Análisis de confiabilidad de las pruebas cognitivas

Our ability to stand upright on two legs is fundamental to our evolution as human beings. Standing with good alignment offers stability, helps us radiate confidence, and enhances our ability to use all of our limbs and to move through the world with ease.

The yoga posture that teaches us proper standing alignment is called tadasana, which means “mountain pose.” When properly executed, this posture helps us feel as strong and as stable as a mountain.

You’ll find a detailed description and illustration of mountain pose in chapter 5 that will bring you into good standing alignment. But here, in this posture section, we’ll explore how to bring this pose off the mat and into everyday life, with a few simple steps designed to help you find and maintain good posture anytime you’re

standing—whether you’re moving or still.

The yogic perspective builds all postures from the foundation up, starting with whatever part of the body is connected to the earth. Depending on the pose, this could be almost any body part, from your hands to your head to your belly. But when we’re standing up, of course, it’s our feet that form the foundation of our posture. That’s why it’s critical to wear shoes that allow us to connect the entire foot to the earth and provide as broad a base of support as possible to maximize stability and skeletal health. Stiletto heels may be fashionable, but they throw off your posture by forcing you to balance on the balls of your feet, which distorts the natural curves of the spine.

In yoga, we sometimes imagine our feet as little cars, each of which has four wheels: one at the inner heel, one at the outer heel, one at the base of the big toe, and one at the base of the little toe. For proper standing posture, we press down evenly through each of these four “wheels” of our feet and lift up through the arches. The two rear “wheels” generally bear most of our body weight, since our heels are designed for this purpose. So clearly, it’s critical to wear shoes that allow our heels to do their job. Shoes with small heels can be fine, as long as they’re low enough to allow you to bring your body weight into your heels and feel the connection of all four “wheels” of your feet to the earth.

Here are eight simple steps to standing with good alignment:

1. Bring your feet hip-width apart, with your weight evenly distributed on both legs. Take a moment to feel the connection between the soles of your feet and the earth, and press down evenly through all four “wheels” of your feet.

Become aware of your weight dropping down through your legs to your feet.

Notice the contact of your heels with the floor, and imagine yourself growing roots through your entire foot so that you feel grounded and stable. Keep your breath slow, deep, and easy; avoid holding your breath.

2. Take one hand and gently pat yourself on the top of your head for a few moments, then relax your arm down by your side. Notice the sensation on the top of your head from the tapping; this is the crown of your head (for a review of the crown chakra,sahasrara, see chapter 3). You won’t find this body part in Gray’s Anatomy , but the crown is very important in enhancing posture since extending this part of your head toward the sky helps lengthen your spine and bring the skull into alignment over the shoulder girdle. To help find this position, imagine that the crown of your head is magnetic and the ceiling is a powerful magnet, drawing the top of your head upward. Be sure to stay grounded through your feet as you lengthen up from your crown, so that your spine elongates and your head lifts up over your shoulder girdle.

3. Keep your chin parallel to the earth; avoid the common tendency to lift the chin up, which can “crunch” the back of your neck. It may help to also think of lifting up from the tops of your ears so that your neck lengthens.

4. Relax your shoulders down away from your ears, and invite your arms to relax comfortably at your sides.

5. Soften your knees so that your legs are straight but your knees aren’t locked.

Avoid hyperextending your knees, since this can lead to a swayback posture.

6. As you continue to root yourself down through your feet and lift up through the crown of your head, see if you can “stack your joints” so that if someone looked at you from the side, they’d see your knees over your ankles, your hips over your knees, your shoulders over your hips, and the little hole in your ear over your shoulder.

Figure 4.1. Stacked Joints

1. Gently draw your lower belly in and up, to support your lower back. Don’t

“suck in” your gut, or create any tension or hardness in your abdominal muscles. Just bring a little tone to this region by lightly engaging your abdominals, drawing your navel toward your spine.

2. Imagine that you have a light shining out from the center of your chest at your breastbone, the location of the heart chakra, anahata (see chapter 3 for review). Keep this light shining forward, not down toward the ground.

At first, coming into good alignment might seem difficult, if your body is used to bad habits such as standing with one hip slung out or the chest collapsed. But over time and with practice (including regular yoga to strengthen weak muscles and stretch tight ones), proper posture will become easier and virtually effortless. Standing with good alignment allows the skeleton to do its job in supporting the body with a

The basic principles of good sitting alignment are similar to those for proper standing posture. In fact, sitting with good alignment is often called “seated mountain pose”

(see chapter 5). As with all postures, the yogic approach is to start from the foundation, with whatever part of our body supports us, and get grounded there. Then we extend away from that place of grounding, creating length in the spine.

When you’re sitting in a chair, most of your weight rests on your bottom, with some on your feet. The parts of your pelvis meant to support you when you’re sitting are the two rounded knobs at the base called the ischial tuberosities, better known tailbone or sacrum, which is a setup for pain since this rounds the back and typically collapses the shoulders and juts the head forward.

Here are three simple steps to sitting on a chair with good alignment:

1. Place your feet flat on the floor. If they don’t comfortably reach the floor, place them on a footstool.