The Physical Orientation of the Body

By Mark B Anstendig

The body will adjust to any positions one keeps it in (any position, to which one orients it).

That does not mean those positions are good or healthy.

Most bodies are adjusted to wrong physical positions…..positions assumed  when one is lying in bed or sleeping, when one is lying about on a sofa or cushion, when one is not sitting upright correctly in a chair, etc., and also when one is out and about, doing things.

Many, even most, of these usual positions of one’s body were determined and set by early influences and habits during childhood and firmly set as physical patterns, in which one feels most comfortable.

But the fact that the body usually feels most comfortable in less than ideal patterns of posture and movement in no way means those patterns are most healthy or even most furthering of mood, productive of mental activity, or, most importantly, of general well being. They are not.

Most people go through life with various health ‘conditions’ and other physical  problems of a seemingly less than specific nature due to these patterns and positions of their bodies, for which they often need treatment or medication, and which most probably ultimately, over time, determine the cause of their death.

And when one tries to work on oneself and changes those positions, to which one’s body has adjusted, one often encounters discomfort and, possibly, worse.

But what is the way out of these physical orientations and non-furthering, usually quite detrimental physical patterns of behavior/movement one has gotten oneself into over the course of one’s life? The way out is by going through various discomforts and unpleasantnesses that are encountered when the body’s previous orientations are changed for the better. Those are the “Lions at the Gates”, which, among other things, are put there by God, and which are meant to keep out those who should not be doing the Path, do not deserve the Path, or are trying to steal it. Many also serve as signs of God that are meant to be followed.

Until one gets one’s body correctly oriented, one’s body will never really be healthy. Certainly not as healthy as it can be.

That is how most people are. Physically wrongly oriented. The body is wondrous in that it adjusts to most such orientations and stays alive. Such bodies live, but they do not fully live what those who know the possibilities would call a real life.