Sighing can be helpful.
A well-intentioned sigh can reset your posture and nervous system.
Stand up tall and see how it feels.
Breathe your best, feel your arms, your butt, and most importantly try to sense the relationship between the ribcage and the pelvis.
Is there balance at the front and back of your body between the pelvis and ribcage?
Now sigh and relax the front of your body.
How does that feel?
From my perspective, everyone has a slightly elevated rib cage at the front of the body.
Almost everyone is told their whole life to stand up straight and take their shoulders back.
This is a terrible instruction and needs to be deleted from our brains.
As a result of this ubiquitous instruction, people tend to lean the upper body slightly behind the pelvis.
This elevates the base of the ribs at the front of the body. When this happens the relationship between the bottom of the ribcage at the front and the back lacks balance.
And it limits our access to good breathing.
I started out life as a yoga teacher working people as hard as I could, teaching students the most extreme positions I knew.
Over the years I changed my personal approach to the practice and began teaching very differently.
Now my main goal is to get people to relax.
This doesn’t mean avoiding hard work and diligence, but it does mean that there is a way to access ease for improved performance.
A sigh allows you to relax.
A sigh allows you to breathe.
A sigh gives your psoas major muscle (my favorite muscle) a fighting chance to work well.
My work is about helping people find access to a functioning psoas muscle.
The psoas major originates at the base of the rib cage and top of the lumbar spine.
It attaches in two places along the rest of the lumbar spine.
Imagine a level and balanced ribcage—the psoas muscle and all of its connections are well spaced out and functional.
If the front of the ribcage elevates the back of the ribcage will descend out of necessity.
This creates a compression of the lumbar spine that I see in most students and clients.
This compression messes with the natural alignment of the psoas and their attachment points.
As a result, it will no longer be balanced in space and effective.
There are many reasons to sigh.
When it comes to changing your posture, moving better, and aging gracefully it can be a beneficial tool.
You can use it to access your breath, core, and psoas—three things well worth having in good working condition.