Balancing Your Spine by Gaylene Aitken

The mobility and health of one’s spine affects the entire body. The spine lies deep within the torso and when the feet are centred under the hip sockets and positioned parallel to each other, the spine is free of the muscular tension needed to maintain its upright stability.

Movement of the limbs flow from the natural flux and flow of the spine as it flexes and extends. The spine supports and provides a stable strong foundation for the long term sustainable functioning of the limbs.

As a long time practicing bodyworker, I’ve had to develop innate awareness of the position of the spine to allow it’s natural extension and flexion to flow through the shoulder girdle to the arms and from the pelvis into the legs to prevent damage to my joints.

It’s easy to discount the vital role the spine plays in everyday movements because it’s not in our vision so there’s a tendency to focus on the front of the body. This creates an imbalance in the distribution of labour between the back and front. The front of the body tends to take on the role of the back as an extensor and the natural role of the front as a flexor becomes tense and weak.

What that looks like is a deep lumbar curve, the ribs and head pushed forward and the neck locked and short. The lower back is unsupported and weak and the neck is unable to turn freely in its full range of motion.

The process of regaining balance and pain-free movement is a way of life. It means having to change one’s mind, concepts and belief systems which have created the body you have. Movement arises from two equal, opposing forces. For every movement there is an equal opposing response. Balance then is never a static state. A force that completes its energetic trajectory and swings back to the central midline propels the opposing force into action…think of a pendulum.

Balance occurs when extension and flexion have equal force, neither dominating over the other, each completing its journey in harmonious rhythm, returning briefly back to the peace and stillness of source for energy and healing before being propelled forth in perpetual effortless motion.

Awareness of how one moves and where your central axis lies within you is an exploratory voyage of discovery that reaches deep into one’s consciousness of self. We create ourselves through our concepts and beliefs of who we are and how much power we have over the shaping of our lives.

A mind and body in constant tension depletes energy. Letting go of tension to allow free, full range of motion is ours to create, the natural state of our human earthly body is to generate energy through our movement. You are the centre of your universe, you are limitless, you are unbounded, you are love.