our bones are balanced in efficient alignment, we feel less. In fact, with minimal feedback in the nervous system, we may feel as though we aren’t doing enough. People move to feel themselves working. But no sensation is the sensation of ease. As weight passes toward gravity through the bones, there is levity in the soft tissues, an upward release. Balancing the bones removes compression on other systems. Our spinal cord and nerves remain free for receiving and expressing; the digestive organs, lungs, and heart can function effectively, maintaining homeostasis in the body.
Three body weights with spinal curves and landmarks for postural alignment.
When my father was dying, I visited ancestral homelands: Samso island off Denmark. Standing in a cemetery filled with headstones marked Olsen, I felt myself amid family. Less than two centuries earlier, someone departed this land to plant roots in America; someone stayed behind to till familiar soil. Now, we share a common history of place. Bicycling amid rolling hills surrounded by sea, I realized that the adjectives depicting this landscape were those I had heard, for years, describing my dancing: lyric, gentle, remote. I felt as though this place-heritage inhabits my body, informing the way I stand, speak, stroke my hand through my hair, even though I had never been here before.
I notice that many Environmental Studies students assume a similar posture: the “ES slouch.” Head slightly forward, ribs retreated, the spine is a waterfall of responsive curves, relying on soft tissue support. From carrying frame packs and portaging canoes or from assuming a receptive demeanor, this stance eventually hurts. We begin with the feet, aligning hips, ribs, and skull over this small base of support. Stacking the body weights engages the efficiency of the skeletal structure and allows weight to lever through the bones. The new stance can feel bold, evoking the potential of a balanced body.
“I can’t stand like this,” my students say. “it feels too direct.” “Not all the time,” I offer, “but know how to find your full height. Pass through it a few times each day; notice how people respond. There are situations when you’ll need to stand up for what you believe!” The next step is to practice speaking from this mobile and stabile place. Most of us squirm, shift our feet, avert our eyes. It’s not easy to be exposed to the simplicity of who we are and to acknowledge who we are capable of becoming.
Alignment is relationship, to self and the environment. Even when standing “still,” the earth is always moving, we are always moving. A gift of our bipedal structure is our multidimensional agility of body and mind, which keeps us alert and responsive, adaptable to change. The risk is that instability can cause fear and rigidity in our attitudes and stance. When we have a relaxed, toned body, if we are pushed, we recover. If we are pushed when rigid, we fall off center. Our fluid body, undulating spine, and reflexes of face, gesture, and language support our vertical and vulnerable selves.
TO DO
Postural alignment (Mountain Pose)5 minutes
Standing in plumb line, eyes closed:
• Touch the bump on the outside of one ankle. This is your outer malleolus, the lower end of the leg bone and the first landmark in postural alignment.
• Touch the large knob on the side of your upper leg bone (the part that touches the floor when you are lying on your side). This is called the greater trochanter the second landmark in postural alignment. Line the greater trochanter directly over the center of your ankle.
• Touch the center side of your ribcage, the third landmark in postural alignment. Line it directly over the greater trochanter and outer malleolus.
• Touch the center of your ear, the top landmark in postural alignment. Lift your elbows to the side and imagine lines from each pointer finger meeting in the center of your skull. Do a small “yes” nod around this horizontal axis. Line this joint up with the other landmarks for postural alignment.
• Touch the top of your skull and imagine the plumb line extending upward and downward, creating a vertical energy line around which the body parts are organized. This is called “extended proprioception” (imagined sensation).
• Check that the knees are not locked; weight should pass through the center side of each knee joint.
• From postural alignment, slide into your favorite “hang out” posture; feel this position. Then, beginning with the feet (your connection to the earth) slowly reorient your body toward postural alignment. Repeat.
• Sometimes it is helpful to use a mirror to “check” alignment. Stand with your side to the mirror; align the body, feet to head; then rotate the skull to look in the mirror and notice the vertical relationship of body parts.
• In efficient alignment, weight passes through the bones, your mineral body, to the earth.
In yoga, the vertical stance is called Tadasana, Mountain Pose. Imagine a favorite mountain as you stand, allowing its qualities to inform your body.
Spinal undulations (standing)5 minutes
Standing in postural alignment:
• Begin a spinal undulation from side to side, a “fish swish.” Imagine a mouth and eyes on the top of your head, a fish tail at the end of your spine, like a trout or shark.
• Swing your tail (pelvis) side to side to propel the spine and head, or swim the head through the water to lead the spine and tail. Keep the movement side to side, as though your front and back surfaces are between two flat panes of glass. This fish pattern, evolving 400 million years ago, still lives in your spine.
• Change to a spinal undulation front to back. Still imagine the mouth and eyes on the top of the head, but now you have a flat tail, like a whale or dolphin. This mammalian pattern, appearing 180 million years ago, still underlies your movement.
• Change to a spiral pattern of the spine, unique to humans. Begin rotating the pelvis and allow all the vertebrae to respond, like a flag wrapping around a flagpole. Let the eyes finish the spiral, looking behind you as you twist. This pattern was present in your earliest hominid ancestors in Africa 5 million years ago, and underlies your multidimensional agility—the capacity to move in any direction with ease.
• Reverse the spiral until you have a full swing, wrapping left, wrapping right. Include the whole spine.
• Repeat each undulation, noticing any place there is holding in the body: the neck, the heart area, the lower back or tail. Encourage mobility of the spine in all three directions to support the stability of your vertical stance.
Photograph by Erik Borg.
Three body weights with spinal depth.
Place visit: Attention to bipedal alignment
Begin standing in plumb line, eyes open: Look at the trees and plants around you from this vertical stance; imagine you are growing roots from your feet into the soil, intersecting with those of the plants at your place. Remember that the root system of a tree is often as large as its crown. Try spinal undulations standing; notice the mobility under your bipedal stance. Pause and observe place in open attention. 20 min. Write about your experience. 10 min.
FARMSTORIES: ARRIVING
When my parents were young, they decided to pull a long green trailer across the United States in search of a place to call their home, raise their children, lead a good life. They had passed through thirty-nine states and were headed toward California, when they found themselves parked next to the Grand Canyon with both children crying, “We want to go home.” So they turned