Aaron Alexander: 12 Lifestyle Hacks for Better Posture – Collective Insights

Check out the Collective Insights Episode Page and Show Notes

Key Takeaways

• Your overall fitness doesn’t start in the gym – it starts from the way you breathe, sit, stand, and walk
• A non-optimal work environment sets you up for depression by putting you in an anxious position
• Poor posture creates a traffic jam for the nervous system and disturbs blood flow
• Your posture affects the way others see you: “If you move in the world in such a way that you don’t believe in yourself, no one will believe you” – Aaron Alexander

Intro

• Aaron Alexander (@alignpodcast) is a manual therapist and movement coach. He hosts the Align Podcast.
  • He’s also the author of The Align Method, which is due out in December
• Host – Dr. Heather Sandison (@DrSandisonMD)

Aaron’s New Book – The Align Method

• The Align Method is a 5-step user manual aimed to add movement back into your life
• Our environment has been set up to outsource the need for movement
  • You can literally “hunt and gather” food by pressing buttons on your cell phone

What are some of the pitfalls when trying to implement an exercise program?

• Going too big too soon (like going from your couch to trying to run a marathon)
• Your overall fitness doesn’t start in the gym – it starts from the way you breathe, sit, stand, and walk
  • Bigger achievements come later

Optimizing Your Work Environment

• Look around your home or office and ask: “How does this sculpt me“?
  • Is your desk facing a wall, with a bad chair that’s too low? – Fix it!
• A non-optimal work environment sets you up for depression by putting you in an anxious position
  • Get a standing desk, put it near an open window so you get some UVA and UVB rays from the sun, take frequent breaks for fresh air, etc.

Good Sitting Posture

• Avoid the “sad puppy look” (hunched, head forward)
  • Raise the height of your seat or get on the floor!
  • An easy hack: Picture a string on the back of your head pulling you toward the ceiling

Try 360-Degree Breathing

• Put your hands on your lower ribs and feel your breath expanding outward
  • You want to breathe through your whole torso
    • “If you’re just belly breathing, you’re missing out” – Aaron Alexander

Posture and Diseases

• If you’re out of alignment, your cells are not going to communicate
  • At some point, you’ll wind up with disease
    • Poor posture creates a traffic jam for the nervous system and disturbs blood flow
• “Harmony dwells where obstruction does not exist” – Aaron Alexander

Remove Negative People From Your Life

• “Cut those people out of your life that are parasites; they’re leaching on you, in part, because you don’t carry yourself in a way that shows they can’t touch you, so they get in” – Aaron Alexander
  • In simpler terms: Parasites come to a diseased organism

Communicating With Posture

• Stand in the mirror and check out your body profile
  • Your posture affects the way others see you: “If you move in the world in such a way that you don’t believe in yourself, no one will believe you” – Aaron Alexander
• The way you move—your posture—reflects the way you think
  • Your motion is a product of your emotion
  • You can tell how people are feeling by looking at them
• Posture affects memory
  • If you’re hunched, you’ll find it easier to access bad memory associations
  • If you’re upright, it’s easier to remember good memories
• When people use defeated language, their body reflects it

Other Hacks to Help Juggle Life

• Pay attention and be mindful: to the way you move your eyes, how the breeze feels on your skin, and to the healing sounds around you
• Focus on creativity
• Only do the stuff that you can do, outsource what you can’t
• A coach/mentor is a great investment
• Hang around people who are where you want to be