tense

Some things in life want to be “just right.” There is a popular fairytale about the importance of this—the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The most well-known version features a young girl with golden hair who wanders into the woods and finds a house with no one home. It belongs to Papa, Mama, and Baby bear. The story goes that Goldilocks

thought she would sit down and rest until they came, so first she sat down in the GREAT BIG CHAIR, but the cushion was too soft. It seemed as though it would swallow her up. Then she sat down in the middle-sized chair, and the cushion was too hard, and it was not comfortable. Then she sat down in the dear little chair, and it was just right, and fitted her as though it had been made for her.

(Katharine Pyle, E. P. Dutton & Company, 1918 )

Goldilocks tested the three bears’ chairs, their beds, and even their porridge, to find what was “just right” for her. (Illustration by Katharine Pyle, E. P. Dutton & Company, 1918 )

The sitting conundrum

Just like Goldilocks’ search for what felt “just right”, sitting comfortably without a backrest can be a particular challenge. A wedge that is “just right” is required to enable most people to sit upright and relaxed, rather than be trapped in the common back and forth between upright and tense, and relaxed but slumped. Stacksitting enables you to avoid compression on delicate spinal nerves, discs, and tissues, and encourages healthy breathing and organ function. You can see how this works below:

The pelvis is your foundation in sitting. When your pelvis is well positioned with a wedge, the upper body can be upright and relaxed (a). With the pelvis poorly positioned, the upper body is either relaxed but slumped (b), or upright and tense (c).

Why most wedges fail

Existing wedges on the market are either too soft to support a healthy change in pelvic position, too hard to be comfortable, or too variable (buckwheat filled, for example). They are often far too shallow to help the pelvis antevert (tip forward) correctly. And since every body is different in terms of weight, size, and degree of natural L5-S1 angle, most off-the-shelf solutions are unlikely to be optimal.  

For two decades Esther Gokhale advised students not to use or buy proprietary wedges for sitting, but to make their own from household items such as rolled towels or folded blankets. Not only were these items immediately on hand, but, most importantly, it meant students could learn how to customize them to be just right. The downside was that these makeshift wedges were less than attractive, unwieldy—needing frequent reshaping, and consequently underutilized.

This was a somewhat frustrating situation. The Gokhale Method® has logical and effective cues to teach and give our students all the comfort and benefits of stacksitting with a wedge, but we needed to make it more accessible.

A well-designed wedge helps you to rediscover sitting comfort and develop a healthy alignment for your back in standing and walking too.

Getting it “just right”

After thorough research and development, two years ago we launched the unique Gokhale® Wedge to solve all of these problems. Elegant in form and function, our wedge is designed so it can be sat on four different ways around. It not only meets your individual needs, but it can also adapt as your body changes on your Gokhale Method journey.

Most people use their Gokhale Wedge rounded side up. The slightly different degrees of curve on each edge gives a choice of more or less angle to help tip the pelvis into anteversion.

Beginners, slighter people, or those with less natural L5-S1 angle, often prefer their Gokhale Wedge flat side up. They can choose more or less tilt. 

The Gokhale Wedge can give you just the right amount of pelvic anteversion at each stage of your posture journey. 

Back up your Gokhale Wedge with education

No matter how well-designed, a posture product is best supported by training. Just as a car needs skillful driving, the benefits of the Gokhale Wedge are maximized through proper understanding and application. You can learn about stacksitting in our in-person Foundations course, one-day  Immersion course, our online Elements course, plus our Gokhale Exercise program. Our DVD Secrets to Pain-Free Sitting, also helps you to integrate your wedge optimally into daily life. Furthermore, as a Gokhale Method student you can integrate using the wedge with our wearable PostureTracker™, which has settings that can track the degree of your L5-S1 angle, and spinal stack.

Take advantage of our Memorial Day Sale: Get three Gokhale Wedges for the price of two, May 24– 26, 2025, and get your upright sitting just right!

Best next action steps 

If you would like help with a healthier sitting position, get started by booking a 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…