headaches

Next time you are in the dentist chair, spare a thought for your dentist’s posture and the postural demands of their job. Doing dental procedures shares many challenges with other surgical procedures, such as having to maintain a steady position for long periods, maintain a clear line of vision, and hold and manipulate tools with precision. Working in the oral cavity of a conscious patient is a pretty significant challenge. 

Dental professionals place many physical demands on their structure. They can be regarded as “occupational athletes.” Image from Pexels

Dental personnel and health

Unfortunately, these demands take a toll. Of adults in the U.S. general population, 13.8% experience significant neck pain; among dentists, that figure is a staggering 67%. Dentists and other oral health practitioners (OHPs), including dental nurses and hygienists, also report suffering from above average incidences of lower back pain, headaches, shoulder problems, and work-related tendonitis, bursitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome. Such problems can make life miserable, both in and out of the dental office. Some OHPs are forced to abandon a career they have spent up to eight years training for. Of dentists taking ill health retirement, 55% cited musculoskeletal disorders as the cause.

The Gokhale Method for Dentists and Oral Health Practitioners

Since 2008, well over 100 dental workers have sought out the Gokhale Method® to help them solve their posture puzzle and get out of pain. They are both welcome and in need of what our courses (in-person Foundations, one-day Pop-up, and online Elements) offer. Given their particular professional needs, we are now working with some of our dentist and hygienist alumni to develop a special Gokhale Method offering for oral health practitioners. 

This will be a tailored training delivered at dental offices, clinics, and teaching hospitals. The goal is  that oral health practitioners learn the posture tools they need to future-proof their careers.

An introductory workshop for oral health practitioners with Gokhale Method teacher Julie Johnson was recently received with great enthusiasm at a dental practice near Stuttgart, Germany. 

Dental practice team members, Bridget, Amy, and Julie, practice seated hip-hinging with teacher Julie Johnson. The Gokhale PostureTracker™ wearable gives biofeedback—and they’re having fun!

From a dentist’s perspective

One of Julie’s recent Gokhale Foundations students is Warren Blair, an American dentist living and working in Germany who, though counting himself fortunate to have had relatively few serious musculoskeletal aches and pains over his four decades of practice, understands the value of the Gokhale Method. 

Warren Blair, D.D.S., M.S.D., is a specialist in periodontology, implantology, microsurgery, and endodontics—and a student of posture!

Warren shared many things about the ergonomics of dentistry with us, both from the dentist’s and patient’s perspective:

The physical aspect is a problem—all dentists have problems. Some are in their mid-thirties and they're walking around crooked because they have a charley horse (muscle spasm). I periodically stretch the muscles around my back and shoulders, or pull away from my microscope eyepieces to reset. Doing the Gokhale Foundations I have learned that posture is key to the solution; having healthy posture early on in the profession will prevent future problems, but if problems with your musculoskeletal system do crop up then you can do something about it by changing your habits and adopting the principles of healthy posture.

Warren confirmed that dentists are taught not to round over their patients, and to work with their knees wide, but admitted that these positions are not always easy to maintain on the job. Learning and preserving healthy postural habits is especially difficult given that many dental workers, like most people in our culture, will, unfortunately, be approaching their training from a poor posture baseline. 

Healthy posture is an ecosystem

The basic instruction that trainees receive is not nearly as nuanced or integrated as the movement patterns taught in the Gokhale Method. In typical modern western fashion, we are all given stand-alone instructions, e.g., “don’t round when you bend.” The hip-hinging bend taught as part of the Gokhale Method is part of a whole movement pattern, involving nestling an anteverted pelvis, getting the femurs out of the way of the pelvis, anchoring the rib cage, engaging the inner corset, keeping the shoulders posterior, and maintaining a healthy neck position. Altogether, these elements give dentists the resilience needed for sustained bending, even with some variety of twist.

This practitioner is maintaining her J-spine, with her behind behind and her back tall and relaxed. This is a healthy baseline for sitting and forward bending. Image from Pexels

Posture instructions given in isolation don't translate very effectively into practice. However, as part of a holistic education that pays attention to the way we do everyday life activities, posture training becomes transformative. For example, walking well, both in and out of the office, is a natural reset for a tight psoas muscle. Learning to stacksit allows your breath to mobilize your back. Sleeping positions, done well, can enable you to heal damage and inflammation. 

Learning the Gokhale Method at work means you immediately put posture into practice in your profession, and sets up many opportunities for colleagues to support one another. If you are a dental or medical professional and would like to know more about how the Gokhale Method can help you and your team, please email: [email protected].

If you would like to support your dentist, send them this invitation to one of our free online workshops. 

Best next action steps 

If you would like to improve your posture, for work or leisure, 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…

Vision and headaches

We know that challenges with our vision can cause headaches. Squinting in bright light or straining the eyes to bring hazy text into focus can easily result in strain or pain in the eyes, temples, top of the head, or elsewhere. 

What is less widely acknowledged is that wearing prescription glasses can also cause headaches. An overlooked cause of headaches—and other pains too—is the poor posture we often adopt when wearing glasses. In this post I will be looking at the posture traps to avoid with eyewear—and how to turn wearing glasses to your postural advantage. 

Wearing glasses can solve headaches—or cause them if they lock you into poor posture. Pexels

The eye test

Let’s start with the eye test. Your optician or ophthalmologist uses various machines to measure eye pressure and light refraction, and to look at the cornea, iris, lens, and retina of the eye in microscopic detail. During these examinations you want to bring the apparatus as close to you as possible, and/or hinge at the hips to angle yourself forward. Apply the “spoon to your mouth, not your mouth to the spoon” principle; rather than jut your neck out for extended periods, minimize distortion to its delicate structures.

Various types of eye examination will require you to crane your neck forward to rest your chin
and forehead against supports. Wikimedia

Getting fitted for your glasses

Always be in your best possible position when you get your glasses fitted. Your optician or optometrist is an expert in eye care, but not in posture. They will likely overlook any degree of slump (or sway) in your back, and the resulting compensatory chin lift, and fit your glasses accordingly. In this way, they will unwittingly build in a bias that compresses your neck.

You want your head “back home," as it was when you were a young child. Let your chin angle down, your neck be tall, and your head be back, aligned over your body. You can learn how to lengthen your neck and restore healthy alignment here. This will direct your gaze more down your nose. Maintaining healthy posture while choosing and wearing your glasses will avoid compression and the wear and tear and headaches it brings.

Avoid both letting your head drift forward (left) and lifting your chin (center), both of which compress the nerves, discs, bones, and tissues in the back of the neck and are a common cause of headaches and degenerative changes in the cervical spine. 

Progressive lenses call for progressive posture

Progressive lenses are a great boon for many wearers. These lenses can combine several prescriptions in one, allowing you to focus on things near, far, and in between, regardless of what distance your eyes do best. For example, a progressive prescription for farsightedness, a common condition as we get older that makes close work like reading difficult, will have a stronger magnification at the bottom of the lens which makes it perfect for close-up tasks such as reading phones and books—or laptops and tablets—or, a little further away, working at the kitchen counter. However, there are particular posture considerations when it comes to progressive lenses:

1. If you have your chin up when you are measured for a progressive prescription, then you will be obliged to hold this compressed, chin up position whenever you need to see things up close—which could be for hours at a time. Additionally, you are training yourself to compress your neck as a baseline position. 
2. If you use progressive lenses for close-up work ahead of you, such as looking at a desktop computer screen or reading sheet music (or conducting an eye test!), you will be obliged to lift your chin to peer through the “sweet spot.” We strongly recommend having a pair of “computer glasses” which enable you to position your head in a healthy position.
3. If your vision deteriorates further and you do not update your prescription, you will be obliged to increasingly lift your chin to peer through the greater magnification lower in the lenses. It is therefore important to have your eyes tested regularly. 

Progressive lenses can work well for looking down at books, tablets, and laptops. Pexels

Relying on the reading area at the bottom of a progressive lens will lock you into poor posture at a desktop computer. Pexels

Bending forward or down

You want your frames to fit your head and the bridge of your nose perfectly, so that you won’t tip your nose up to keep them from sliding off. Test the glasses properly for size and grip when you buy them. A good optician will be able to make adjustments to most frames to fit you optimally.

  
Don’t let poorly fitting glasses compromise your bending, making you round your back and crunch your neck. 

You want to hip-hinge as well as you know how, maintaining length through your spine. 

Choose larger lenses 

Habitually seeing the world through lenses, even sunglasses, tends to somewhat limit the movement of the eye and increases our reliance on turning the neck. Infants and people in traditional societies show a preference for bigger eye movements rather than bigger neck movements. 

This young girl at school in Otavalo, Ecuador, moves her neck a little—and her eyes a lot. You can read more about eye tracking here.

We recommend you choose good-sized lenses that lessen the tendency to “tunnel vision," and avoid thick frames that block your peripheral vision. Contact lenses can go a long way to restoring this freedom, so you may want to consider them too.

A well-fitted pair of glasses can even be a reminder to find your best head, neck, and body alignment. Muster all the elegance you might bring to wearing a crown. 

Audrey Hepburn knew how to use both her eyes and her sunglasses to good effect—and with strikingly good posture! (from Breakfast at Tiffany's). Wikimedia

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like insight on your posture, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

We are offering a Posture Remedies for Text Neck Free Online Workshop on June 1 at 4 p.m. PST. You can sign up below to join any of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops.

In my experience, people are often unaware that their posture has greatly contributed to their muscular problems and damage. 

In this blog post I would like to talk about a frequently injured group of muscles that attach the arm to the torso at the shoulder blade—the rotator cuff. The rotator cuff helps rotate the arm and lift it sideways and is also responsible for stabilizing the shoulder joint.

The four muscles of the rotator cuff are supraspinatus, infraspinatus, and teres minor, which lie on the back of the shoulder blade, and subscapularis which lies on the front.

Why we get rotator cuff problems

It’s common for people to be rounded forward in modern times. Many of us habitually adopt a closed, slumped posture with tight muscles across the chest, while the muscles of the upper back and shoulders are often overstretched and lacking in tone. This front-to-back imbalance goes with holding the arms too closely to the body, and too far forward. The muscles of the rotator cuff are mechanically disadvantaged by such postural distortion, and put under undue stress. 

The slumped shoulder posture common in today’s culture leaves the muscles of the rotator cuff prone to injury.

This painting from 1881 shows both women using the rotator cuff while their shoulders maintain a healthy posterior position. Detail from Mending the Nets by Winslow Homer.

Traditional cultures preserve healthy posture for the shoulders. The shoulder and arm of this village carpenter in Burkina Faso align with the back half of his body, not the front. This posterior shoulder position arranges the bones and muscles optimally for rotator cuff health and mechanical advantage.

Of the four muscles in the rotator cuff group, the one that suffers most frequently from poor postural habits is supraspinatus. Supraspinatus is the uppermost rotator cuff muscle. It lies along the top of the shoulder blade and passes through a narrow passage to attach to the humeral head (ball of the shoulder joint). 

Tears can happen through sudden trauma—perhaps due to a fall or a vigorous shoulder movement in sport—or through more gradual wear and tear that leaves the far portion of the muscle like a frayed rug. Depending on the injury, surgical repair may be necessary, followed by physical therapy for up to a year. 

The narrow passage of supraspinatus can lead to wear and tear if the shoulder joint is misaligned due to poor posture.

How the Gokhale Method helps restore rotator cuff health

The good news about your rotator cuff is that it can be improved and often fully healed by adopting natural, healthy posture. 

The local solution is to learn how to do a shoulder roll. This technique will take each shoulder home to its natural position, where it lived when you were a young child. 

The shoulder roll picks up all the bones that make up the shoulder—the upper arm, the collar bone, and the shoulder blade—and allows them to reposition and settle in better alignment with one another. This creates appropriate space for all the soft tissues in the area, including the muscles, bursae, blood vessels, and nerves, so they can function well. 

Shoulder rolls are a more effective and sustainable solution than simply pulling your shoulders back or “sitting up straight.” These common measures tend to create additional problems such as inflamed rhomboids and a swayed lower back.

To practice the Gokhale Method shoulder roll:

1. Relax your shoulder girdle
2. Glide one shoulder forward
3. Rotate your shoulder upward
4. Continue to rotate it back as far as is comfortable. Let it relax down.

Tip: Make sure the movement occurs in your shoulder. Resist the tendency to wave your arms, sway your back, or twist your torso or neck.

This gentle sequence of movement restores a healthy position for your shoulder joint and rotator cuff—one roll at a time.

Students often report that learning the shoulder roll has brought additional benefits such as a more open chest, improved breathing, and improved blood flow to the arms and hands. Over time, performing shoulder rolls counters thoracic kyphosis, or rounding. Its gentle “massaging” action feels pleasant, can relieve knotted muscle tension in the area, and ease neck tension and headaches. You can make a start on your shoulder roll with our free video here.

Happy shoulders are part of healthy posture

Your new healthier shoulder position will always work best in the wider context of your posture as a whole. A change in one place facilitates shifts elsewhere, and vice versa. For example, your shoulder alignment is affected by your head position, your breathing, the angle of your ribcage and pelvis, and even how you stand. The position of your pelvis in particular affects your shoulders and upper body.

The principles and techniques that will help you to remodel your posture are taught in logical sequence and detail in our in-person Foundations course, one-day Pop-up course, and our online Elements course. If you have or are recovering from rotator cuff problems, the Gokhale Exercise program can help you to exercise in a way that is safe, therapeutic, and fun! 

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like insight on your posture, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

You can sign up below to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops. . .

Do you suffer from neck tension, muscle knots, or tingling in your fingers? Do you get frequent headaches?

Or maybe your neck is fine most of the time, but seizes up periodically, leaving you unable to function normally in your job, family life, and recreational activities.

A soft cervical collar is a common prescription to alleviate neck pain. It can give welcome support in the short term, but doesn’t help to strengthen your neck or get to the source of the problem. Wikimedia Commons

Most neck pain involves compression. 

In modern cultures, the head often drifts forward as we slouch and crane our necks towards our computer screens. The weight of the head, (typically 11 lb. or 5 kg—think bowling ball), then requires the muscles at the back of the neck to contract strongly to keep the head up. This contraction compresses the relatively delicate tissues in the area. Not a recipe for a healthy, happy neck. If you have forward head carriage but are symptom-free so far, keep reading for tips that will prevent future problems with the discs, nerves, blood vessels, and bones in your neck.

In our culture slumped desk work posture and a degree of forward head carriage is common. Pexels

Restoring the natural length and position of your neck

Young children, ancestral populations, and people living in traditional societies around the world preserve a natural head carriage that stacks the neck well as part of a healthy J-spine. This allows the head to be balanced with only appropriate muscular effort, and the neck to be tall and free from compression. 

As young children we instinctively align our neck well over our body. Pexels

Restoring mobility in your neck

Perhaps you have experienced increased stiffness and reduced mobility in your neck over the years? Or unpleasant gritty sounds when you turn your head? Beware of exercises that include extreme flexion, extension, or head circles. These movements, taken to the end of your range of motion, can damage your discs and pinch your cervical nerves. If they are a part of your exercise regimen, consider reducing their range. 

There are many delicate and vital structures within the neck, so we first want to align it well. (front view). Wikipedia

In our experience it is best to focus on restoring the neck to a healthy baseline length and shape that centers your head well on your spine. The video below shows you how to proceed:

This gentle movement will help you to find a safe, natural trajectory to get started on gliding your head up and back.

If you have areas of long-standing rigidity or curvature in your neck, it is likely linked to your postural distortions elsewhere in your body, for example thoracic rigidity or a tucked pelvis. 

Expect this to take more time and training to change, for which you will be rewarded with additional benefits including comfort, improved circulation, and increased energy.

Finding your neck strength 

While many of the neck’s structures are delicate, they can also be strong. The deep muscles that are intended to support the neck and keep it tall tend not to get used very much in modern industrial culture and are often weak. Besides doing strengthening exercises, as is common in conventional approaches to neck problems, learning to carry weight on the head is extremely valuable. 

People in traditional societies preserve a taller, straighter neck, and more functional head posture. (Odisha, India)

Cultures that headload suffer much less neck pain than we do and can teach us much about how, where, and why to headload. Not only do these people have excellent neck health, but they also have excellent posture throughout their bodies, and move with elegance and efficiency. Students in our classes begin with light weights to sense the axis along which they need to stack their bones. Over time, the weight can be increased to further strengthen the longus colli, inner corset, and other muscles. 

The small extra weight of the Gokhale™Head Cushion enables students not only to strengthen the deep neck muscles and lengthen the neck, but also to better orient their entire skeleton. 

My book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back has many images of people throughout the world headloading. Healthy head carriage, as opposed to forward head carriage, is an important starting point for this activity. It is not possible to carry significant weight without both the healthy neck alignment and strength to avoid compressive forces.

A well-aligned head and neck is both highly functional—and elegant. 

Because about one in three adults are affected by neck pain every year¹, we introduce techniques for the neck early on in our in-person Foundations course (Lesson 1 of 6), in our one-day Pop-up course, and our online Elements course (Lesson 4 of 18). Here students learn in detail the gentle techniques that gradually return the neck towards the length and pain-free position we all enjoyed as infants. Whatever your age, your neck is something you can learn to once again stack in your favor.

References: 

1. Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), “Neck Pain: Overview,” InformedHealth.org, last modified February 14, 2019, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK338120/.

Best next action steps for newcomers

If you would like insight on your posture, consider scheduling an Initial Consultation, online, or in person.

You can sign up below to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops. . .

I am an acupuncturist and massage therapist who specializes in assisting individuals with chronic pain. Over my 30 years in the profession I had been exposed to hundreds of continuing education classes but had never heard of the Gokhale Method®. 

I suffered with cervical stenosis, multiple herniations, and bone spurs

My battle with cervical stenosis (a narrowing of the neural canal in the neck, causing compression of the nerves), multiple cervical herniations, and osteophytes (bone spurs) began 40 years ago, all of which progressively worsened over time. 

As you can see in this photograph, I had become used to hunching and compressing my neck. I believe this was the cause of my neck problems.

My life had become restricted due to the increasing pain in my head, neck, tingling in my arms and hands, and the severe migraines which I suffered if I moved my neck too much or tried to look down or carry packages. I took migraine medications in order to function, which I was grateful for even though I didn’t want to take them. It’s no exaggeration to say that pain had closed my life down.

It had been years since I worked a normal patient load; one or two patients every other day allowed me to do what I loved while I did my best to manage my symptoms. I consulted two neurosurgeons five years ago and after serious consideration I chose against a recommended fusion of three cervical vertebrae. This was because I had seen many patients after a fusion and observed firsthand the difficulties they endured. According to my observations usually one or more discs above or below the fusion would end up herniating due to the rigidity of the fusion. Neck mobility was often severely decreased, and headaches, tingling, and numbness were common. Certain patients were referred to me if they got nauseous with physical therapy. It was often a long haul for them to get better.

Many of the therapies I tried for my neck problems made my pain worse; few helped me at all. I have spent the last 40 years learning to support myself and advising those sent to me on how to live in a body that experiences various levels of pain on a constant basis.

Me as a baby in 1955. As an adult I could barely remember what it was like to be free of neck pain. How had it crept up on me? Where did the problem begin? I wanted to wind the clock back to the beginning!

As a 10-year-old I enjoyed physical games and happily let my behind behind me and kept my shoulders back, though perhaps I was beginning to sway my back. . .

Me with my Aunt Tilde (left) when I graduated from massage school. It was 1990 and I was 36 years old. I can see that my head is forward and that my legs internally rotate. In my twenties I had learned tai chi in a style that taught me to tuck my pelvis. I now realize this encouraged a poor biomechanical position for bending over my massage clients.

Treating pain as a massage therapist

My focus in treating patients in severe, acute, and chronic pain evolved when I realized massage treatments were a somewhat temporary fix—people experienced relief for a while, but the same aches returned. After a year of practice, I branched out to include craniosacral therapy and was blessed to study with Dr. John E. Upledger, the developer of CST. Over ten years I took a half dozen seminars and began incorporating the techniques into my treatments with much greater success. I also began doing the techniques on myself, getting some relief from the migraine episodes I suffered. Many times I was able to alleviate the nausea and severe pain through the gentle guiding and “unwinding” of my cranial bones and the sacral joint.  

In 1993 I was excited to begin acupuncture school. Acupuncture gave additional assistance to my patients on their healing journey. One of the great benefits of acupuncture is the opening of stagnant energy pathways which have become blocked due to physical and emotional trauma. The release of neurotransmitters (endorphins) from the insertion of needles begins the process of pain reduction and allows the fascia to begin to “unwind.” I always thought the major advantage of acupuncture over acupressure was its ability to affect many points at the same time, allowing the body to unwind in ways that do not occur using just our two hands. While the needles are doing their work, I begin the CST work as well as manual traction.

During the first session with a patient I would advise, “We accept all miracles, but healing is usually a process—sometimes a longer and more multidimensional process than we initially anticipate.” Of course, patients referred to me were very relieved that they could become pain-free for periods of time; but I was still frustrated that their treatment was more of a Band-Aid—a better Band-Aid, but still not a solution to the cause of their problem. At that time my patients and I did not realize that they had work to do in this healing process too. I now believe that healthy posture is the “missing piece” that not only enables the benefits of therapeutic treatments to be preserved, but also allows the body to heal itself. I wish I had known of the Gokhale Method all those years ago.

Finding the Gokhale Method

Thankfully, my local paper printed an interview a couple of years ago with Joan Baez (longtime peace activist and folk song writer/singer). Joan was asked the secret of her ability to continue performing concerts around the world at 77 years of age. She responded that she studies with Esther Gokhale and consistently uses the principles of good posture taught in the Gokhale Method. 

Joan Baez in Esther Gokhale’s garden, preparing to pick some calendula with a deep, healthy hip-hinge and her behind well behind. You can read more about Joan Baez learning the Gokhale Method here.

I immediately searched “Gokhale Method” and became very encouraged and excited. I ordered Esther’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, the DVD, and subscribed to the newsletter, Positive Stance. 

The pandemic prevented me from attending a Gokhale Method Foundations Course scheduled for March 2020, but later that year, I revisited all the instructional materials I had and began active self-directed study. Once again I felt a sense of hope.  

Beginning my journey home

During the pandemic I was thrilled to see Esther was offering numerous Online Free Workshops. You could improve your posture by working on your stance, ribcage position, neck strength, and glutes. (Who doesn’t want a tighter bum, right?). I quickly signed up and began my journey home. I say home because you learn to return to a place of comfort in your body that was there naturally for you as a child.

At about seven years old, I still had a nice open chest and outward facing feet. Both these things changed as I became an adult.

Each workshop built upon the last with wonderful, simple insights. In November 2020 I also joined the 123 Move Gokhale Exercise Program which remains incredibly healing. Awakening each day I look forward to improving how I move through simple, healthy dance moves (I even learned the Samba). I saw improvement in my posture—I could look in a mirror and see noticeable changes to the hunching in my shoulders and the forward protrusion of my neck. 

As a 32-year-old office worker, look how forward my head and shoulders are as I hunch my back!

I continue to learn from the questions students ask as well as the clear explanations and demonstrations by the teacher. If I can’t watch live, no problem—there is always a catch-up available until the next class. And I just love when I get an added bonus—learning new dance moves is apparently as beneficial for the brain as learning a new language, and there is music to enjoy from all around the world. There is also Esther’s generous sharing of her vast knowledge of diverse cultures and their artifacts. 

My neck pain reduced within months of starting the Gokhale Method

Within a month or so of practicing the Gokhale Method, I began having less pain. I immediately felt a difference when sitting and using a wedge to antevert my pelvis, so no more tucking my tail under. This is called stacksitting. I now could sit for prolonged periods of time with NO neck pain. I could physically do more and psychologically was significantly less depressed. I saw a future with fewer restrictions and life seemed filled with endless possibilities.

My 2020 Christmas list consisted of an Online Initial Consultation with Gokhale Method teacher Kathleen O’Donohue. I prepared with photos of myself in a few positions so Kathleen could evaluate how best to help me before our meeting. We worked on a couple of key points and I was astonished and very excited to see how simple tasks could be done with no pain.

Taking the online Elements course

During the pandemic I was initially skeptical about navigating my way online through the Gokhale Method Elements course. Could I set the camera up well enough for the teacher to be able to see and correct the details of each technique? Would I be able to make the postural corrections without the touch of a teacher’s hand guiding me through the experience? I had so many questions before I felt able to make this significant commitment. I had several more online consultations with Kathleen and was amazed as she picked up the smallest detail and guided me to healthy posture. 

Here I am in my current massaging stance, which is healthier for my feet, glutes, hips, back, shoulders and neck. Applying the Gokhale Method techniques, I can continue to tease out residual sway and rounding in my spine as I massage my clients!

The online experience had several advantages for me. It allowed me flexibility scheduling and pacing my lessons and individualized attention. Another feature is that Elements allows you to learn over 18 lessons of bite-sized information, rather than a weekend immersion. I can see advantages to both, but for me, learning one move at a time, or even a part of an activity, such as walking, registers in my brain significantly more easily. I worked hard to learn each step before I moved forward. Luckily, absolute mastery is not required! 

My nerve pain and hyperreflexia are all but gone

I have come to a point where if I am not in healthy posture, I notice the discomfort and immediately want to pause and reset. The nausea I lived with every day is a rare occurrence only experienced momentarily these days if I am doing some very taxing activity. As soon as I correct my stance, I am relieved of any pain or nerve sensation. Life has become a dance with increased strength and grace, rather than a challenge.

One of my neurological problems had been hyperreflexia, which meant that my reflexes were overactive. I was looking forward to seeing how my reflexes checked out when I saw my neurologist a few months ago. (I had seen her six months previously, when they tested significantly better, but still hyper). To our amazement they were normal.

Here I am working on tallstanding. In daily life I can take a more relaxed stance but checking in with points to attend to boosts my progress. You can learn about tallstanding in Esther Gokhale’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, Lesson 6.

As an Alumna of the Elements course, I am a member of the Gokhale Online University (and will be forever!), where I get ongoing support and continue my progress. I am thoroughly amazed at how much Esther shares with us. I just LOVE it all. It is such a rich resource. Even though I practiced tai chi and qigong for almost forty years, Kathleen and Roberta’s Moving Meditation has enhanced my understanding significantly. The forms they teach incorporate the Gokhale principles beautifully and I am enthused to be doing it once again. A wonderful way to begin and end each day; energizing, or relaxing and meditative.

Eric's Gokhale Fitness class is challenging and insightful. His calm nature sets the stage as he provides several ways to perform each exercise depending on one’s aptitude. Gentle breathing techniques have provided a new focus for me and are very effective in reducing stress in our structure. The Gokhale principles are always emphasized, so it is a great review. I notice increased strength and vitality as the weeks go by.

When I first came to the Gokhale Method I had a very rounded upper back when bending. 

Over time I have improved my form in bending. Here I am practicing the cues I have learned to make bending health-promoting rather than harmful. 

I am forever grateful to Esther and all the teachers for my continued progress and for proving we are never too old to learn new tricks and grow in our understanding of moving in healthy ways. I am looking forward to continuing my posture journey—standing taller as I age gracefully. Hope lights the way.

Namaste,

Felicia Grimke