The last time I ran my annual Chakra Healing Class, one of the most interesting topics came up.
On of the participants (thank you Steve!) mentioned that he noticed becoming more short of breath when his posture slumped.
That brought on a wonderful discussion of all the different ways that poor posture literally physically affects your health… everything from dry mouth and dental issues to decreased oxygenation, decreased sleep quality and even increased ADHD symptoms.
But posture affects more than just our physical body… it affects our spirit.
In class I shared a link to this really awesome oldie-but-goodie TED talk where Amy Cuddy explains exactly how your body’s posture actually helps to shape your personality, your demeanor and even affects the people around you. If you haven’t watched it yet I think it’s worth a listen.
But posture goes even further than that.
Your posture truly affects you at your core — on your deepest energetic level. The spine naturally curves into the fetal position as a mechanism of protection and to self soothe during times of stress.
- Have you ever noticed that when life gets you down or wears you out, whether the stressor is big or small, your shoulders slump and your head hangs forward?
- Do you notice your lower back round out when you’ve had a long hard day?
- Have you ever faced a traumatic incident by wrapping your arms tightly around your chest or stomach?
- Have you ever been so worn out from life that you curled up in your bed in the fetal position, knees curled up towards your chest…
- …or felt so broken that you laid on the floor of your shower curled into this protective posture, letting the water and heat envelope you?
I have.
I bet you have too.
It’s totally natural to go into this comforting position when stress surrounds you. This because the fetal position is the position we are in while we are nurtured in the womb.
In fact, when infants are born they only have one curve to their spine… the C shaped curve of the knees-to-chest fetal position they had while held inside their mother’s body.
As we grow and learn to stand and ambulate under the forces of gravity, the spine develops three mature healthy curvatures in order to maintain a positive and productive center of balance.
But when we are traumatized, stressed, or upset, it is very natural for our body to tuck in tight, ball up, seek the fetal position and try to survive.
Surviving stress and trauma leads to physical health changes that ultimately affect our posture, our sleep, our mood, our digestion, our breathing, our pain levels, and even totally stress out our adrenals.
But how does posture affect our health on all of those levels?
The answer lies in our energy flow. Posture affects our energetic alignment which in turn affects our body from head to toe. To make this visual for you, I set out to paint a painting to illustrate exactly how our spine lines up with our energy centers.
So today I wanted to share the process of creating this with you here so that hopefully I can inspire you to take stock of your posture, take deeper breaths, support your internal alignment and truly feel your powerful internal energy centers radiate out from all directions in perfect concert with each other!
Step 1. Taking a page (literally!) out of my 20 year old med school anatomy book, I drew the spine on the middle of my canvas:
2. Then I filled in the background color…and added some white spirals at the level of each of our 7 core chakras:
3. Next I darkened the background to create more contrast and added even more spirals radiating out of each chakra center:
4. I then re-outlined the spine to bring it on top of the background and make it more visible:
5. After that it was on to color! I added spiraling energy at each chakra level, radiating out from the corresponding point on our spinal column:
7. And then I re-outlined the spine and filled the bones in with white to help them stand out:
8. At this point I started feeling like this Chakra Anatomy painting would be a fantastic daily reminder for those of us who could use a visual to remember to check our posture throughout the day and sit or stand a little better… so I added the words “stand tall.”
And I mean that both metaphorically and literally.
Literally take that deep breath and stack your vertebra up in a nice line.
And energetically… hold your head up high.
You are who you are.
And that is a beautiful thing.
With some extra tweaks on the energy circles and a few more touch ups on the letters… you have one of my favorite chakra paintings I’ve done:
Hold that head up and know that every moment you are here on earth flowing your unique soul energy through your unique physical body, you are doing important work that can be done by no other.
So sit straighter, walk taller, and SHINE.
This painting is my attempt at a daily reminder to vibrantly radiate your core energy by standing tall. If you could use a reminder too, hop over here to grab a print of this artwork!
Totally fantastic for a yoga or meditation area or even in your closet to see as you get dressed each morning (I have mine hanging above my desk because that is where I tend to slouch the most!)
Do you need a reminder to breathe deeply too?
I know sometimes even when my posture is okay, I find I am still holding my breath. And it occurred to me, when I was working with a patient on his breathing issues, that our lungs remind me very much of wings.
I told him to take a big deep breath of air as if he were stretching out his wings behind him, imagining his lungs filling, his shoulder blades growing wings, and his arms reaching out and up as if he were about to take flight.
I liked that image I had in my mind of our lungs filling and turning into wings so much I wanted to paint it! So I did. Hop over here to read more about your beautiful angel wings we call lungs:
You Have Angel Wings Inside Of You
Life is hard enough to navigate.
It helps to meet all external stressors with internal core strength. Chakra alignment is an invaluable tool to sustaining your health and remaining centered during life’s storms.
I’ve seen over and over folks with strong internal chakra alignment affect powerful external change in their life.
If you’d like to go further and deeper with this concept, join me in optimizing your energy flow in my upcoming online Chakra Healing Class. which starts next week!
In this Chakra Healing Class I’ll help you translate chakra alignment into physical health, and help you finally understand what your body is telling you.
There is nothing like this anywhere else on earth — truly. A physician with 20+ years of experience, supporting you throughout this entire healing process… giving you the best from all of my experience working privately with patients on their chakras.
You will literally leave this experience transformed from the inside out, head to toe.
Class runs for 7 weeks: Feb 6 – Mar 24, 2023… and it is designed to be incredibly flexible!
If you are traveling during the class, live in a different time zone, or have unique commitments that make taking classes hard — this is the class for you! Ultimately completely flexible, completely do-able, I work into *your* schedule and I am here to support and uplift YOU, right where you are!
All activities and articles are yours forever, to do as you desire, when you desire to do them… and all meditations, plus the Zoom Q&A meeting, are recorded and sent out for you to listen and watch whenever it’s convenient for you!
Everything you experience throughout your day — any obstacle and any blessing — feels so much more powerful when you are meeting it from a place of deep internal balance.
I’ll help you get there.
Together we will align your core from the bottom to the top, building upon your inner strengths and releasing any resistance you have built at each level. It all starts next Monday, Feb 6th. Sign up now so I can ship your goodie bag to you right away!
I can’t wait to work together with you to have you feeling centered and aligned… all the way to your core. I’d love you to join me by clicking over here to sign up and reserve your spot today.
Stand tall my friends!!!
xoxoxox,
Laura Koniver MD
PS: here are some more of my favorite chakra paintings that I’ve painted for you over the years:
(You can find prints for all of my original healing paintings right here.)
PPS: in my upcoming Chakra Healing class you get free printable files of every single one of these chakra artworks so that you can print them out to work with at each level we go through!!!!
If you want this entire artwork collection, or just to work with me to feel you most aligned, energetic best self, sign up here: