Why should you correct your posture? I write about that a lot, but rather than give you a laundry list of “7 unseen benefits to fixing your posture,” let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time (all good stories start that way, right?) I found myself at a wedding. The ceremony was right in the middle of my (then) two year old’s prime napping time, and the drive took long enough that he fell asleep on the way because of course he did.
Normally this would pose no problem. We’d get where we’re going, one of us would take the older ones off to, well, whatever, and the other would stay with sleepy boy until he woke up. Of course, for a wedding, the bride has a schedule, and for some reason that schedule does not wait for sleeping 2 year olds.
So, I waited with him until the last possible minute, gently extracted him from his car seat and headed to the ceremony. Then, to keep him from fussing and disturbing the ceremony, I held him until he was ready to be not held, which took 90 minutes.
Have you ever had to hold 30 lbs in your arms, while sitting in a hard seated, hard backed chair, for an hour and a half? All through the wedding, in the back of my mind, I’m thinking, “I am going to PAY for this.”
Funny thing, though. I didn’t. Not then, not during the reception, and not the next day. One of the unforeseen benefits of posture correction is that your ability to do stuff improves, along with your ability to recover from that stuff. Specifically, the efforts to strengthen my back and core, and to correct my posture, have made me stronger and more resilient now than I was ten years ago.
So now I can shovel snow, do my gardening, play with my kids, or simply hold a grumpy 2 year old in an uncomfortable position, in an uncomfortable chair, for an uncomfortably long time, and know that tomorrow, I’ll be ready to do it all over again.
Until next time, let’s all try to Standing Up Right.
