community

Taking the daily classes has helped me perfect the practice and really get the nuances. I am now able to accomplish the rib anchor, which I was struggling with. Also, the daily motivation that I get from checking in and feeling the energy from the group—it has just been an amazing opportunity.
Elizabeth Kubicki, Gokhale alumna

Gokhale Method® teacher and editorial writer Clare Chapman explores the When and Why of Gokhale® Exercise with its creator, Esther Gokhale.

Clare: Can you tell us how the Gokhale Exercise program got started?

Esther: For a long time now, our teachers and I have been surprised at how much our alumni—graduates of our courses—can forget. This despite their being delighted by the courses and their results. Of course, it shouldn’t be surprising at all, given that humans have forgetting curves as surely as they have learning curves, and that our beginner courses cover a lot of material in a short time frame. 

The forgetting curve was developed by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus and depicts the way learned information falls away over time. Research confirms that, on average, students forget 70 percent of what is taught within 24 hours of a training experience. 90 percent is forgotten within a week. Image: www.organisingstudents.com.au

On January 1, 2020, I decided to try a new format—an online 21-day challenge. Each broadcast was short, reminding alumni of one basic principle of the Gokhale Method that would be familiar, if semi-forgotten. I chose it to be an exercise program to additionally fill the well-understood need for more movement in daily life.

Esther answers a question from Gokhale alumna Elizabeth Kubicki about the posture principle of straightening the back leg in speed walking.

Clare: And before long COVID hit, correct?

Esther: Yes, along with shelter-in-place orders. It became clear people would be stuck in their homes without their usual access to sports and exercise facilities, or their usual interventions for their aches and pains. We had a tested offering whose value had suddenly increased dramatically—it felt important to continue the program, and also to open it up to a wider audience. It gathered a large number of daily participants and evolved to include a great variety of music and dance, art, anatomical education, community and mutual support. Many participants told us that this is what kept their bodies and spirits afloat through the dark period of the pandemic.

Clare: How did Gokhale Exercise evolve its current format?

Esther: Gokhale Exercise started with 1-2-3 Move, which uses dance as the vehicle for posture education and entertainment. It continues to this day without having missed a beat! The 13-minute class is our main program, focusing on 1 posture principle, 2 dance moves, and 3 images. It is preceded by a joyous, free-form, 15-minute Dance Party.

Dance is a human universal, and besides providing a fun way to revisit posture principles, it improves cognition, staves off dementia and depression, brightens spirits and community feeling, and more. Traditional dance is especially true to our ethos of taking lessons from other cultures. Various members of our teacher team contribute: Sabina has deep knowledge of blues and swing styles, Eric loves Latin, and Lang is expert in Capoeira and Brazilian dance moves. My passion is Indian, Brazilian, and Congolese dance​​. . .

Gokhale Exercise has now blossomed into multiple offerings, adding Gokhale Fitness, Moving Meditation, Fitness for Cyclists, and Yoga, with an increasing number of teachers offering their expertise throughout the day. 

Gokhale Exercise teachers enjoy sharing their movement expertise with a “Gokhale filter.” 
Top left to bottom right: Roberta, Julie, Esther, Kathleen, Eric, Sabina, Tiffany, and Lang.

Clare: Can you say more about how these different forms of exercise encourage healthy posture?

Esther: Every 1-2-3 Move class uses traditional rather than modern dance moves. This comes with a level of reassurance about their suitability for the human body; we know these moves have been vetted by entire populations who didn’t have modern pain. 

Gokhale® Yoga, Moving Meditation and Gokhale® Fitness also explore posture principles that are not emphasized or respected in the average class: anchored ribs, recruiting the inner corset, kidney-bean shaped feet, etc. Respecting the body’s natural blueprint enables us to increase fitness, strength, and flexibility without risking injury. 

Across all the classes we follow a Posture Principle of the day—for example, Healthy Rotation of the Torso—so whichever class(es) students participate in, they get the range of healthy posture reminders they need at regular intervals. 

Each Gokhale Exercise email comes with a daily Posture Principle image to remind and inspire. This vintage baseball illustration shows healthy rotation of the torso while keeping good form throughout the body.

Clare: Who attends the Gokhale Exercise program?

Esther: Classes span a variety of pace and challenge, so for example, our Gokhale Moving Meditation classes are gentle enough for even the most physically challenged members of the community, while Gokhale Fitness pushes almost everybody’s boundaries (while giving easier modifications of the exercises offered). 

Clare: Is the Gokhale Exercise program suitable for beginners?

Esther: The ideal starting point for beginners is to take one of our comprehensive courses (the in-person Foundations course, or one-day Pop-up course, or our online Elements course). This is especially true for those suffering pain or dysfunction. In these courses, students can learn with optimal sequencing and detail, and get the one-on-one attention they need. For students who would like a free introduction to the Gokhale Method we recommend signing up for an in-person or online free workshop. For comprehensive personal advice, consider taking an in-person or online Initial Consultation to determine which course is best for you. 

Many people start with the Gokhale Exercise program because it has a free trial week and costs very little thereafter—we are glad to be able to provide this service for people who cannot afford our courses or who are curious to see what our offerings are like. Having the program open to the public also means that alumni can invite their friends and family members along to try it without any obligations.

Clare: What is next for the Gokhale Exercise Program?

Esther: We want all our students to have a minimum of one month’s live support, available every day, as they approach the end of their courses. So we are delighted to announce that all our valued alumni—from the in-person Foundations, Pop-up, or online Elements courses—will be gifted a free month’s membership of our Online University, which includes the Gokhale Exercise program!

Online University member Claire Phillips explains how membership has inspired her progress.

In addition to Gokhale Exercise, our Online University additionally offers two 45-minute Live Chats every month with me, Esther Gokhale. Topics include flexibility, the human spine, posture and emotional health, to squat or not to squat, and more. There is also unlimited access to our On-Demand Video Library of over 60 topics including advanced posture techniques and practical applications like gardening, cooking, etc.

Clare: Thanks Esther, Gokhale Exercise is an inspiring and continuing journey!

FREE 10-Day Back to Basics Challenge

Alumni often tell us they get a lot of benefit from reviewing the basics—so we are also offering an exciting Back to Basics Challenge, designed for alumni, but also open to beginners, as part of our 1-2-3 Move program and starting September 26 for 10 days.

Here is the Challenge:

Each class will review a different Posture Principle, with exercises for practice and challenge. We have prepared a downloadable booklet for participants to print and journal their postural changes and progress. 

How to take part:

Online University and Gokhale Exercise members automatically qualify for this challenge—their daily emails will tell them about it. 

People who have not yet taken a Gokhale Method course and who are therefore not alumni are also welcome to join, and listen in to the Q&A sessions by signing up to our Gokhale Exercise program with a monthly subscription—with our free trial you can test it without any obligations.

We look forward to seeing both new and familiar faces! 

Gokhale Method alumnus Ben Bernstein PhD appreciates daily reminders of what to work on.

ALL OF ME

In December 2020 I received an email from Gokhale Method® offering a five-day trial period of exercise classes and dance parties with posture lessons. Every day for five days! I was thrilled to receive this email and joined on January 1. From day one I knew I had found something very special.  

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I swam to stave off the pain I felt in my back and hips. But when the virus struck, I wasn’t able to swim. Eventually my back pain returned to being constant. This showed me that being dependent on an external circumstance, swimming in this case, to feel good, could not give me everything that I needed to heal. 

January 1, 2021, day one of my five-day free trial of the Gokhale Method daily program. It was about the inner corset and how it protects your back.

Those first five days were like a prayer being answered. I thought, “this is the place where I can learn how to care for myself day by day." Three weeks later I decided to take the online Elements course. With each lesson, I learned new ways to relieve pain in my body and gained confidence that I could help myself if pain returned. Fortunately, I could take the lessons at my own pace which allowed me to take my time and savor what I was learning. Some positive results came very quickly for me, and yet there is a lot more depth left for me to appreciate. For both these reasons, it was with deep gratitude that I came to write this article.  

As a very young girl I was confident in my body. Being athletic, I felt I could do anything. I was just me. . .whole. That all changed growing up in a troubled family. Mine was a childhood of great conflict and uncertainty. But I was resilient, so I forged ahead.

Here I am, aged 18.

In my late twenties I fell through a porch, leaving one leg on the deck and the other dangling below. Alone, I pulled myself up. It was a terrifying experience and had a strong physical impact. Sitting became possible for only short periods at a time. I was profoundly uncomfortable with no ease or let up. Doctors couldn’t find anything “wrong” with me —no broken bones or serious injuries that X-rays could detect. A chiropractor told me my pelvis was twisted from the fall. This was a helpful diagnosis but he treated me for nine months with no change. So began my search for something that would permanently help me. Yoga, swimming, massage, physical therapy, chiropractic; you name it, I tried it—everything mainstream and more. All were helpful in some ways, but none resulted in lasting improvements.

Me in 1997, aged 40. I would tend to lock my knees and park my abdomen forward, creating sway and compression in my lower back. 

My search continued for 32 years. My back would give out, I would have to lie down for days, and then slowly over weeks I would loosen up and go on. My chosen profession in the Fine Arts is of a physical nature, allowing me to move around frequently throughout the day. This was my saving grace, because moving kept some of the muscular tightness at bay. 

Leaning in to paint book covers contributed to my hunching. I needed to learn how not to round my back and hunch my shoulders.

Sensing there was an emotional connection to my physical pain, I continued searching and exploring different avenues for a deeper understanding of why I was still “not right.” Talk therapy was enormously helpful. The fall had scared me. So had other experiences in my early life. Even with all this therapy work, the pain persisted. Over time I gained in self-confidence and felt reconciled to what I had to deal with—occasional debilitating bouts of back pain—and I moved on with my life. Things could be worse, I thought to myself. Years later the answers to my predicament became clearer as I took on the role of a caregiver. I imagine as I write this that many readers will understand from personal experience what it is like to care for someone who is ill and relies on you heavily.

Caregiving became a central focus in my daily life as I cared for my mother and later my sister. Caring for them made for conflicted feelings. As my mother’s condition worsened I took on more responsibilities for her care. One day she asked me, “why are you helping me?" It floored me, though I knew why she asked. Why would you care for someone who did not care for you? All I could say to her at the time was “because I love you, and you deserve it." She did not believe it—I was conflicted. But deep in my heart I knew she did deserve my help. This is what family does, right? I had to care for her, love her, show her that she was worthy. I do believe that we are all worthy of love and care. For myself, I wanted to learn what it is to have a positive experience of family.  

The Dust Bowl book. (Buttons, tin type photos, hand-painted paper, birch bark.) A central focus of my work is to give attention to the unseen in plain sight. From the tiny bits on the forest floor to the unrecognized work that women do daily. Now after many years I understand hiding was my main way to feel safe, unrecognized, and unseen.

But it wore me down. It was almost more than I could bear, and my body caved in on itself. I stiffened with fear and worry. My shoulders slumped forward and my back rounded. It was a relief when my mother quietly passed away in her apartment.

The Dust Bowl, closed. Its insides are hidden.

Several years later I drove to Georgia with my husband and our pup, Ace, to bring my older sister home to Massachusetts so I could care for her. We had seen each other only a few times in 40 years. We were sisters but you wouldn’t know it. She needed help and care desperately. I knew I had to step in.

I made this piece when my sister was diagnosed with cancer. Dark and light come together. My photographs are not enhanced—these are printed on tissue paper, then applied to the frame like gold leaf. The black handmade paper is arranged edge-on.

That was nine years ago. Through those years we got to know each other and grew as close as she would allow. Several times she asked me nearly the same question my mother had, “Why are you helping me?" And again I said, “because I love you, you deserve it.” But I was angry with her for the hurt and pain she caused in our childhood. Even though I had grown a deep emotional understanding of myself by that time, I still didn’t recognize what was happening in my body. Again my body stiffened and caved in.

My mother and my siblings. I am the worried looking one on her lap.

Caregiving wore me down and filled me up, leaving room for little else. The burden from stress, worry, responsibility, and physical strain, is exhausting. Along with that, the sense of connection and privilege of being trusted and important to the people who needed my help filled me with wonder, love, and self-confidence. I held up and helped out. This is as it should have been in many ways, except one—I could not find effective or adequate ways to care for myself at the same time. 

I have learned for myself how interconnected everything is. I used to think that we were made up of separate parts—a mind, soul, spirit, body. I sought out solutions to my pain as though I was made up of these different parts. It was as if, like jigsaw puzzle pieces put together in the right place, I could become whole. This did not work for me.  

A limited edition of 39 copies, published by 21st Editions. As a bookbinder I co-designed and created many editions. This is one of my favorites. I painted linen papers for these covers. Each set is different. All stages of production are by hand.

Book cover opened. It took me a long time to find the integration within myself that I could create in my artwork.

Now I understand things differently. I believe there is an interrelated dance to the patterns we develop. These patterns play out over and over again. Our own individual ways of moving our bodies are part of the constellation of being who we are and how our life experiences inform our reality.  

While I was still taking the Elements course and attending the daily program, the puzzle pieces started coming together. Sometimes, while dancing in class, I’d be swept away in movement, crying and integrating the grief my body was holding. All while moving with better posture!

Tucking my pelvis and rounding my back as I am doing here was a self-protective postural habit—almost like a turtle’s shell. 

Now I prefer to hip-hinge and my spine, back muscles, and neck are much happier!

It’s been 13 months since my first Zoom classes. I still show up for the daily classes and dance my heart out. Moving as freely as I can, feeling myself move through space, sensing the physicality inside of me. How does it feel to anchor my ribs? What’s it like to roll my shoulders back and feel their weight as they hang by my sides or float around? I feel alive and connected to me. I feel wonderful sensations of flow as I move around the room. 

I loved painting these lines, which are covered in tissue paper. This is the flow I had been searching for and have now found for my body/self.

This work with the Gokhale Method teachers and the online community continues to be full of opportunities and I am still learning. My latest adventure with this wonderful work is using the PostureTracker™! This is an amazing tool that gives real-time feedback on my body’s movements and is rapidly deepening my understanding of my posture habits.  

PostureTracker used to show how I habitually contracted the back of my neck and lifted my chin up (left). Now it is helping me to learn and maintain a much healthier, tall neck position (right). 

Aligning my body in healthy posture so that I can move with ease is my goal. I am simply engaged in the process of making the unfamiliar familiar. Over time I will be “at home” standing tall with ribs anchored, shoulders back, arms hanging comfortably by my sides, and strong feet beautifully supporting all of me.

Here I am seeing that my back remains unswayed using the Upright and Relaxed PostureTracker™setting.

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…

Welcome to our first blog post in a new series on running. This series is designed to be useful to beginners and would-be beginners, as well as seasoned runners and everyone in between. 

Running is primal

Running was a defining feature in our development as a species. We are built to run. As children, almost all of us enjoyed this facility. You may believe that you are too injured, too old, or too uncoordinated to consider jogging—and you may be right—but I would still like to invite you to bring running onto your radar as something to work towards. 

As little children we would break into a run without a second thought—it was fun! Pexels

To quote the title of a best-selling book on the subject¹, we were all “Born to Run” in the same sense that we were born to sit, stand, and walk. But unlike the Mexican tribe featured in the book, we no longer have a healthy baseline posture on which it’s safe to add the additional healthy stress of running. 

Christopher McDougall’s 2009 bestseller, Born to Run, popularized the debate on natural running. Profile Books Ltd, 2009

The primal posture principles that prepare us well for running are beneficial to our health and fitness even if we never become a regular runner. I have jogged, on and off over the years, and enjoyed the many benefits it provides. 

The benefits of running:

• Improves cardiovascular health, strengthening heart and lungs
• Boosts metabolism, supporting a healthy weight
• Builds lower body strength
• Exposes you to fresh air and daylight, especially important for indoor workers
• Elevates mood and relieves stress via natural biochemical changes
• Creates community with other runners, or time for yourself, as per your needs 
• Practices and integrates healthy posture in a holistic activity

These park runners are enjoying themselves and getting fitter! But some twisting torsos and tucked pelvises here are likely taking a toll. Healthy posture makes running more efficient and avoids damage.

I’ve engaged with running experts like Danny Dreyer, Dan Lieberman, and Barefoot Ted and reflected on how the Gokhale Method® interfaces with running. Our teacher Michelle Ball, who, amongst the avid runners in our community, has possibly had the most experience of putting Gokhale Method principles into running practice, will author the upcoming series. We begin here with her story in her own words:

Gokhale Method teacher Michelle Ball teaches in Tasmania and mainland Australia (when borders are open).

Michelle's story

I started running when I was 18 years old. At my first attempt I was able to run a block and then I had to walk a block. Each day, I was able to run a bit longer and walk less. Doing run-walk intervals, when you are learning, is the best way to ease your way in safely and stay motivated. Eventually, I was able to run without walking in between. 

I loved the freedom of being able to put on my shoes and go. I found that it was great for stress relief, mental clarity, and my fitness improved. I could pack my shoes wherever I travelled. Running allowed me to see more of a place in the same amount of time as walking did. I ran through parks, in cities and anywhere else that I could. It was addictive! I now live in Tasmania, and I still run most days, mainly on trails or at the beach. It is the most consistent thing I have ever done in my life. I consider myself a recreational runner. I run because I enjoy it and it has become a form of meditation for me.

Michelle runs on one of Tasmania’s beautiful coastal trails.

It has not always been a bed of roses though. I experienced some injuries before discovering the Gokhale Method, but the Gokhale Method influenced me to change my running style and gave me tools to help prevent further damage. 

Today, many of my massage clients tell me they don’t run due to injury. They say, “My knees/hips /back won’t allow it anymore.” I feel sad when I hear about people giving up on things they once enjoyed. Having a better understanding of how the body is meant to work can open doors and possibilities once more. 

I look forward to sharing my experiences as a runner and posture teacher with those of you on this journey.

Michelle Ball, Gokhale Method Teacher, using healthy posture to support her running.

Workshops

If you would like to find out more about how the Gokhale Method can help support you, whether you are currently sedentary or a seasoned runner, sign up to join one of Esther's upcoming FREE Online workshops.

Reference:

¹ Christopher McDougall, 2009, Born to Run, Profile Books Ltd

Claudia Cummins is a yoga and meditation teacher, poet, and talented writer. Already familiar with Esther’s book and DVD, she joined the 1-2-3 Move program on Thanksgiving last year. It quickly became a favorite way to lift her spirits and do her body good throughout the darkest times of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this essay Claudia generously shares her beautiful account of discovering the 1-2-3 Move dance party. You are invited to visit and enjoy more of Claudia’s writing and expertise on her website.

Dancing Through the Dark

When I log on to my computer just after lunch, the dance has already begun. Bodies sway and bounce to the beat all across the checkerboard tiles that fill my screen. The instructor smiles and shimmies from her own makeshift dance floor, while others move in their bedrooms, their kitchens, their offices, and on their porches. First there are 40 and then 120 and finally more than 200 people logged on from all over the world, here to share in this strange and lovely stay-at-home pandemic dance party.

I’ve come to this class to learn more about healthy movement. I’ve read about Esther Gokhale for years and am eager to learn more about living in a body with strength and ease. It’s the dance, though, that intrigues me most. I suppose you’d say I’m a closet dancer, happy to turn up the music on my own when life feels like it’s ready to burst out of my bones, but puritanically shy about dancing with others.

I scroll through the Zoom screens like a voyeur. I see a mother dancing with children. I see an older man exercising with weights while swaying to the beat. I spy a grey-haired woman who looks so very familiar dancing in her kitchen and an older couple in their living room who seem to move as one. My eyes land on a tall fellow dancing alone with such élan that he must have been a samba dancer in a former life.

I close my bedroom door, turn up the volume, and begin to dance. Shyly, at first, but curious. My feet tap. My shoulders sway. And then I begin to let the music carry me, growing bolder in my movements. I skip. I spin. I sing. My brain grows quiet, my body leads the way and my spirit begins to lift. For the first time in a long while, I smile.

Our free-form, no-rules dance party lasts 15 minutes, and then Esther guides us through the day’s movement principle. She explains why strong muscles support a healthy back, she shows us images of healthy bodies with long and spacious spines, and she offers up a few movements that can cultivate ease and stability in the body. Then the music returns and we strengthen our muscles again on our virtual dance floor.

“ She shows us images of healthy bodies with long and spacious spines…”

I’ve tried this class on a whim. The world feels so claustrophobic right now, with winter darkness settling in like a shroud and the pandemic driving us all to our knees. I walk, I meditate, I practice yoga and qigong, but still my footing feels unsteady and my fears are vast. I’ll try anything to keep my heart afloat through the dark tunnel of winter ahead and into next year’s promised summer sun. Dancing suddenly seems like a not-so-crazy way to shake off our sorrows and perk up our souls.

And strangely, it works. After my first class I find myself moving lightly through the house, a little more chipper and cheery than I’ve felt in months. My body feels refreshed and renewed. My spine feels longer. My legs feel steadier. The troubles of the world seem a little less difficult to carry. My shoulders feel more willing to bear life’s heavy load. 

And so I return the following day. And the next, and the next. In short order my lunchtime dance party becomes a bright light and an anchor to my days. You could say I’m hooked.

“ I am so thankful for my fellow dancers…”

I keep my computer camera turned off because I’m still a little shy about this unlikely COVID survival strategy. But I am so thankful for my fellow dancers who keep their screens on as the music plays. They fill me with a sense of community and shared movement. I follow their leads and imitate their moves. I learn their names and begin to recognize them by their trademark footwork and signature shoulder shimmies. 

My dance partners and I have never met in person, and likely never will, but I feel such kinship with these lovely souls who show up with me, day after day, to shake off the world’s heaviness and reclaim our freedom and light. Dancing alone just wouldn’t feel the same.

This happens every single day. At 12:45pm I leave my kids to their algebra and American history and walk away from the work of the day. I slip upstairs to my bedroom and log on to my computer to dance. I leave my COVID thoughts at the door and let the rhythm of the music transport me to a clean and wide-open space. I stomp my feel and flail my arms and for a little while, at least, forget about masks and stay-at-home orders and the latest round of test results. I feel like a kid again, as light and carefree as I was so long ago when I sashayed around the house and carved out cartwheels in the summer sun.

“Shaking off our sorrows and shimmying to our unlikely delights…”

In these moments, dancing seems like the most natural way to keep life flowing even when the outer world comes to an icy standstill. Every once in a while in my body I catch a glimmering of a whirling dervish or an Indian dakini or a child stomping through the mud. Occasionally I even slip into a place of utter absorption where my sense of self melts away entirely into the greater flow of life. In these moments my bones tell me that the secret to this strange time is to keep moving to the beat, whatever it takes, refusing to let life freeze us in our tracks.

Our daily dance parties aren’t going to make COVID disappear or keep the hospitals from overflowing with patients. They aren’t going to cure hunger or cancer or racism or global warming. We could do worse, though, in this strange and lonely time, than to strengthen our bodies and our souls, to cut loose every once in a while and turn again toward joy.

We show up with whole body and unfettered heart. We swing to the rhythm of the beat, shaking off our sorrows and shimmying to our unlikely delights. We strengthen our spines and our lungs. And then we carry our fancy footwork and unburdened hearts back out into the larger world to cast a little light into the darkness so that others, too, may find their way to the dance.

Feeling that Thanksgiving exercise motivation? Learn how to work out smarter, not just harder, today and every day! Image courtesy Andrea Piacquadio on Unsplash.

Ah, Thanksgiving. For many of us, it’s a time for gratitude and connection. It’s also a time when many people’s minds turn to exercise to offset the rich and abundant food on the menu. How can we make that extra push, enjoy it, and not injure ourselves in the process? Due to the pandemic, more and more of us are working out at home, without our usual exercise partners or in-person access to recreational facilities. Now’s the perfect time to learn to work out smarter, rather than harder.

Exercising harder and longer on top of poor structural alignment is like continuing to drive a car with a mechanical problem. Better to address the root of the problem so nothing slows you down long-term. Image courtesy Pixabay on Pexels.

#1: Fix your posture
Fixing your posture helps you work relevant muscles more efficiently. It also prevents unnecessary wear and tear. When people want to get more exercise, they often simply increase the time spent or the intensity of their exercise. Sometimes they drive themselves to exercise more because of an injury. But if they don’t address systematic posture problems while exercising, they may in fact exacerbate their injury. The analogy that comes to mind is driving a car with a crooked axle. If the car begins to have problems, the solution is not to drive extra or drive faster; you need to fix the axle. Fixing your posture can do wonders for getting more out of your exercise time.

If our daily activities are done with good posture, they can dovetail with exercise. Image courtesy Mark Timberlake on Unsplash.

#2: Use your daily-life activities as the main dish in your regimen
We’re all busier than ever, so it makes sense that it’s challenging to shoehorn separate exercise time into our schedules. A way around this is to use the activities you do every day, around the home and/or office, as the central piece of your exercise regime. Much like this recent Medium piece in which a Japanese writer shares the central role walking plays in keeping Japanese people fit without dedicated gym time, using our bodies wisely as we go about our day means that exercise is built into everything we do. Think of it as clever, efficient multitasking for the body.

To really encourage healthy habits to stick, it helps to do them in community — whether that’s friends, family, or fellow participants, or a combination. Image courtesy Andrea Piacquadio on Unsplash.

#3: Include friends and family if you're going to dedicate time for a workout
Working out smarter can also happen by incorporating the community aspect of exercise. It’s simply smarter to double up your exercise time with social time by exercising with friends, family, or online classmates. Working out with others is wonderful for both habit retention and our mental well-being. On this very strange Thanksgiving, where we can’t be together in the usual ways, having a ready-made vehicle for time spent together safely is another purpose that exercise can serve. Everyone within a family has their individual exercise needs that are valid and more important than ever to satisfy, so be sure to pick something with variety that is accessible to everyone.

We aren’t machines, but humans born of rich traditions, who need things like art, music, dance, and culture to thrive. Exercise that incorporates such enrichments satisfies multiple needs simultaneously. Image courtesy Omotayo Tajudeen on Unsplash.

#4: Include art, music, dance, and culture
You only have but so many hours in the day, and art, music, dance, and culture are universal human needs that must be met somehow. Especially in COVID times, when we cannot attend live, in-person performances, go out dancing in groups, or easily visit museums, incorporating art, music, dance, and culture into our exercise helps fill our primal human need for creative input and enlivens our spirits. And our spirits can use every boost they can get these days!

Every journey begins with a single step. Why not start yours today? Image courtesy Bruno Nascimiento on Unsplash.

Get going on the good foot, starting today
With the live, daily Gokhale Exercise program, we have arrived at just this combination of ingredients. Starting out with figuring out how to meet my own needs, I realized the audience has roughly the same needs for a textured, multi-layered, upbeat offering. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we’re offering 3 free days of access to our vibrant and ever-growing Gokhale Exercise program, beginning today. Feel free to invite your friends and family to join you in a safe way this Thanksgiving weekend.

The single focus of many back pain interventions can be described as a “one-trick pony.” Image courtesy Nikki Jeffrey on Unsplash.

Many back pain interventions could be described as having a single, dominant approach: cortisone injections into inflamed tissue, insertion of acupuncture needles to open flow in meridians, “adjustments,” medications for reducing pain, etc. Of course, each of these interventions has complexity and nuance in theory and practice, but the vast majority of existing interventions have a single focus. To put it somewhat crassly, they could be described as one-trick ponies. And I’ve wondered if this is perhaps related to why most approaches to back pain are so ineffectual (see data on HealthOutcome.org).

A three-trick pony
In our method, we’ve never been less than a 3-trick pony, the three “tricks” being intellectual, visual, and kinesthetic ways of guiding the body’s architecture and movement patterns to a more primal configuration. Does this partially account for why we are outliers in effectiveness and efficiency in helping back pain sufferers? That’s not to diminish the core insight of our program, that there is a healthier, better way to be in our bodies and that the modern day conception of the body is skewed and contributes to decline. But additionally, our multi-faceted, coordinated approach helps this diamond in the rough be accessible, persist, and bring delight.

Unlike many other back pain interventions, our “pony” has more than one “trick” in its repertoire. Image courtesy Tobias Nii Kwatei Quartey on Unsplash.

One approach to back pain that I’ve always admired is the Alexander Technique. The Alexander Technique is similar to our approach in that it works on posture and movement patterns. But it uses kinesthetic input almost exclusively. The Alexander Technique’s “one-trick” approach lacks robust use of the images we employ in our teaching, book, website, and communications. Many students and readers also experience the intellectual framework of Alexander Technique to be abstruse and inaccessible. People tell me they feel good while they’re in an Alexander Technique lesson, but they go home and have no idea how to replicate what happened in the session.

Passively viewing images or hearing theories alone doesn’t reduce pain, of course, but alongside the kinesthetic learning, they form part of a rich and textured weave Gokhale Method students take home with them. This allows students to approach the goal of reduced pain from multiple angles simultaneously. I regularly get emails from students containing posture-related images. These students have absorbed the Gokhale Method filter and carry it with them. The method takes on a life of its own. What’s more, the good feelings are replicable outside of active instruction as they go about their life exercises.

Indigenous cultures — along with non-industrialized populations and young children — are amongthe groups we look to for inspiration and the body-knowledge which informs our method. Image courtesy Jason Rojas on Unsplash.

More “tricks”
Over the past five years, we’ve added a technological trick and a research trick to our quite talented pony’s repertoire; this has expanded the range of people who have access to our work and increased students’ trust that what they are experiencing is real.

One of our difficult-to crack nuts has been how to attract alumni to Continuing Education offerings so they can integrate techniques that require repetition and practice to remain rooted in their bodies long after their initial course has concluded. In the past year, we’ve intuited our way to several additional tricks that are addressing this challenge. The new pieces include music, dance, and art in a central role. These cultural pieces have always existed in our ecosystem, but now they are part of our core Continuing Education offering. Dance, music, and art make the weave of learning and integrating so much richer and more enjoyable. Additionally, we’re discovering a sense of community and joy building in our 1-2-3 Move program. People are naturally interested in each other, and including Q&A after each session allows that community spirit to build.

Central Asia is home to rich equestrian traditions, among them horseback falconry with golden eagles, horseback archery, and horseback gymnastics. As in our method, multiple elements combine to form a complex, impressive whole. Image courtesy Lightscape on Unsplash.

We’re also recently included exercise in our programming. It’s been wonderful to be led by a knowledgeable guide in the company of dozens of people online. This makes it fun to return.

We are delighted by the response to our new directions. And as we are always adding new enrichments, there is always more to come.

Stanford now lists the Gokhale Method Foundations course as an option for which Stanford staff can use their STAP (Staff Training Assistance Program) funds. I am thrilled that the educational institution closest to home (I live on campus) is the first to make my offering more available to their staff.

My avenues for bringing posture into Stanford are manifold, both through my family members and through hundreds of students and staff who have taken my courses. Healthy posture has been demonstrated to have a positive impact on those in close proximity, and I'm hopeful this effect will permeate the community over the years.  

My husband is a professor in the Math Department and is beaming out much better posture than he used to:

 
Brian White, Professor of Math at Stanford, was one of the early Gokhale Method guinea pigs (being my husband!). See him here bending with a straight back, and with his legs well-aligned and feet pointing outwards. 

My daughters Maya and Monisha did their undergraduate degrees in the school of engineering; Maya also did a Master’s degree in epidemiology. They participated in sports, where they influenced and taught some of their teammates:

Maya White (left, jumping), has a natural degree of pelvic anteversion which facilitates glute action and a powerful spring.

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Monisha White, who captained the Stanford Women's Ultimate frisbee team and lead them to win Nationals in 2016, coached some of her teammates in healthy posture. Here she shows healthy external leg rotation, posterior shoulder placement, and a J-Spine.

My son Nathan coaches the Stanford Men’s Ultimate Frisbee team. Learning hip-hinging has helped some of the team get rid of longstanding hamstring problems: 

Nathan White (second from right, standing tall) sets a good posture example as a coach of the Stanford Men's Ultimate Frisbee team.

I have taught hundreds of faculty, students, and staff how to have their behinds behind, and their torsos upright and relaxed: 

Olivia Page, one of many Stanford students who learned to hip-hinge, stacksit, and stretch-lie.

Now with Stanford STAP funds, enrollees will not have to pay out of pocket for their posture education.

The two courses offered on the weekend of April 28-30 both consist of the usual 6 x 1.5 hour lessons using 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back as the text and the DVD, Back Pain: The Primal Posture Solution, as a reference (both are included in the price of the Stanford course). The courses still have some openings and are open to the public, though STAP funding is available only to Stanford staff.

It has long been a dream of mine to influence a mid-sized community to have lower rates of back pain and reap the benefits of healthy posture. There is a synergistic effect that happens when members of a community learn the familiar, but forgotten, language of primal posture. Human beings are known to mimic each other. We expect that having examples of healthy posture to mimic will raise the general wellbeing of the community, and that this effect will spiral in a positive direction. Also, Stanford is a self-reflective community that conducts research, formulates theories, and births products - a lot could happen in this rich milieu.

The Stanford Rodin collection is the second largest in the world and is chock full of examples of excellent posture.

We hope other educational institutions will be inspired to replicate Stanford’s offering for their staff, now that we have teachers all over the world who are able to satisfy such demands. Educational institutions often induce other types of institutions to follow their lead. We are hoping that banks, law firms, tech firms, and other entities will see the value in keeping their members healthy and pain-free, like Stanford has.

One recent Stanford study, Is crowdsourcing patient-reported outcomes the future of evidence-based medicine? A case study of back pain, examines the findings of the website healthoutcome.org, on which Postural Modifications (and the Gokhale Method in particular) are the top-rated intervention for lower back pain by a very large margin. The study finds that crowdsourcing results are similar to conservative research results, but involve much larger numbers of subjects at lower cost. Postural Modification as an intervention for lower back pain has not been studied by conventional means. As the prestigious newsletter The BackLetter put it in September 2015, “there is certainly a glittering opportunity for some enterprising young researchers to explore this area with sound scientific methods.”

For more information or ideas on how to bring the Gokhale Method to your institution, please contact us at [email protected].