Body grammar

When I was a child, my mother corrected my grammar. If I said something incorrectly, she would catch it, say it correctly and wait until I repeated it. As a result, me talks quite goodly.

This was not uncommon at the time for parents to do but, it also was becoming much less common than previously. Since the age of the internet, texting and less emphasis on language in general, parental grammar correction seems non-existent. Of course, to be able a to correct, one must be able to recognise incorrect.

But, there is much more to it these days than that. Today while having coffee with my friend we were talking about his son and my friend mentioned his son's poor posture. He is 14, quite tall but in my friend's words, 'stands like a person trying to look fat.' Poor posture is not uncommon in Finland for men or women.

The idea of deportment, the way one stands and walks, seems long lost and about as known to most these days as the Audrey Hepburn learning to speak correctly in My Fair Lady. The way one carries themselves is highly undervalued these days though and something that people seem to dismiss as unimportant. Body language carries information and, posture gives an indication to all kinds of information about a person without a word being spoken, correctly or not.

By the way someone walks you can predict with some accuracy if there is anger, tension, confidence, laziness or a general lack of attention paid to the self. First impressions are built on looks but, even the sound of the voice is affected by the position of the body. I wrote a post a few weeks back about the importance of looks but, the way someone carries themselves is an amazingly powerful tool.

Hunched over, slouching and general poor physical form is an indicator of a body out of balance, a body that hasn't been exercised to work optimally or, exercised at all. As people crouch for hours on ends staring at screens and down at their phones day in day out, the body suffers. Aches, pains and general discomfort are rife while people seek for relief through medication, the pill-popper generation and, not even the fun ones.

Our physiology as a species doesn't change very fast but the way we task our bodies has changed rapidly. It is no wonder why we are struggling to carry our own weight as not only is our weight increasing, our muscle strength and more importantly, the balance between points is decreasing. In the past where we would use our bodies in a fuller range of movement, we are now largely sedentary and the range employed is narrow. Where does it lead us when children are wearing support braces for back pains due to poor posture?

My friend met my father some years ago when he was visiting Finland for his 75th birthday. He mentioned today how good his posture was and I said, yep, it hasn't changed, he still stands with a straight back. At 82, he still carries himself better than most 18 year olds these days. With all of the access people have to information and tools to help them be better, not many people seem to consider the long term ramifications of being out of shape.

People dismiss those who think about the physical condition and appearance of their body as vain but, our bodies affect our minds and they affect our emotions. To be in optimal balance requires the three points to all work together toward a common point but, many are out of sync.

People say that they listen to their body but, they apparently don't hear what it is saying. Perhaps the grammar is so poor it can no longer get out a clear sentence. Straighten your back, does it hurt, feel tense, pull in various areas, take a lot of effort? It shouldn't.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]