Posture and Alignment Exercise:*try this several times throughout your day for better posture!

 

1. Begin standing.  Stand with your feet and legs directly under your hips.  Your legs and feet are parallel and your knees are pointing forward, straight but not locked.
2. Balance Your Weight. Adjust your body so that your weight feels like it is falling directly through the middle of the foot. 
    
3. Activate your core muscles. Lightly pull your abdominal muscles in and up. As you do so you engage the pelvic floor muscles as well. 
    
4. Drop the tailbone. This is a neutral spine position, where the natural curves of the spine are present without tucking or hyper-extending(sway back) the pelvis. A popular image is that the pelvis is a bowl of water and you don't want the water to spill out to the front or the back.
    
5. Relax and open your chest. The chest is not caved in and not thrust out, just resting easily. 
    
6. Shoulders down, broad back. Allow your chest to drop and open as your back expands. As this happens and you feel the support from your core, your shoulders drop away from your ears and your shoulder blades slide down your back. 
    
7. Ears reach for the sky. Your head and neck are completely supported by your core and easily float above your shoulders. Imagine that the tops of your ears are reaching for the sky. Your gaze is straight forward, with your throat open and chin resting naturally.