Posture Power

Why do yogis care so much about posture?

Well, in the yogic science there’s the Self and the mind-body instrument. The Self is the pure consciousness within all beings, purusha, and the instrument is a temporary form of the infinite eternal universal energy, prakriti. The Self uses the instrument to experience the universe in that unique form. 

The Self never changes so you don’t need healing, only your instrument might need healing because it constantly changes due to the forces of nature.

The energy making up the instrument can become imbalanced if we don’t use it correctly, such as: bad posture, unhealthy lifestyle, improper breathing, delusional thinking, etc. If the energy is out of balance then we develop mental and physical diseases. 

The aim is to balance our energy by not causing harm in our action, speech, and thought, eating a healthy diet, correcting our posture, controlling our breath, meditating, etc. 

Posture is important because the mind and body are not separate, they are 2 sides of 1 coin. When your body is upright and relaxed your mind is alert and calm, but when your body is slouched and tense your mind is scattered, agitated, and dull. Realizing this, yogis keep their posture upright and relaxed.

Modern science has recently discovered just how important having an upright posture is, or as the following Harvard study calls it a “power” posture, because it actually makes the body and mind more powerful!

“Expansive, open postures reflect high power, whereas contractive, closed postures reflect low power. Not only do these postures reflect power, they also produce it; in contrast to adopting low power poses, adopting high power poses increases explicit and implicit feelings of power and dominance, risk-taking behavior, action orientation, pain tolerance, and testosterone, while reducing stress, anxiety, and cortisol… adopting high-power poses leads to stronger effects on thought abstraction and action orientation. The acquisition of power causes individuals to feel more positive, in control, and optimistic about the future, and to become more goal-oriented and likely to take action… liberating them from the psychological constraints that could prevent them from performing to their full potential.”

Read the full article here.

Try making your posture upright and relaxed for a few minutes. Notice how your mind becomes more alert and stable. Notice how you feel more powerful… that’s because YOU ARE! You’re the infinite eternal universal energy in a singular form… own that sh*t!