join us for new free teleseminars, posture workshops, online consultations, and online lessons to improve your quality of life without putting others or yourself at risk. Due to high interest, our next free teleseminars (taking place today, April 2, 2020) will revisit the topic of exercise breaks for calm and productivity. Each of our teleseminars is offered multiple times on the same day for ease of scheduling. Coworkers, friends, and family are welcome!

Social distancing can be a perfect time to learn some practical new posture skills alongside those in your household.

We also hope to support many of you with one-on-one online posture sessions, where our qualified teachers can provide personalized coaching on leading a pain-free lifestyle. Email our Customer Support team today so they can connect you with Gokhale Method teachers experienced with online teaching. Your body and mind will thank you, long after restrictions have been lifted. Consider it a gift to your future self and to future generations. Wishing you good health!

We’re all in this together. Hang in there!

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.