Your Mama Was Right: Posture Matters!

Almost everyone has a memory of their mom (or dad) constantly reminding them to “Stand up straight! You don’t want to grow up with bad posture. Do you?” Or as one of my friends puts it, “Stand up straight and act like somebody!” While most parents dutifully admonish their kids to stand tall, they may not realize just how important that advice really is. There are many reasons why good posture matters, including self-esteem, career performance, even significant health considerations.

Let’s talk about how your posture affects several aspects of your life. At the end of the article, we’ll offer some tips on how you can start today to improve your posture and your life.

How you approach the world has a tremendous impact on how you feel about yourself. What’s the first impression you have of someone with slumped shoulders or their head drooping down? Honestly, that person is giving the impression that they’re beaten, sad or hopeless.

Life can be tough. Things happen to everyone that can hurt in so many ways. One way to respond to life’s calamities is to withdraw and become inward. When this happens and a person’s confidence is shaken they look defensive and passive. A slumped posture is almost like curling up in a fetal position while standing, hoping that no one will bother you. Unfortunately, most folks won’t bother with you in that posture.

On the other hand, good posture with your head up and shoulders back is a strong indicator of inner strength and self-confidence. A strong, self-confident person tells the world “Here I come. Give me all you’ve got!” When you stand tall, you tell yourself “I can! I will! I must!” From the standpoint of building and maintaining a strong self-image, one of the most important habits a parent can teach their child is to stand tall, keep your head up and your shoulders back. It will help that child withstand many of life’s challenges throughout his/her life.

There are many ways that an employer, customer or potential client will decide how you fit into their plans. One of the most important, yet subtle, ways others evaluate you is your body language. Let’s say you’re competing for a promotion to a management position with an equally qualified competitor. If the only difference between the two candidates is that one has poor posture and the other looks like a Marine, who wins? The Marine always wins. Every employer wants managers that are confident and show confidence in every way. And in some ways, poor posture communicates the same message as when someone won’t make eye contact. People wonder if you have something to hide. Good posture is like a good handshake. People make judgments about you based on their first impression. Make a good first impression. Stand tall. Head up. Shoulders back. Stomach in. It will pay you great dividends. Posture affects your health in several ways. From a purely mechanical standpoint, if things aren’t lined up the way they were designed, they simply wear out faster. People with arthritis in the joints or spine in their forties and fifties have generally had posture problems their whole life. Any good mechanic will tell you that poor wheel alignment will eventually cause all kinds of structural and mechanical problems with your car. It’s the same with your body. Structure affects function.

As a chiropractor, I see sick and hurting people all the time. One thing they all seem to share is some sort of posture problem. Sometimes, they come to me with pains in the neck and shoulders from driving or sitting at the computer for long hours at a time. Or, maybe a hip, leg or low back problem caused by sitting on a too thick wallet. Probably the most subtle, yet more important, effects of poor posture are neurological problems that can result. Often, people come in with strange problems from migraine headaches to high blood pressure corrected after adjustments to the upper neck. Everyone knows the plight of Christopher Reeves, the former star of the Superman movies. He was thrown from his horse and broke his neck and damaged his spinal cord. The actor was not only paralyzed from the neck down, but also unable to have normal bodily functions without the aid of machines until his eventual death. Postural problems can indicate similar, yet much more subtle spinal misalignments and neurological problems.

Many people have postural problems that may have resulted at birth that only become apparent later in life. Others may have had other trauma caused by injuries from sports, fall or auto accidents. Unless corrected, these problems only get worse with eventual health implications. Because these subtle misalignments and the posture problems they cause don’t involve broken bones, they’re generally not identified with medical diagnoses. For the most part, only chiropractors are trained to identify, locate and correct these misalignments.

So if you find yourself slumping and slouching, do something about it. Practice standing up straight with your head held high and eyes looking forward, not down toward the ground. Pull your shoulders back while tightening your stomach muscles and tucking your butt in. If you find that your posture problem is hard to correct and might also be related to other health problems, find a wellness-oriented chiropractor or e-mail me and I’ll help you find one in your area.

Stand up straight and tall. Let the world know you’re strong, confident and healthy!

Rockie’s Story: Why I Am a Chiropractor

If my chiropractic story were all I had to tell you, I probably wouldn’t be a chiropractor today.  Instead, I’d probably be just another satisfied customer who gets adjusted regularly.  I injured my back lifting weights for high school football and suffered for 20 years.  Eventually, the pain got so bad that I was even willing to consider surgery or chiropractic.  At the time, both options were equally as scary to me.  Then, I met a chiropractor and started getting adjusted.  The results were incredible and I’ve been without a back problem ever since. In fact, I’ve not taken even an aspirin for over 17 years.

However, I’m a chiropractor today because of a little girl named Rockie.  I first met Rockie when she was eight years old.  At that time, Rockie was having 15-20 grand mal seizures EVERY day and taking over a dozen different prescription drugs for the seizures, ADD/ADHD, emotional and a host of other problems.  In fact, Rockie’s problems had been so bad that her doctors had recommended that she be institutionalized so her mom could live a normal life without being burdened by a child like hers.  You see, the doctors said that Rockie would never be like normal kids, unable to get along in social settings or do routine physical tasks, even ride a bicycle. Needless to say, Rockie’s mom said “No!” to that advice declaring that her little girl was a gift from God and responsibility that she would willingly face.

Rockie’s first visit to the chiropractor was with her babysitter’s family.  The babysitter made weekly visits to their chiropractor for wellness adjustments.  Seemingly unable (or unwilling) to cope with another doctor, Rockie would literally curl up in a corner and watch as all her young friends would get adjusted.  One day, the chiropractor got a call from Rockie’s mom saying that Rockie wanted to get adjusted and how or why would anyone adjust a child, anyway?  Her little girl didn’t have any back pain.  Rockie’s mom was told simply that adjustments help take stress off the nervous system and that stress on the nervous system can have adverse effects on the body and how it expresses health.  During the case history, her mom revealed that Rockie had an extremely difficult delivery at birth and had had problems from the beginning.

Over the years, Rockie’s condition steadily improved.  Eventually, she ended up in the National Honor Society, on her high school basketball team and joining a local archery club.   The long and short of the story is that Rockie has just finished college after receiving a full academic and is on her way to an advanced degree.  Not only can Rockie ride a bicycle, she drove back and forth between Marietta, GA and Columbia, SC every week for four years. She also competes internationally in archery at the championship level.  Not only has Rockie overcome incredible odds, she no longer has seizures and takes no more prescription drugs.  No. Rockie is not like normal kids, she’s incredible!

When asked what chiropractic did for Rockie, her mom says that more than relief from the seizures, learning disabilities and other diagnoses, the chiropractor was the FIRST and ONLY doctor who offered even a sliver of HOPE for her little girl. After knowing Rockie for several years and having watched her progress, I heard a story of another little girl suffering from seizures. Sadly, this little girl ended up having a hemispherctomy (an experimental procedure where HALF of the brain is removed) to relieve her symptoms. The parents were told that a chiropractor should not adjust their daughter.  At the time, my first child was only 15 months old.  Imagining that happening to my child broke my heart.

Knowing what potential is designed and available for every living person, I decided that I would dedicate my life to letting people know there is always hope of improving their health and their life.  Every day I awaken, I give thanks that I met Rockie and the difference she has made in so many lives.

Freedom and Representative Government are not free!

Freedom is NOT free.  It comes at a price.  Sometimes that price means offering your life in military service to protect those freedoms.  However, the one thing that every American should feel OBLIGATED to do is to KNOW their representatives in Government.  If it is OUR Government shouldn’t WE know what they are doing?

So many of us play this helpless “I’m only one vote.  What can I do?” game and just give up.  What happens in a ball game when there are not enough players on one team to play?  The team that shows up wins by DEFAULT!  We have allowed the bad guys to win by giving up.

We have seen what happens when the voters DON’T hold their representatives responsible for their votes.  Was it worth holding the majority for the GOP to abandon its prinicples of smaller Government, lower taxes and greater personal freedoms?  Eventually, people got fed up with that crap and voted them out OR sat out the election and let
the other guys win.

WE decide what kind of court system we’re going to have by electing the President and Senators that we do.  WE affect Government spending by electing the President and Congressmen that we do. WE affect EVERY aspect of Government from city dogcatcher to President of the United States.  EVERY major institution in America is on the verge of collapse and ridden with waste and corruption because WE have allowed it to happen.  WE don’t hold anybody accountable for ANYTHING.  We don’t even complain to the store manager when a clerk treats us like crap or sue the doctor for committing malpractice or the insurance company for not paying a just claim.

America WAS great when Americans CARED enough to act.  Because we don’t act, the bad guys KNOW we don’t care and that they can empty the vaults while we watch American Idol or Lost.  We MUST get over making or letting someone else be responsible for OUR Government.  WE must act now! Raise Hell with you Congressman, Senator, Mayor, Councilman or Commissioner.  Vote in EVERY election.  But NOT if all you know is their party affiliation.  What a waste of a freedom and a right that so few have!