This month, we’re exploring how the way you use the muscles of your back/posterior body opens a path to health, fitness, and pain-free living.

The muscles of our back bodies are meant to DANCE with our front bodies to support fluid, effortless movement.

Consciously activating your back body is very different than sitting or standing “straight.”

Imagine a dancer, or a martial artist. Rather than doing, or “trying”, there is a sense of ease, of floating. Of yielding to something larger, as if in the ocean, and going WITH the waves versus fighting them.

I’m remembering a scene in the wonderful film Billy Elliot, a story of young boy in Ireland who wanted to be a dancer. When asked why, he said, “I disappear . . . I feel fire in my body . . . flying, like a bird . . . electricity.”

These beautiful words describe FLOW.

Like animals in the wild, we all have access to this state of buoyancy and effortlessness. In every moment, even when you’re brushing your teeth.

What does the anatomy of our back (posterior) bodies have to do with flow?

Consciously activating your back body is a key to awakening this aspect of your body’s inner “electrical” healing potential.

Some specifics…

The muscles of the back body help balance our emotions!

Many research studies show that upright posture improves energy and mood, and has us feel open, feel confident and optimistic.

The muscles of the back body stimulate “rest & digest” (the parasympathetic nervous system).

The same body of research on posture and mood is naming just that. We don’t experience anxiety and depression when our nervous systems are in balance.

The muscles of the back body support alignment in our spine and joints.

Activating your back body puts the joints and bones where they are meant to be, and has them participating with each movement. This keeps them lubricated, sturdy and balanced.

The muscles of the back body support strength and balance body-wide.

Imagine engaging every muscle, every cell in your body, with every motion. Every cell gets a no-work “work out.” Use it or lose it!

Once our back bodies “wake up” we begin to gain access. We can begin to move toward homeostasis . . . toward resonance, like a musical instrument in tune.

After having practiced this awareness in each moment and for some time, I am now nearly ALWAYS there, and tuning in without having to “practice” or think about it at all.

Whether I’m at my desk, standing in a line, or waiting for the kettle to boil, I open to “receive” the support of my back body a little bit more.

It feels AMAZING.

Let’s Practice!
Whether seated or standing . . .

? Anchor your feet and send “roots” into the ground

? Let the top of your head “creep” toward skyward

? Allow your neck to lengthen while you gently tuck your chin

? Gently engage your glutes (butt)

? Gently allow your belly button to move toward your spine

? Gently roll your shoulders back and open your heart

? Gently let your shoulder blades “drip” down your back

? Tune in to ALL the muscles of your back (posterior) body

What do you feel?

What does it feel like to root into the ground as you reach skyward?
Do you have a sense of your body lengthening a little bit in both directions?

Your breath may soften, you might feel a sense of power filling you, or a sense of expanding in every direction.

These fundamental aspects of awareness in a body are a few of the key elements of Tadasana (“Mountain Pose”) in yoga.

Mountain Pose has us embody a powerful, fluid sense of connection with our bodies, and present time and space. Expanded, STRONG, and soft at the same time. Like a forest, or a river.

Let’s Look

I sense ease in the body of the gal on the left. She is soft, long, anchored, and BREATHING.

What do you sense when you tune in to each?

These gals are sitting . . . what about walking?

Imagine Billy Elliot for a moment, and his story feeling electricity. We can all be “dancers” dancers as we move through space, as though the Earth our dance partner. Noticing the “reciprocal tension” (shifting balance) as we walk. That power of remaining consciously connected. A good dance class, tango in particular, can be a great place to begin to explore embodied walking.

Whether sitting or walking, we can explore living in flow, and synchronizing with nature’s rhythms.

When the front and back bodies exchange work elegantly, movement is FLUID — versus when the front body is tense and the back body is doing nothing, as with most people most of the time! Martial artists, dancers, babies and animals are great examples.

Moving in flow takes the work out of being in a body. Natural forces lift us, root us, and even drive us. The electricity of life does the work of being in a body.

You are flow . . . more verb than noun.

Movement is what we are, not what we do.

Sharing Space

Awakening bodies share incredible stories!

“I felt a lot of change . . . like all of my organs settling . . . when you described ‘love’—something about feeling love in your organs. At first, the transition was nauseating . . . the visceral feeling, but it’s moving . . . and when it’s released, all that stuff in my back . . . all the way up to my jaws, also released . . . it was a great shift.”

Dr. Eddy Ennedy
Osteopathic Physician

“The nourishment we are yearning for comes through shifting our focus toward the people and things we truly love.

With finding our Flow.”

– Dr. Michelle Veneziano

We’d LOVE to hear from you!

If you’d like to share, simply reply to this email. We’re here to support your experience every step of the way.

Thank you for being here!

Flow IS Medicine.

In celebration of your emerging flow,

Dr. Michelle Veneziano

& the Flow is Medicine Community