By: Daniela Moretti

Optimal body alignment creates greater range of movement - this translates into more flexibility, power and strength. 

A properly aligned body leads to mental relaxation and a sense of well-being.

This is why so many people are turning to mindful exercises.  They are finding that these forms of exercises are not only relaxing, but also mentally stimulating because through such exercises, they can discover their own body mechanics.

Healthy living requires information, discipline, and awareness.  Very little has been written on the merits of knowing your body, knowing your limits or the importance of improving your posture as a means of improving overall health.

Exercises such as Pilates and Yoga are known as mindful exercises - the participant takes an active role in understanding their individual body's strengths and weaknesses while moving from one posture to another or from one exercise to another.

We don't just focus on the big muscle groups but also on those little ones which help us balance and stabilize the big ones - an important element to aging well.

Why is Body Alignment so Important?

Would you drive a car that has faulty wheel alignment - that pulls to the left or right or locks up - the quality of the drive is affected? No, you go to the mechanic to fix and understand what the problem is.

The human body is no different.  With time, trauma, or repetitive everyday movements your body stiffens, twists and is thrown out of alignment - yet we keep on going without realignment.  The results are usually loss of free movement followed by chronic pain.

Depending on the intensity of the pain, the quality of your day can be affected.  You no longer have full control; your aches and pains begin to dictate how the day will play out.

What Hurts?

It is proven that by understanding and adjusting our bodies we can reduce chronic pain.  My clients frequently make comments such as: "I didn't know I walked with my head forward and looking down.  Do you think that is why the back of my neck always hurts?" The variations on this example are infinite.

If you are holding your head forward and down while standing there is a high probability that you are also doing this while walking, sitting, driving and exercising.  Once this faulty pattern is corrected and re-applied to exercises, the new posture position will get locked into memory and the old pattern will be broken.

Once corrected I then get comments such as: "Wow that feels strange yet better, my neck doesn't feel so stiff." The strangeness does eventually go away leaving a sense of well-being.

Do a Body Scan

Feel where you have pressures or tense spots while sitting - back of the neck, shoulders, mid back, lower back or maybe in the hips and knees. Make a mental note and scan again while you are walking and my guess is you will experience the same discomfort regardless of what you are doing.

Once you become conscious of the misalignment's in your body, you can subconsciously start to strengthen the muscles that are weaker and correct bad postural habit.

Mindful exercises put you back in control.