Does Education Ruin Your Posture?

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I was once asked to do an assessment for the company Johnson and Johnson, and from that assessment I concluded that education ruins your posture.

I went into the factory where the people were working on assembly line and their posture was wonderful. Then I was escorted to the admin block where all the accountants and other administrators worked. There, each and every person was slumped over their computer, hence my first statement about education. Many aspects of the Alexander technique apply here.

Firstly, we are born with perfect posture, or what Alexander would call ‘use’. Just watch a young child pick something up from the floor. Then as the children go off to school, they have to sit for many hours at a desk. Sitting for long periods of time is very stressful on the spine. Then they carry very heavy bags over one shoulder for many years of schooling. Once they come home, they flop into a couch/sofa to watch hours of television. And we wonder why they look like they do. They slope about throughout their teenage years and then finally qualify and find a job only to sit for many more hours behind a desk, again, slouched over a PC, or some other device.

I have worked with architects who have very difficult desk positions to get used to. Dentists have another sitting position that is most testing on the back. All the time while growing up, the awareness of body has been negated and it is only the final pain in the back and neck that drive them to find a solution.  Our environment is not user friendly, by and large, and yet many are not aware of this at all. We all know how to use our body correctly, we have just forgotten about it.

Having Alexander technique lessons re educates us into relearning how to use ourselves with less tension and stress.

Step lightly, be spritely.

Read more on Noeline's website – www.alextechnz.com