Spring in Saskatchewan brings walking season! At this time of year, I am compelled to share
two game-changers for me: head up, eyes soft.
It started in my yoga-for-backs practice and then, like a lot of yoga things,
it started making sense outside of a yoga practice.
Your head is huge. Your
head is full of ideas and processes, but it is heavy – 12lbs or so – and
physics class tell us that it gets even heavier when it is held ahead of its
axis (forward) in life – 40lbs or more felt on the neck and spine! This is common, as our head tends to follow
our attention, and particularly our eyes.
Notice the vertebrae at the base of your neck, C6 and C7, as they tend
to take on a lot of that weight and, when they need to protrude backward so you
can hold your head forward, this imbalance takes its toll on spine, on neck and
on shoulders.
A first lesson: habits run deep, can be barely perceptible
to the self, and head positioning is a big habit. Somewhere along the way – in the
self-conscious teenage years, or the studious college years, or just bad lazy
posture in general – I formed a habit of head-forward. I walked everywhere with my head down by
default, and would glance up only sometimes while I was actually in-movement. I was watching that my feet do not trip on a
bad sidewalk or a kid’s toy, but it was definitely more habit than necessity. I taught yoga every week and talked about
head weight in sukasana, in tadasana, in warrior poses (recently loving the cue
“rest the head deep in the spine”). Eventually,
I noticed my off-the-mat head-forward habit and realized I needed to look up
and bring the head back to its axis in walking, in standing in-line at the
grocery store, in every day life. Head
up, eyes up and pick up the feet more to not-trip; try tadasana in-line at the
store, but put in your hands in your pockets to make it look casual. It was ridiculously strange and hard to form
these new habits…and I am still working on it…but my C6/C7 vertebrae now tend
to stay tucked in through my day, and I am sure I am better off than I could be
in my upper spine roundness, neck pain, and shoulder tightness.
A second lesson: head follows eyes, eyes follow task, and eyes
fatigue with endless tasks. How does it
feel to soften the gaze and not be so…aggressive? Task-oriented? Instead, relax the eyes on that walk and maybe
you notice your head more naturally comes back to its axis (rather than
attacking that forward movement), and you observe more. Task the core and legs, and not the head
mass, to transfer weight needed to progress forward; enjoy the simple and
rhythmic swinging motion of arms and legs.
Soften the eyes, take in nature and humanity’s beauty with a broad
picture and then take in that blooming flower, or that young teen kindly
opening the door for the next person. Rebalance,
soften, and broaden.
A benefit+: with head up and eyes soft, the rest of posture
tends to fall in-line as shoulders naturally release down, back straightens up,
head rests deep in the spine, and breath eases.
The simple bilateral movement of legs and arms, without specific task or
destination, recalibrates: evening-out left-right movement, and engaging both
sides of the vagus nerve within the nervous system. And that vagus nerve, and your overall sense
of safety, loves a straight posture—it’s all related, comes full-circle.
A cost: your step-count in the time-allotted, you may not quite
reach that goal. But I am very sure your
80-year-old self would appreciate that straighter spine, and your current self would
appreciate that moment…that walk, that season, that experience…in front of you.