forward neck

My passion for researching posture has taken me far and wide. I was in a village in Burkina Faso in western Africa when I first noticed how people there would track the conversation from speaker to speaker mainly by using their eyes, rather than by turning their heads. Along with their excellent body posture it contributed to a strikingly well-centered, dignified bearing.

This young man in Burkina Faso demonstrates the dignified bearing that comes with an appropriate amount of eye tracking.

Comparing what I saw in Burkina Faso with what I was used to seeing back home, I realized that in the US, and the wider industrialized world, we move our eyes a good deal less and our necks a good deal more. Why such a difference, I wondered, and what is its significance for our well-being?

In Paul Gauguin’s 1893 painting from one of his Tahiti trips, Woman Holding a Fruit, the unnamed subject shifts her gaze with her eyes, rather than by turning or twisting her neck. Public domain image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Babies and infants in all cultures track actively with their eyes, both when they are still, and when they turn or reach. One possibility why this changes for children of school age in the industrialized world is due to the amount of reading, writing, and screen time they experience. It seems we grow into a more restrictive, “ahead only” habit.

Infants in all cultures track very actively with their eyes, as my daughter Maya demonstrates here.

My son Nathan tracks with his eyes while reaching for a toy.

As adults, this trend can continue with desk jobs and other prolonged, forward-oriented activities, such as driving. Perhaps this is why, as we age, we develop a more fixed “tunnel vision,” which results in moving our necks rather than our eyes.

Computer and desk work are possible factors in reducing our range of eye movement. Original image courtesy Studio Republic on Unsplash.

Excessive dependence upon neck movement to reorient our visual field often contributes to soft tissue strain and wear and tear on the delicate discs and joints of the cervical vertebrae. Far better, then, to try to reduce this dependence and reintroduce eye tracking now and then.

Time spent in nature provides us a chance to practice our eye tracking. Follow that movement! Photo courtesy Nathan Anderson on Unsplash.

How can we reintroduce this ancient technique into our industrialized-world lives? I am a great advocate for getting out into nature whenever possible to literally expand our horizons. Time spent with young children, especially babies and toddlers, can give us an opportunity to mimic and mirror them — to their frequent delight!

This dancer in San Diego demonstrates beautiful eye tracking. Image courtesy Avnish Choudhary on Unsplash.

Many dance forms, including, but certainly not limited to, classical Indian Bharatnatyam and Kathak, also offer us ample opportunities to practice eye tracking, which lends our dance gestures and movements a depth of emotion. By allowing our eyes to track while on a walk or hike — perhaps while watching a darting squirrel or rabbit cross our path — or while watching a sports game from the stands, or while trying out a new dance style, we can provide ourselves a chance to relearn this method of respecting the neck and maintaining an especially dignified composure.

These elegant dancers in Trinidad and Tobago show the gravitas and depth that can come from skillfully-employed eye tracking. Image courtesy Isaiah McClean on Unsplash.

Note the forward head and neck placement of both these High Street pedestrians. This usually results from tucking the pelvis (see the man (right)), but can also become a habit independent of pelvic position (see woman (left)).

Here our Bristol teacher Clare Chapman has digitally edited the photo to demonstrate how different healthier posture can look. Compare these subjects’ edited neck placement and spinal curvature with that in the original picture.

Metaphors can be powerful tools for learning new kinesthetic pathways. A metaphor packages a picture (which, we all know, can be worth 1000 words!) as well as some helpful verbiage. The Gokhale Method uses metaphors liberally, and it often takes a metaphor to help a student understand, execute, and remember a desired action.

A new metaphor for cueing the neck
Our Bristol teacher Clare Chapman recently introduced a useful metaphor to direct students in improving their neck architecture. Visualize the head as a car that is parked in the driveway (protruded forward) or even out on the street (very protruded forward). Now, while keeping the neck long, back your “car” into its “garage.” That is, you want to glide your head gently and smoothly back into its place. 

This seated Bamana male figure from Mali shows an ideal neck alignment.

I've begun using this metaphor in my teaching and see students smiling — perhaps because it's funny to think of the head as a car parked out in the driveway or on the street, or because backing a car into a garage is a comfortingly familiar process, or perhaps because it's pleasant to understand what's being taught! Whatever the reason, I see my students learning faster and better.

My husband, Brian, with an elephant in Thailand. This particular elephant’s primary job was transporting logs as well as people in the forest. There are not enough tourists in this area to have tourism be the elephants' main activity. The Karen tribal people have a very intimate (and seemingly joyous) relationship with their elephants, riding them bare-backed, swimming with them, and also using them in a similar way to how draft horses might be used.

Brian enjoying a moment with the family cats (not pictured).

It's very striking how an apt metaphor can change the learning curve dramatically. Does this metaphor work for you? Are there other metaphors that help you align your neck?

There are several more weeks of summer vacation before school starts again: plenty of time to squeeze a family camping trip or two out of the sunshiny drops of Summer!  Here are a few tips to promote healthy posture while you’re on the road, by the campfire, and in your tent.

Are We There Yet?

During the long haul to your nearest national park, it’s easy to strain your cervical spine (the vertebrae in your neck) by craning your neck forward to see the road.

Justin Bieber, in this photo, is demonstrating forward head—his ear is forward of his collar bones, and his chin is far in front of his sternum

If you notice your head drifting out of alignment with the rest of your spine, a quick fix is to gently pull your chin in so it aligns above your sternum, and stretch the crown of your head—the part of the head that’s home to many a cowlick--up towards the roof of the car.

You can give your neck a little manual lengthening by pressing up on your occipital bones, behind your ears

Once you’ve lengthened your neck, relax your head into alignment with the rest of your spine. It should be a smoother drive from here on out!
(For further specifics on setting up your car for comfort, see this blog post on modifying your seat for Stretchsitting.)

Relaxing Fireside

Collapsible fabric and steel chairs are popular with campers, but these seats are often draped in a way that promotes slumping and slouching.

Fabric that hangs without any support induces a curved body position, and will force you into tucking your pelvis and slumping

A better option is to bring along a collapsible stool instead.  With a stool, you’re better equipped to “leave your behind behind you” while you roast your s’mores.

A tri-pod style fabric stool can be used to help antevert the pelvis, because although the fabric hangs, you can tip your pelvis forward using the elevated corners in the same way as a wedge; a firm-topped stool may be even better for stacksitting, and will allow more flexibility in how open your hips are while sitting

Lights Out

Except for encountering a bear, sleeping in your tent can be the most uncomfortable part of camping. In the Gokhale Method Foundations Course, we teach our clients a technique called “Stretchlying” that decompresses the spine and can help sleepers tolerate a wide range of bed firmness. Here are two tips borrowed from the Stretchlying technique that may help prevent an achy back the next morning:

When sleeping on your back, check the position of your pillow (or if you don’t traditionally pack pillows on your camping trips, whatever you stuff under your head).  Your head, neck and shoulders should be slightly raised on the pillow.

If you are too low on the pillow, it can cause your neck to curve forward. If you are too high, it can cause your neck to sway and compress your cervical vertebrae.

Your pillow should be able to support your head, neck, and shoulders without your head tilting back as if slipping off the top end of the pillow, which can cause a sway; a pillow that is too full can cause you to round your neck and/or back. Your pillow should provide just enough padding to support your current cervical curvature and encourage a very gentle lengthening stretch

I also recommend positioning a pillow underneath your knees when you sleep.  Many people have tight psoas muscles, which can cause an unhealthy sway in your back if you lie down with outstretched legs.  A pillow beneath your knees keeps them in a slightly bent position, which relieves the stress on your low back.  Again, if you didn’t pack a pillow, you can always use a folded up fleece or other extra clothes you brought on the trip.

Stretchlying with a pillow supporting the head, neck, and shoulders, and a second pillow providing gentle support under the knees, can greatly improve your night’s sleep on a thin camping pad

An outstanding technique to use for sleep when camping, is the way most of the world sleeps—one leg is straight, one leg is bent, the body is ¾ -turned toward toward the ground.

This is an assisted version of sleeping ¾ turning toward the ground, using extra pillows under the knee and arm to help support the rotation and avoid a sway and a slumped shoulder

The challenges here are to not sway the lumbar spine, not tuck the pelvis, not force the head to turn more than it easily can, and not slump the upper shoulder forward. Easier said than done! We teach these techniques in our advanced technique classes after people have learned the basics of healthy sitting, lying on the back and side, standing, bending, lifting, and walking.

In the meantime, take along a thicker sleeping pad and extra pillows to make sleeping on the back comfortable for you.

Hopefully these tricks, along with supportive hiking shoes and plenty of bug spray, will keep your whole family in good spirits during your next excursion. And if you capture any good pictures that show these techniques in use, post them in the comments below!

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