Habit influences everything you do. How you stand, sit, breathe and even think. But are you aware of their total influence on your actions? Try the following experiment.
1. Fold your arms and note the position of your hands and which arm is on the outside.
2. Now unfold them and fold them again but this time the opposite way. Note your reaction to how this feels.
Does it feel odd or even wrong? In the first step you used your habitual 'folding the arms' pattern. You did not have to think about how you did it because you have an existing pattern; it's automatic and feels right. Did you have to think for a moment before carrying out the second instruction? It may even have taken several attempts to achieve. This is because you do not have an existing pattern for this movement and it has to be consciously worked out. It will probably feel wrong because you will not have done it like this before so the sensations from the muscles and joints will be new to you.
The important lesson from this experiment is how the two positions feel. Your habitual pattern feels right and is easy to do, your non-habitual opposite way feels wrong and is not quite so easy to do. There is obviously nothing wrong with the opposite arm-fold but that is exactly how it will feel. Would you normally choose to fold your arms in this manner? What feels right and wrong is therefore determined by habits that may be working for you but also against you.
So familiar feels right, unfamiliar feels wrong. There would have been a time when you didn't fold you arms and you learnt by watching others do it. The important point is that you will have learnt to fold them in a particular way with either left or right arm on the outside. If you have never folded them the other way around you will never choose to do it this way and probably never cross your mind that it could be done another way. Whichever way you do it first you are likely to become stuck with it; it's your habit for life. Folding your arms in the same way continues to re-enforce the feeling of rightness whilst creating the set of 'rules' for this pattern you will always follow.
Now what about how you stand, sit and walk, your basic actions that you spend every day performing? Why should these actions be exempt from the 'rules' that apply to your arm-folding habit? Of course they are not. So how you sit at your desk is done in a way you have learnt to do it and it will feel right. There are many ways to sit but would you ever try these out? If you do, how do they feel? Can you maintain your new sitting position for long? People can soon become uncomfortable as they use new muscles for sitting that are normally inactive for sitting.
So in effect we all create our own unique bubble to exist in but we can't see it because we are in it. To the snowman inside his dome the weather never appears to change! If you develop poor habits relating to movement how would you know? Neck, back and shoulder pain are the most obvious symptoms but how can you accurately identify the cause when the fault lies with the very equipment you would use to diagnose and correct it? Never performing to your full potential is a less obvious symptom simply because if you haven't been there how do you know if you are underachieving?
So when you try to change your posture, don't do what feels right! Yes this does sound a little odd, but remember what feels right is down to your habits: the ones causing the problem! To successfully change a habit, any habit, you will have to go into the unknown - the feeling you had when folding your arms the opposite way. This is the only way you can be sure you are not engaging your old, poor habits.
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