One Year Older, Ten Years Younger
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!
Aging is not just about the numbers
Aging is not just a number, nor is it just the arrival of graying hair or wrinkles—unfortunately, for many of us, it creeps up with creaking stiffness in the joints, increasing awkwardness in movement, degeneration in the spinal discs, and a jangling of the spinal nerves.
Poor posture adds years to our appearance, and wear and tear to our joints, perpetuating further problems. Image from Pixabay
Postural distortions usually start long before old age and can go unnoticed to the untrained eye.
Research has shown that we are tuned to seeing facial symmetry as a way of selecting partners—I suspect a similar instinct is at play for recognizing healthy natural movement and body architecture. Over millenia, we have evolved to be captivated by elegance, strength, and symmetry in the body—because it is associated with good health, function, and longevity. Conversely, when we see severe muscle tension, limping, or marked scoliosis, we recognize it, and it causes us consternation for good reason. Especially so, when we don’t know what to do about it.
Getting older but more capable
Most of the things we do to improve our health help a little at the margins, but every now and then something comes along that has a greater magnitude. Learning to embody healthy posture is one of these pivotal things that can radically change our physical and mental way of being in the world.
The most common transformation that I hear about—a lot—is how much better people feel following an initial training in our method. The Gokhale Method® helps you to Move like you are meant to. You gradually rediscover the natural posture you likely had as an infant, and, because posture is a freeze-frame of your movement, this gives you the right biomechanical baseline for more fluent, coordinated, youthful, and efficient movement. You will learn to hip-hinge, to glidewalk, and if you like, to dance! The first step is to understand that change is possible.
Alumna Laura Goldman Weinberg speaks to fellow back pain sufferers who wonder if they will ever find a resolution of their pain…
“Coming home” with the Gokhale Method
In our January blog posts we will be featuring alumni, including Laura, who want to share their success stories and their new-found body wisdom. They have followed either our in-person Gokhale® Foundations course, one-day Gokhale® Immersion course, or our online Gokhale® Elements course, plus our Gokhale Active program, and are feeling great and know how to exercise injury free. More times than I can count I’ve heard delighted alumni liken this journey to peeling off the layers of an onion, shedding oppressive stiffness and poor habits, and coming home to their core.
In January we will also offer two special workshops on the topic of getting older and feeling younger, and will announce more details in our next blog post, as well as sending personal invitations by email…keep a look out!
Our students often experience a deep and welcome sense of homecoming and youthfulness in their bodies.
One thing we frequently hear from our students is that friends compliment them on their “beaming it out” and looking more vital. One such example came from our online student, Kevin Ott, who recently told his teacher how a friend he met up with said he was the only person he had not seen in many years who actually looked younger!
Kevin’s posture journey
Kevin and his wife took Gokhale Foundations with me in 2017, when Kevin was suffering with neck pain which radiated into his right shoulder and arm. Lying down was so painful that quality sleep was virtually impossible, despite having his career and a two year old daughter to take care of. Kevin has now been pain free for years, and is continuing to fine-tune his posture with a monthly online Gokhale® Consultation with his Gokhale Method teacher. This year he has used many of his sessions to support strength training regularly at home, and uses free weights, a bench, TRX® Suspension Training and pull-ups/dips apparatus. He enjoys this as a counter-balance to his sedentary job. Below you can see the age-reversing effect of the Gokhale Method time machine!
Kevin has not only resolved his chronic neck pain but is continuing to hone his posture and improve his athletic ability. We think you will agree that he looks more youthful!
Best next action steps
If you would like help with finding a more youthful posture, get started by booking a Gokhale® Consultation, online or in person, with one of our teachers.
You can sign up below to join any one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops…
