I Read: Stepcase Lifehack or Fibromyalgia and (Chronic) Pain and Posture

Topics: Fibromyalgia and..., I Read, My Network, Trying Stuff

I am a reg­u­lar reader of Step­case Life­hack.  I appre­ci­ate the vari­ety of ideas they dis­cuss and often enjoy attempt­ing to heed their advice.  Although the con­tent usu­ally has lit­tle to do with My Life with Fibro, last Tues­day they fea­tured an arti­cle of par­tic­u­lar inter­est to me by fit­ness coach, Jamie Nis­chan.

Nischan’s arti­cle closely echoes the advice I received dur­ing one of my recent trips to my chi­ro­prac­tor, Dr. Delilah.  He high­lights body-friendly pos­tures for dri­ving, work­ing, and sleep­ing and does a good job remind­ing you that the lit­tle things do, indeed, matter.

Before I left on vaca­tion, Dr. Delilah strongly rec­om­mended I pay close atten­tion to my pos­ture.  She reminded me of the power seem­ingly small habits have to cre­ate mus­cle ten­sion and pain.  She also reminded me how sim­ple it can be to develop good habits and coun­ter­act and/or erase bad habits.

My sleep pos­ture seems in line with the advice of both my chi­ro­prac­tor, and Jamie.  But my pos­ture behind the wheel and at my desk need seri­ous improve­ment.  In fact, my chi­ro­prac­tor believes my recent severe back pain can be less­ened as I grow more aware of, and improve my dri­ving posture.

Please give Nischan’s arti­cle a read, and let me know what you think.  And remem­ber, don’t get overwhelmed.

I’m pretty sure being aware of your pos­ture is the bulk of the battle.

I look for­ward to your feedback.

Existing Comments

    Comment by Kimberley on July 6, 2009 @ 10:20 pm

    Oh I’m so glad you brought this up! I too have a bad pos­ture when I’m dri­ving and I know it has a lot to do with my con­cen­tra­tion behind the wheel. When I’m really focused on what I’m doing or I am stressed, the last thing on my mind is my posture.

    I really should think about it, I know, but some­times it truly is the last thing on my mind. I’ve tried instead to shift my posi­tion every few min­utes, or so, and that seems to work even when I’m really focused on what I’m doing. It took a lot of work to train myself to do that– don’t get me wrong– but it did help.

    Comment by Jamie Nischan on August 5, 2009 @ 11:06 am

    One thing to note about pos­ture. When you’re sit­ting in your car or at your desk. Try to take in a deep intra-abdominal breath. The deep kind they teach you in yoga.

    If your pos­ture is where it should be, you will be able to get a full strong draw of air allow­ing your belly to expand outwards.

    You should prac­tice this once every hour or two a day. It will really help you be mind­ful of your body’s position.

    Nice Blog ;)

    Comment by Kate Blaylock on August 5, 2009 @ 9:31 pm

    Thank you for shar­ing more of your exper­tise, Jamie. I will be sure to make a habit of prac­tic­ing strong breaths, every so often. I find sim­ple rou­tines not only increase my aware­ness of my body, but improve the qual­ity of the workday.

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