That was the day I saw myself in the mirror windows of the Shard.
It was early morning. The sky was clear, the streets were busy. My reflection was in a hurry and it was heavily leaning forward. My shoulders were way in front of my feet!
I had to stop, I was so surprised. Why was I walking like that? And why was I not aware of it? I felt completely upright and.. normal. Bizarre.
The next few days I started paying attention and noticing my walking posture. Even if I brought my shoulders back over my feet, sooner or later I was in the same leaning forward position.
And then the answer came to me. It came on a hill, while I was pushing up the buggy with my then two-year old in it. I was leaning heavily forward to employ my whole body in shifting the heavy load.
I had been doing that for years..
Soon after I got rid of the buggy. Made a point of walking upright. And the nagging ache in the front of my left hip that I have been trying to figure out for months also melted away.
I am telling this story because no matter how much yoga, sports, massages or else we do and receive to take care of ourselves, what matters most is how we move and what we do on a regular basis in our busy daily lives. Most of the time without even having the awareness that we do it.
The good news is that what we do to take care of ourselves can bring our awareness to those unconscious and unhelpful patterns. Moreover, doing yoga, sports or massages can also be the tool to change these patterns for the better.
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