Aligning for Success: Tai Chi Postural Principles in the Workplace

John Blue
Jun 7
13 min read

Long hours at a desk can take a toll on your body, leading to fatigue, discomfort, and even long-term health issues. This session explores the impact of posture on productivity, energy levels, and overall well-being. Learn simple adjustments to your workstation, internal principles, and mindful movement techniques to prevent strain, nourish vitality, and improve focus.

Enjoy this lecture: https://youtu.be/RecJGoqKUQ0

Hello friends!

For many of us, time spent on the job is not only mentally and emotionally taxing but can also become physically uncomfortable. Whether we need to stand for long periods, sit while staring at a screen, walk constantly, or lift heavy things. Each of these has the potential to wear down our bodies slowly and eventually cause significant pain. Sometimes, it's due to severe injuries that require support from a team of experts, but more often, it's caused by simple mistakes in how we use our bodies. If you can make some of those changes on your own, in posture, movement, or mindset, I guarantee it will make your life much easier.

First, let me reiterate that some individuals have serious health issues that require a doctor's examination. If you suspect you may need immediate help, please make time to visit an expert. It's always worth being extra cautious with your health and well-being. It's genuinely important to me that you find ways to heal and enjoy your life even more!

Let's start with the seated posture since so many of us spend a massive portion of our lives slumped in a chair. When we think about being relaxed, unfortunately, many of us plop into our chairs, sag, and slouch. That's not relaxation, that's collapsing.

It puts a massive amount of stress on your circulatory system, obstructs your breathing, makes your mind fuzzy, interferes with digestion, and so much more. It's no wonder we can feel terrible after a full day in this position!

Luckily for us, millennia ago, meditators discovered how to sit comfortably for extended periods of time. We can use some of those ancient skills to make our modern lives much easier.

Get into a comfortable, upright posture. If possible, use a chair that places your hips at least slightly higher than your knees. Keep your feet flat on the ground beneath your knees, and soften your hips so that you can freely shake your legs side to side without much tension.

Take a moment to let your posture settle slightly before we start making changes. Notice how your posture feels now—where it's tight, where it's collapsed, and where you feel the most comfortable. Pay extra attention to any areas that have been injured or require special care.

How is your breathing?

What is the quality of your mind today?

How about your emotional flow?

All of these aspects of your body and mind are impacted by your postural skills, so learning to notice how they are functioning will become increasingly vital as you improve.

How is your back? Can you straighten up without arching your back too far? We don't want some sort of military posture. Forcing your back to arch or your shoulders to draw to your spine will only make you exhausted faster.

We want to find a postural relationship that is effortless to maintain throughout the day. Notice that I called it a relationship? Posture isn't something you hold, or that stays the same constantly. Posture is a dynamic relationship throughout your body and mind. So, as I make suggestions about your body shape, don't try to become rigid with them as rules. Our goal is not to hold a posture. One of our goals is to allow the weight of our body to be supported by the chair rather than by our soft tissues.

Let me say that again. We don't hold a posture. We release into a shape that allows us to stay healthy and comfortable throughout the changing circumstances of our lives. The weight doesn't go to the joints of our body; it goes through them and into the chair. Through, not to.

With your shoulders over your hips, sway forward and backward a bit. Don't do it by collapsing and arching your back; that's not helpful. Also, don't do it by putting your head and shoulders forward and backward. Instead, adjust the angle of your torso by hinging from your hips.

Sometimes, this is easier if you are sitting on a hard chair because you can more easily feel your weight pressing down into the sitting bones. Depending on the shape of your body and the type of chair, you may notice that you can fold from your hips and adjust your pelvis so that the weight of your body moves from on top of those bones to behind them, allowing it to rest in front of them. Try hinging forward and back, feeling the weight moving over these bones. It's essential to correct this part of your alignment, so take a moment to play with the positioning.

Align your body so that the weight falls in front of those sitting bones, the ischial tuberosity.

Maintain an upright and relaxed posture without slouching forward or pulling your shoulders back.

As you settle into this new posture, pay attention to how your body adjusts as you release your tension.

Here's a question for you: What direction do tension and stress tend to move in the body?

It's a contraction inward, compressing toward the center and lifting upward as you become ungrounded. Can you feel it?

Now ask yourself: What direction does relaxation and a feeling of peace move the body?

It's a kind of opening, expansion, and decompression in all directions, followed by a settling of your soft tissues toward the ground. Through your body, to the chair, and the ground.

Let's do a bit of practice, paying attention to this loosening quality in the body. Pay attention to the movement of your breath. Don't over-control this process. Maintain your control and focus with a light and gentle touch. If you start to try hard and force concentration during this practice, you'll only create more tension.

Exhale through your mouth, and inhale through your nose.

Exhale and release any tension held in your body.

Notice how, each time you relax a bit deeper, you uncover a feeling of peace and quiet?

Inhale, and allow that feeling to increase.

Exhale and soften, inhale, and become still.

Notice that as you relax, your joints and soft tissues gently open and decompress. The more you let go, the more you feel comfortable, at ease, and expansive.

This is a foundational Daoist practice for you to enjoy. I recommend exploring it at least once a day. When you become proficient at it, you'll find yourself relying on it during every stressful event.

Ask yourself: Is there a regular event that causes you stress?

When you do, what happens to your posture and breathing?

Can you feel in your body how much of a difference this practice can make for you during those moments?

Now, we come to an essential principle of our healthy postural method. Remember the feeling of your body opening as you relaxed? Let's explore it a bit further.

If your chair allows it, let your arms hang at your sides. If necessary, stand up to give your arms enough space.

Exhale and release tension from your shoulders, upper arms, around your elbows, wrists, and hands.

Notice how, as the contraction begins to open, it's as though your arms sink and lengthen under the influence of gravity. Let's call this experience of decompression "softening long."

There is something very powerful about this kind of opening and expansion. In fact, it actually becomes potent enough to support our posture and structure.

Let me repeat that because it's a vital point.

When we relax within and through good postural relationships, the joints and the soft tissues lengthen and decompress. With practice, this expansion is powerful enough to hold us up in a good seated position. It feels wonderful and makes it much easier to sit and stand during the day. And after enough training, it becomes strong enough to move your whole body through a Taiji form. Honestly, it feels like magic; it's fantastic for your health, and I cannot recommend it enough that you start training with an expert to explore the skill.

It's easy to feel this kind of opening in the arms and shoulders, but perhaps the most essential place to begin is within the neck. When our head is drooping forward, it's like a bowling ball pulling down on our upper spine. We have to grip all of the musculature in the back just to keep ourselves from collapsing and closing off our airway. It's no wonder we often struggle to learn how to relax our neck and shoulders.

Let's experiment with this a little more. Align yourself vertically so that gravity can pass through your torso and into the chair and the ground more easily. With your fingers, find the tops of your ears, and then go straight up to the crown of your head. Position your head above your spine if possible. However, don't use force or strain to force it into position. Instead, use this new skill of relaxing and lengthening to allow the top of the head to go upward through decompressing the neck and upper spine.

Inhale and exhale. Continue to release any tension and clenching around your neck, shoulders, and upper back as much as possible. Exhaling, feel the top of your head fall upward as you let go of your neck and throat. You can even take the time to let go of the tension around your eyes, your jaw, and the base of your tongue. Instead of stacking the weight of your head onto your spine, you allow for the weight to be supported effortlessly through this expansion.

This practice will take some time to help reshape a body that may have spent decades hardening around the other, collapsed posture. Be patient, and continually use this method of softening-long to reshape your neck and upper back. Those of you who know me and my history of scoliosis will already be aware of how transformative this ancient method has been for me.

You'll notice how much more alert and quick-witted you feel as this adjustment becomes a new habit.

Let's do a quick recap.

It's useful to first establish good postural relationships from the ground up. Your feet are flat, and your legs are uncrossed, with your hips slightly higher than your knees to help your back relax. Sit on the front third of your chair, making it easier to rest the weight on the spot in front of your sitting bones rather than on your tailbone.

Rest the weight of your body onto this place instead of trying to hold your body weight upward with force. Let the weight fall to the chair and the ground. Position your shoulders over your hips so that you can relax more easily and your head above the rest of your spine. Then, begin to let go, allowing your body to unclench. Feel the natural, effortless opening that starts to occur as your joints and soft tissues decompress. Explore that possibility in your neck so that the weight of your head is no longer pulling down on your upper back. It takes some practice, so be patient with your process. Your health and comfort are worth the investment!

Now that you've taken the weight off your neck feel the tops of your shoulders relax further. Just as before, allow the elbows to hang. The shoulder joints and the musculature on top open and lengthen. Release tension around your forearms and wrists. If you were to allow the fingers to hang, they would also soften-long.

Interestingly, the fingers do not have muscles, so it is essential to soften the entire hand, including the fingertips. Especially if you are someone who does a lot of work with your hands, please take extra time to release tension in your hands and wrists—top and bottom, with great care and love.

Of course, if you sit at a workstation looking at a screen, it's imperative to adjust your workspace to suit your new posture. Perhaps raise the screen so that you're not forced to hunch your back and look downward.

Sit in a chair that allows you to rest in this new position, with your hips above the level of your knees and your back comfortably upright. If your chair has elbow rests, lower them so that they don't force your shoulders up as you work. If needed, lower your keyboard, if you have one, so that you don't need to tighten and lift your shoulders to do your work. Have enough full-spectrum light so that you don't need to squint to see

and enough warmth so that you don't clench in response to excessive air conditioning. We don't always have control over the space where we work, but by being creative, we can often make a dozen small changes that will make a big difference over time. You can do it!

As your neck and head release upward and your arms release downward, a kind of stretching open occurs. Can you feel it? The lengthening is happening entirely through letting go. Let that opening continue to grow, opening in the upper back where the shoulders and neck meet.

Typically, this is an area of enormous tension and compression, causing pain and weakness throughout our lives. Instead, you now have the great secret to setting this area free!

Exhale and release, lengthen. Let that space open. Inhaling, feel the sense of spaciousness and peace grow as you relax. There's no rush. It should feel wonderful!

As the upper back and neck open, allow your chest to release any tension or holding pattern. The culture I grew up in prizes a military-style position, forcing the chest to lift and the upper back to contract. Also, a common practice within the yogic tradition is to lift the chest to create a specific effect. We don't want either position now. Instead, let go of any need to force your chest upward by holding your back. There is a direct relationship between the back and the chest. When your chest lifts, your lower back often arches or your upper back clenches. It's much better to allow things to relax and open in a more effortless position.

As you soften your chest, feel the weight fall down and through toward the chair. It will give you another opportunity to relax your abdomen deeply.

Again, many of us live in a culture that is very belly-phobic. We are taught to clench and hold our abdomen in tension constantly until it hardens into a piece of immobile wood. Not great for your health and certainly stifling for your breath. By learning to breathe more freely, your energy level throughout the day will improve significantly.

Let's explore this release of the breath for a moment. Exhale and release any habit of gripping your belly. Inhale, and allow the breath to move anywhere that it wants, without excessive control. Our goal here is only to remove tension and agitation from the postural relationships and activity of the breath. Each time you feel your breath move, let go as much as possible to facilitate deeper relaxation and greater ease.

Be careful here that you don't respond to the feeling of relaxation by collapsing and sagging into the chair. It's a common bad habit, and we want to find a different way to sit. However, if you need to take a break at any time, please pause the lesson until you're ready to continue.

Now, we have reached a tricky spot in learning to relax. The lower back is a complex structural area, and it can become relatively easy to turn it into a place filled with pain and restricted movement. We want to begin to soften the musculature in the lumbar area to allow the body weight to land in the chair rather than getting trapped in the body. Avoid arching your lower back as you sit, and begin to find a way to let it fall open while continuing to rest in front of the sitting bones of your chair. Patience is essential here, too! You cannot force your body to relax. That's like the old joke of learning to "soften harder." It's not possible. You can only coax your body with gentleness and rest in order to help it open.

It's not always posture that causes an area to clench. Sometimes, it's due to an old injury, and often, it's a result of a habitual emotional pattern. Perhaps you've noticed that when you start to feel frustrated or angry, your jaw gets tight, your shoulders tense, and your breathing changes. If you've suffered an anxiety attack, you'll know the terrible feeling in your chest. And you might have noticed how chronic fear causes your lower back to become tight and exhausted, freezing your abdomen and even weakening your knees. When these emotions become habitual, the physical aspect also becomes chronic.

While methods like meditation and therapy can help with the mental aspect of the emotional cycle, simply releasing those patterns in the body can also aid in processing and healing. Angry people live in angry bodies. If you don't begin to grip your body or hold your breath and mind, then it's much easier to return to a state of calm and presence. When you're at work, this leads to a much more energized and clear-minded state, which helps skyrocket your performance.

It's more challenging to describe activities such as standing, walking, and lifting, which are all essential components of many jobs. However, all of the same principles apply and are much easier to explore and comprehend by practicing the seated posture. I'll explore the other activities in future lessons if there is an interest.