Posture & Morality: Part I

"The seventh circle of Hell is reserved for those who...slouch?"

It is so natural to moralize about posture that we often do it without even noticing. We often apply such terms as "bad," "good," or "lousy" to our alignment & physiognomy without even pausing to consider the moral judgment implicit in such labels. I believe it is useful to recognize this tendency and to appreciate that posture in itself is neither good nor evil, rather."

More helpful, perhaps, than moralizing about alignment, we might simply appreciate that posture has consequences. If my head is not balanced above the spine, then I must employ a great deal of muscular effort to keep it from falling off—not evil, but exhausting. Furthermore, the physiognomy of such a gesture may communicate unintentional sentiments to those around me: I might look lackadaisical, desperate, or aggressive, all without intending to. If, on the other hand, I start about with my chest perpetually puffed out like Popeye, then I communicate another message: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks," people might begin to say. Carl Jung expressed it thus:

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

Our job through Rolfing® intervention is to make these choices conscious rather than habitual so that if my head falls off, it's because I wanted it to.

Alignment Diagram

A diagram showing proper postural alignment.