42 = the answer to good posture

At age 16 I read the sci-fi classic, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy and learned, to my surprise, that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42.

Alhough this number has become the subject of facination and scrutiny, it was apparently picked at random by the author, Douglass Adams.

I turned 42 this year and I'm grateful that I've come across some much less random solutions to some confusing puzzles. Particular the posture puzzle.

In my early 20s, I was desparely trying to fix my tense shoulders, stiff walking, shallow breathing, and squeaky voice.

I was a college student studying acting and I repeated detailed physical and vocal exercises regularly, but nothing seemed to help.

I felt like I was repeating a random laundry list. Random, like the number 42.

Was the problem the exercises or was I simply a hopeless case?

The answer? The problem was neither me nor the exercises. There was in fact a third option that I was totally obilvious to--

My body awareness

You might think that good body awareness is something have if you play sports or dance, but you don't need to do these types of things to improve how well you sense your body.

If I wanted to actually correct the postural issues I struggled with, I had to become more mindful in my own body. By mindful, I mean actually using my mind to connect to my body...not just repeating exercises.

Last week I talked about the importance of getting the sequence right when trying to relearn how to move with good posture. That's one aspect of making your approach to posture "not random".

What's equally important to avoiding random attempts at posture correction is to develop accurate body awareness...and that's actually a real thing that you can learn.

You'll improve how you sit at the computer, command the room during a talk or interview, exercise without injury, and move through life with more enjoyment.

My improved body awareness helped me get to the bottom of the physical and vocal issues I was experiencing. It also helped me improve how I was doing my exercises and start to get some real benefit from them. What I discovered was that I'd been repeating them incorrectly and reinforcing all of my bad habits!

Want to start working on your body awareness? It first involves taking moments to pause and reconnect with your body.

To get you started, I'm going to give you a non-random suggestion by inviting you to take the 42-minute posture challenge, using this 6-minute audio guide each time you take a break.

Why 42? Because it's a good idea to pause every 45 min-1 hour...and that number has been stuck in my head ever since I read that book! Here's how it works:

1. Set an alarms on your phone to alert you every 42 minutes for one day (or another amount of time if you'd prefer! Adjust to accomodate your schedule.)

2. When the alarm goes off, sit all the way back in your chair, put your feet on the floor, close your eyes for a moment, and re-open them without straining your eyes, head or neck toward whatever you’re looking at. Want a longer reset? Check out the resources tab at the top of my website and try one of my audio guides.

Maintain this schedule for one day and see if you feel more aware of your body. Afterwards, use the guide a little less each day until you're using it 2 times per day by the end of two weeks.

If you go ahead with this challenge, feel free to share the results in the comments below!