
October 31, 2019
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
- You want to breathe through your whole torso
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
- At some point, you’ll wind up with disease
- “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