The Zen Art of Sitting

06.09.09 | Category: Simplicity, Zen Health

Esther Gokhale with Drue Kataoka and Bill Fenwick sitting

Guest Post by Esther Gokhale
Author, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back

Whether in Zazen or Valley Zen, sitting is very much a part of our lives. In Zen sitting, each muscle, bone and ligament has a natural place. The design of the skeleton, the end product of millennia of collaboration between gravity and structure, has a natural balance and harmony. When we restore that balance, the result is stillness and flow. No part of the body is pinched or pulled, no part signals the brain that it needs to shift, toss, turn, tighten or be protected. Structure informs function. Blood, lymph, cerebrospinal fluid and Qi circulate unimpeded. A myriad accumulated injuries and rogue events sort themselves out spontaneously.

If this is not the way you currently sit, stillness and poise are still within your reach. Two helpful techniques are stretchsitting and stacksitting. Both transform sitting into a therapeutic activity that will help to heal aching backs and more. Yes, sitting can actually be good for you!

Stretchsitting

(using a backrest to put your back in traction)
Sit well back in your chair.
Curve your body forward from the waist so as to elongate your low back.
Elongate your spine further by pushing against the chair seat with your arms.
Esther Gokhale with Drue Kataoka and Bill Fenwick
Press your elongated spine against the backrest (you may need to modify the backrest with a towel or our newly developed Stretchsit™ cushion.
Let go of all your lengthening efforts, while your spine remains attached to the backrest. Enjoy the stretch in your back while you work, drive, eat, or relax at home.

Stacksitting

This technique is useful when there is no backrest available. The idea is to stack the bones of your spine, from top to bottom, in a single column so that they support your head without any muscular involvement at all. None, zero, zilch. You will find yourself suspended in space and time. Use a small wedge (folded towel or blanket) on the back of the seat. Sit on the edge of the wedge so your pelvis tips forward. Notice that the rest of your spine stacks more easily. If necessary, use some of your abdominal muscles to improve your alignment . If you are swayed, rotate your rib cage forward to straighten out your sway. If your torso needs more length, engage the abdominal muscles that will create extra length)
Esther Gokhale with Drue Kataoka and Bill Fenwick

Your shoulders

Now give attention to your shoulders. They should naturally sit back, so that the arms hang down at the back of the rib cage. One at a time, roll the shoulders forward, up and back in a slow, deliberate circle. Then let your shoulders settle in a position that lets the arm hang further back than before.
Do you feel your chest expand, and breathing become easier? Good, you’ve got it.

Your head

Elongate your neck by gently pulling a clump of hair on the back of your head up and back. Now notice where your head is. It should perch on the top of the spine, chin down, back of the head seeming to rise up the back. When you position it there do you feel the neck muscles release? If so, then, again, you’ve got it.

Finally, just enjoy the sensations traveling through the body as you sit—in a way nature intended, in a moment of Zen.
Esther Gokhale (go-clay), the author of this post, graduated from Princeton with a degree in biochemistry and earned her C.A. from the San Francisco College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. After personal struggles with back pain, unsuccessful back surgery, and a dismal prognosis, she began what would become a lifelong dedication to understanding and addressing the root causes of pain. Esther Gokhale with Drue KataokaHer technique is now detailed in her first book, ‘8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back’. Esther is the founder of the Esther Gokhale Wellness Center in Palo Alto which provides weekly classes in posture & alignment, dance, fitness and yoga. She is the creator of the Gokhale Method and the Stretchsit™ cushion.

8 Comments so far

  1. Jim Clark

    An enlightening article for a big chunk of Silicon Valley who have some sort of back problems. I have two questions:
    1) I have a chronic hip joint injury, and I am afraid that the stacksitting as described may put extra pressure on my hip joints. Should I be concerned?
    2) How do you apply these principles in standing position

  2. Bill Fenwick

    Esther,

    There are a number of impressive testimonials in your book and on your website. My name is not “Mikey” but I did try the stretchsitting, stacksitting and stretchsit cushion and found it reduced back and leg pain from a pinched nerve coming out of the lower spinal area of my back.

    Oh yeah, and I bought the book too.

  3. Esther Gokhale

    Hi Jim,

    1) Stacksitting should help rather than hurt your hips. The more natural architecture allows better blood flow and prevents the wrong portions of the bones within the joint from rubbing against each other. There may be tight muscles that make the alignment difficult at first, but go at it gradually and you stand (or sit!) to gain that much more from the posture.
    2) It so happens that the chapter about standing is in the “Look Inside” section on the page of my website that is about my book. See: http://egwellness.com/products/products.html#

  4. Esther Gokhale

    Dear Bill,

    I’m so happy to hear that you have had good results. Now that you have the book, go on to try the inner corset – that should help too. The goal is to get all the pressure off your pinched nerve and then create some slack so the pain never returns.

    Best,
    Esther

  5. sandra

    Thank you for this post. I think there is a psychological component to “sitting”. When my posture is good, I feel like I’m “arrogant” and I’m not sure what that is about. Do you have any comments on this? yet, when I see those with graceful posture they don’t look “arrogant” but self confident. I think if I can get over the feelings involved with correct posture–I can excel at this.

  6. Esther Gokhale

    There is a lot of research showing a connection between psychological state and posture (see Elaine Hatfield’s Emotional Contagion). The connection is also quite clear in animals, whose psychological state we are used to gauging via their posture (head hung and tail between the legs – the equivalent of a tucked pelvis, incidentally – means sad or afraid. Head held high and tail out indicates happy…)

    We have become so unused to having good posture, we feel awkward and even “arrogant” as it makes us stand out from those around. But it is normal to have good posture. Rather than be influenced by bad posture, you want to set an example. People do copy each other and you will be helping others by being upright and graceful. So go for it – onward and upward!

  7. Kirk Florida

    Reading through this post just reminded me that my physical therapist is getting onto me about my posture. It is very important to combat my back and neck pain.

    I have been using the McKenzie Method press up for my low back pain very successfully. McKenzie Method chin tucks, etc. for my neck but NOT very successfully.

    I have a herniated disk in my neck but I am not convinced to do surgery since the docs cannot guarantee any pain reduction. One doc said I could sneeze and get paralyzed. Do you think surgery is necessary if you can deal with the pain?

    Also, my wife suffers from leg pain but I do not see anything right away on this post or your website about leg pain, can you provide a link for leg pain?

  8. Guillermo Jacome

    Muy interesnte saber como sentarse durante muchas horas sin tener problemas espaldas…

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