ONLY ONE SPOT left for Posture in Motion! And early bird pricing ends on the 15th.
Apply here: https://hedishah.com/posture-in-motion/
Entry is by application so I can make sure the group feels like a well-matched, supportive container for everyone.
This is a 13-week small-group posture and somatic practice for people who want to feel more at home in their body, move with more ease, and begin shifting the patterns that keep them tense, braced, or in pain.
Last week, I shared why so many of us have neck tension and this week we dive deep into forward head posture.
This isn’t the usual advice to stand up straight, pull your shoulders back, and tuck your chin in like a robot, hoping your posture will suddenly transform.
The cookie-cutter approach to fixing posture often assumes your body is “wrong” or “stupid,” and that you just need to force it into the position you want.
Before I give you any exercises to “fix” the problem you’re here for, we need to ask a better question: why is your posture like this in the first place, and what does your body actually need?
The simple answer is survival.
To go deeper, let’s look at this through two lenses: the psychosomatic lens and the biomechanical lens. I’m separating them for clarity, not because they happen independently. They’re intertwined and shape each other.
1/ Psychosomatic lens:
The way your body physically adapts in response to emotional, psychological, or nervous-system experiences. Your posture is not limited to muscles and bones. It is the story of your lived experience. It shows how you learned to adapt in order to belong.
To your family.
To your culture.
To the larger systems you were born into.
When we start to understand these layers, we can better see how our body has been shaped by them. You can read more about the psychosomatic adaptation of this posture in this article ↓
3 Postural Adaptations to Conditioning
We are often taught to look at posture only through a biomechanical lens. If you have been trying to improve your posture, you have probably come across articles and videos that put posture into cate…
2/ Biomechanical lens:
Forward head posture serves a purpose. It’s a compensatory strategy that can make breathing easier because that forward position opens your airways.
One common reason for this posture is a compressed rib cage.
{There are other factors too, like airway issues, mouth breathing (often from chronic congestion), poor tongue posture, or not enough jaw and upper palate expansion while growing up. If the rest applies to you, consider working with a qualified myofunctional therapist to address the root cause first, then come back to the tips in this article.}
Every time we breathe, our rib cage needs to expand 360 degrees for effective breathing. But so many of us today have collapsed rib cages, can’t access the diaphragm well, and end up relying heavily on the neck muscles to breathe.
In this video, I share three exercises that go beyond stretching or strengthening the neck to “fix” forward head posture. Instead, they target what’s driving you into that position in the first place.
This is the deep work we’ll explore inside Posture in Motion: understanding the patterns behind your posture, pain, and movement habits, and learning how to shift them from the root.
Only one spot left - Apply here: https://hedishah.com/posture-in-motion/
Thank you for joining me on the path of unconditioning,
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Hedi Shah
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👁️ Mindfulness Teacher & Bodyworker
🐉 Nervous system regulation, breathwork, and posture-focused strength training to target the cause of what keeps you stuck and in pain, not just symptoms.
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