Tall Standing

It has been 14 years since my book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back came out in hard copy. For years I had wished I had a book to send to those people who called me from the East Coast or Midwest. These were often relatives or friends of people I had worked with in California, who were suffering terrible back pain and needed help. And so I got writing. 

A book to solve back pain

Although there was clearly a huge need for a book to solve back pain, I was still surprised to find I had written a bestseller. It reached number two on Amazon.com following our American Public Television program in 2011, and number three following the New York Times article (paywall) naming me “The Posture Guru of Silicon Valley” in 2013. It has now been published in 12 languages (Croatian later this year), and sold over 250,000 copies.

 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is available in many languages: Spanish, Croatian, English, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Hungarian, Slovenian, and Italian editions. 

Digital download or hard copy?

In recent times digital books have revolutionized publishing. It is perhaps surprising that figures from the US publishing industry show that, in 2020, hard copy was still outselling downloads by 2 to 1¹. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is available as a digital download, but the paperback version continues to be in high demand. I have come to realize that there are numerous and perhaps unusual virtues for having a paperback edition of this book, some of which I would like to share to inspire you!

Every digital book has the primary advantages of price and portability, but can remain out of sight and out of mind. Encountering a physical book invites you to engage with it, to pick it up and thumb through it. You don’t have to sign into wifi or wait for it to load—you just start reading. 

Visual cues help pattern healthy posture

One factor which works against us developing and maintaining healthy posture in our society is that we don’t have good examples and reminders around us. In fact, we are continually exposed to a norm of bad posture, while our culture’s idea of good posture, the S-shaped spine, is deeply problematic. What we want is to be surrounded by healthy visual examples on which to model ourselves.

8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back has over 1,100 images, mostly photographs, showing healthy posture from all over the world, from history, and in infants. Students find these images a motivating and practical reminder on their posture journey. Many a person has fallen in love with the African carpenter on the frontispiece, who insisted I take his picture, or marveled at the babies stacksitting with ease. 

This African carpenter stands tall and relaxed by his bench. This is also excellent form for preparing food in the kitchen, or any work at a counter. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 3.

My youngest child stacksitting next to her “sitting tub.” 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 69.

You can of course collect your own posture pinups, and I encourage you to do so. But selecting your favorites from 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is convenient, plus you will know the posture shown passes muster. The quality of the prints means that they look completely at home popped into a frame, or even laminated and placed around the garden or garage or in your shower stall (true story about the tallstanding image leading Lesson 6). The key thing is to place them exactly where you need the reminders. For example:

Here I am reaching up to engage my inner corset. Use this reminder near a high shelf or cupboard that you regularly reach up to. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 127.

This African woman is hip-hinging as she harvests water chestnuts—a perfect picture reminder for your vegetable garden.  8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 151.

Here I am stretchsitting. Place this reminder by your easy chair or sofa, where you may otherwise tuck and slouch. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 47.

If you are of a technical bent you may be drawn to the many diagrams. Students find the mechanism of a shoulder roll drawing helpful in executing this technique. The shoulder roll helps your shoulder joint to return home to a healthy posterior position. 

The mechanism of a shoulder roll diagram is especially useful at any desk or computer. 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, pg 42.

Lastly, the recaps at the end of each chapter make a handy cheat sheet while you are revising a new technique. For example, the recap of stretchlying on the side may be beneficial pinned onto your bedside table. 

Starting a conversation about healthy posture

Your book can take pride of place on the coffee table, where, unlike a download, it will always be there to catch the eye. This is a nice organic way of keeping posture on your radar and introducing it as a talking point with family and visitors. We certainly know of parents who leave 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back strategically placed for their children to discover!

The coffee table is a great place for browsing a book. 

Introducing your wider circle to healthy posture 

If you are part of a wellness group, then 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back is a natural fit for study. If you are a book club member, then this may be the book you are looking for to invite discussion beyond back pain extending into anthropology, history, health, and lifestyle. 

Given that 80% of people in the US will experience back pain², not to mention the many other musculoskeletal problems addressed in its pages, this book has broad relevance. Many of our students are grateful to have discovered 8 Steps while visiting their physician or other healthcare professional. 

To help you spread the word among your family and social networks we have created “clan packs." The launch price has an additional discount: 4 books for $79 (instead of $99), or 8 books for $119 (instead of $159), and is valid until March 13, 2022.

Sometimes when I speak at conferences or wellness events (e.g., Google, Mimosa Systems, TiE Silicon Valley, Global Fund for Women), the company offers their employees/members/donors a gift copy of my book. To encourage this, we offer special bulk discounts. For information please contact [email protected]. For speaking engagements please contact [email protected]. 

References:

¹Felix Richter, “Infographic: E-Books Still No Match for Printed Books,” Statista Infographics, August 9, 2021, https://www.statista.com/chart/24709/e-book-and-printed-book-penetration/. 

²Janet K. Freburger et al., “The Rising Prevalence of Chronic Low Back Pain,” Arch Intern Med 169, no. 3 (2009): 251-258, doi:10.1001/archinternmed.2008.543

Free Online Workshops

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.

In this blog post Gokhale Method teacher Clare Chapman interviews Roberta Cooks and Kathleen O’Donohue to find out more about their Gokhale Moving Meditation classes. Roberta and Kathleen have been Gokhale Method teachers for 11 and 5 years respectively—and longtime practitioners of Tai Chi Chih (Roberta), and Tai Chi Qigong (Kathleen).* 

*Please note that various traditions referred to in this newsletter use different spellings—so for example “Chi” can also be written “chi”, “ch’i”,  “qi” or “Qi," depending on the tradition. 

Kathleen keeps her ribs anchored 
as she lifts her arms for “Painting Rainbows."

1. Tai Chi and Qigong are practices many people have heard of, but perhaps don’t know much about. Can you explain the practice? 

Kathleen: Tai Chi and Qigong are centuries-old related mind body practices that originated in China, and can be translated as “life-energy cultivation." Both include postures and gentle movements to cultivate mental focus, breathing, and relaxation. Movements can be adapted for sitting, standing, and walking.

Roberta: Tai Chi Chih is a moving meditation practice that was developed by Justin Stone, a Tai Chi Chuan Master, who created a gentle practice that could be learned relatively easily by people of all ages and abilities. It is made up of 19 movements and a final pose. Each movement is repeated many times while focusing on relaxing the body, breathing, and feeling the flow. The goal of practice is to activate, balance, and circulate the chi, the life force that keeps us breathing, healthy, and vital. 

2. How did you each come to your practice and to teaching it? 

Kathleen: My Tai Chi and Qigong experience began in 1985 as a student of Professor Chi, Kwan Wen, a student of Chen Man-Ch’ing. In 1988, with the encouragement of Professor Chi, I became an instructor of Yang Style short and long form. In 2009, I became certified by the Tai Chi for Health Institute in Dr. Paul Lam's Tai Chi for Arthritis program. I have taught it and several other forms ever since.

Roberta: I was an Argentine Tango dancer for many years, which I found to be a very meditative dance. I also practiced many kinds of mindful meditation including Medical Qigong with Dr. Roger Jahnke and Wisdom Healing Qigong with Master Mingtong Gu. By chance, I found a Tai Chi Chih class at my local YMCA. I felt such joy and peacefulness without any of the effort of doing a sitting meditation practice. I continue to feel its physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits in my own life. Teaching is always the deepest form of learning and shared practice in a group adds energy and depth for all involved. 

Moving Meditation incorporates many Gokhale Method skills, such as using your inner corset, keeping your neck tall, and externally rotating your feet and legs. 
Here Kathleen applies them in “Flying Dove Spreads its Wings." 

3. What do the Moving Meditation classes bring to the Gokhale Exercise program?

Kathleen: Tai Chi and Qigong teach us gentle, flowing movements that enhance relaxation. They can be done sitting and standing, at a pace and duration of one’s choice and ability in the moment. It is a relaxing situation in which you can be talked through and shown another activity in which you can apply your Gokhale Method posture skills, gaining fresh awareness and openness.

Roberta: We offer a way to practice the Gokhale Method which focuses on learning how to relax increasingly deeply into movement. We teach a limited number of moves that we repeat many times. There is a special kind of learning that happens when you become more familiar with a movement and can then focus on its finer points. You also have a chance to repeat the class material and delve deeply into it with our class video recordings.

4. What do your classes have in common with the Gokhale Method teaching on posture? 

Kathleen: Both of these teach healthy ways to move. Tai Chi Qigong teaches one to move with “beautiful upright posture." In my decades of being a student of Tai Chi Qigong, I’ve never been instructed to “tuck” my pelvis. Unfortunately, I’ve met students who have been taught this. I asked a Master Trainer directly about this and she stated that she does not teach tucking and believes it is a mistranslation.

Roberta: Although you can learn the 19 movements of Tai Chi Chih relatively quickly, they are subtle and must be practiced mindfully over and over to make them an effortless part of you. Learning the Gokhale Method is very similar. Students learn the elements of healthy posture in a short period of time, and then repetition integrates them into daily life. 

5. How do the movements you teach help Gokhale Method students?

Kathleen: It’s a new way for students to cultivate their kinesthetic and proprioceptive skills—becoming more aware of their posture and position in space. They are likely to be freer from old habitual patterns as they are doing sometime new with their bodies. Students can experience stress and tension before and during their postural change journey. This helps them let go of that.

The healthy posture principles taught in the Gokhale Method are woven into each 
Moving Meditation class, as Roberta shows in this video.

Roberta: The Moving Meditation is so compatible with what is taught in the Gokhale Method. For example, the grounding and flowing movements help students consolidate the principles of tallstanding and glidewalking. In my classes I weave in Gokhale posture principles throughout, reminding students how to use rib anchor, shoulder rolls, external rotation of the legs, and kidney bean feet, to make the movements flowing, relaxed, and comfortable. 

6. Can you say something about the meditational component of your classes. Do you find it resonates with the Gokhale Method?

Kathleen: I find both to be mindfulness practices. Each allows me to be present in my body in each moment and to find deeper levels of relaxation and wellbeing. They are great opportunities to let go, release, and return to the present.

Roberta demonstrating “Pulling Taffy." This is part of a sequence where, as the lower body 
moves from side to side, the stacked arms move apart as if pulling taffy (candy). 
Mindfulness builds better coordination of these different movements. 

Roberta: All moving meditation practices keep us in the present moment, mindfully focused on each part of our bodies moving through space. The Gokhale Method also takes us mindfully back into our bodies to relearn how to sit, stand, walk, bend, and sleep. I tell my students that the best way to integrate healthy posture into your life is to think of it as a mindfulness practice that you weave through your daily life for your physical health and total well-being.

7. In what ways has learning the Gokhale Method enhanced your Tai Chi Chih and Qigong practice?

Kathleen: The Gokhale Method enhanced my practice of Tai Chi and Qigong by adding excellent postural knowledge to apply to this activity that I love. 

Roberta: The Gokhale Method has given me a solid foundation for moving. Many others who teach and practice Tai Chi Chih do not have this same healthy posture foundation and without my Gokhale training I might have integrated unhealthy movements into my practice. My Gokhale Method training helps me to teach my Tai Chi Chih students to move in a healthy way. 

8. Do you find the Gokhale PostureTracker™ helps in Moving Meditation?

Kathleen: Yes, because the PostureTracker sensors and app monitor posture are ideal for use with slow moving activity. For example, the Upright and Relaxed setting can tell you if you are either swaying or rounding your spine. The Level Head setting gives real-time feedback that helps you keep your head well-balanced on a long neck rather than jutting forward. 

  
Using the PostureTracker allows you to catch any poor posture habits as they happen, 
correcting them using the Gokhale Method techniques. 

Roberta: I love the idea of using the PostureTracker to check and improve my posture practice. The PostureTracker can be especially useful if I want to work out the best way to execute particular Tai Chi Chih movements. When I am actually doing the practice of Qigong I want to be absorbed in my body, totally relaxed and feeling the flow of energy. At that point I integrate what I have learned by using the PostureTracker in my pre-practice work. 

9. Do you have a favorite Qigong movement or practice?

Kathleen teaching “Wave Hands in Clouds." As in the Gokhale Method, imagining specific actions can help bring particular qualities, such as lightness and smoothness, to your movement.

Kathleen: I generally don’t have favorites, but one movement brings especially fond memories of my original teacher, Professor Chi, Kwan Wen. He frequently did Wave Hands in Clouds while waiting, instead of just wasting time.

Roberta showing the crossed hand position in “Daughter on the Mountaintop."

Roberta: My favorite movements are always changing, based on changes in my practice, aha moments, and my mood and body sensations on a particular day. One I always love to do is Daughter on the Mountaintop. This is part of a forward and back movement sequence where hands and arms start low and then move to the top of the mountain, hands crossed with the left hand nearer the heart. 

10. Is your program suitable for all levels and abilities? 

Kathleen: Indeed! These slow, gentle movements can be done sitting or standing, modified to your range of motions and your choice of duration and number of repetitions. Come join us!

Roberta: Absolutely! Our movement meditation programs are meant to be practiced by people of all ages and abilities. They can be easily modified to fit with your physical comfort level. We devote time for student questions at the end of each session.

Gokhale Moving Meditation classes take place every Monday at 2PM (Pacific Time) with Roberta and every Wednesday at 12PM (Pacific Time) with Kathleen. 

Please share below your questions or comments about Moving Meditation: