Tech Neck

We seem to be running an experiment on ourselves as a society. The unprecedented use of 'smart' phones is putting us into compromised body positions for prolonged periods of time.

I'm sure you have seen it in others, you may not have felt it in yourself. Head jutting forward, shoulders and upper back rounded forward and inwards 

The nearest pre smartphone position I can think of is the classic prayer position, but actually this is very stable in comparison. 

Smartphones seem to have a way of dragging us in that not only prolongs their use (the stats on the amount of use my young people is terrifying) but has us holding a posture that is causing discomfort or pain whilst making no attempt to change it. We seem to be almost trying to dive into the devise, whilst loosing our body awareness.  

There is lots of speculation about the effects of this posture over the long term, but as I said, its an experiment so we can't be sure. In the short term the effects are dramatic, shoulder, neck and back pain, dowagers hump and postural Kyphosis for starters.

So what's to be done; firstly try to be more aware of doing the damage, keep a bit of yourself back to be aware of how you are feeling in your body. Listen to the messages that are coming to you from your body, its easy to think, just one more game/look at Facebook/blog post and then I'll move, you then find you have been it 'that' position for an hour. 

Once the damage has been done; Get a regular Shiatsu treatment from me; but also move the body in the opposite directions, often. A structured approach can be found here, by Ekhart Yoga. You could hang from a door frame, stretch upward and back or downward dog are all good... this one below was shown to me by my friend Mick, hold the chest on the sternum and tilt the head back; this stretches the SCM (which tend to shorten with Tech Neck) and feels lovely 

The question of health

The question of health has been concerning me recently, specifically if one can be sick and healthy at the same time.

Is health the absences of disease or more or less than this? The World Health Organisation takes a very broad stance on this ‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ (have a look here)

This sets the bar very high and I’m not sure that anyone ever has or will fulfil this definition, or if someone does it would be for 15 mins on a good day. So that’s not much use in a practical way.

What started me thinking about this was the early illness and death of Shizuto Masunaga the ‘founder’ of Zen Shiatsu; he was a keen smoker and died of Lung Cancer. I was less interested in the nature of his death than the question of if he could be with cancer and still be considered healthy. This may sound like, and indeed be a very stupid question but it has been bothering me for some time.

We are all dying and I suppose in that way we are all not healthy. One eastern idea of health is balance and of being in balance, can one be very seriously ill and still have balance within that, to be in pain and still be healthy. I feel that the idea of balance may allow for this; that the balance can move and shift to accommodate where we are at. If I think about my body when I was 16 and how it is now the difference is so marked. My every day experience of my body today would have had me rushing to the doctor when I was 16. It’s just ageing (dying) and for me now, normal. I’m fine, in a good place for my age just not 16.

I don’t have an answer but I will continue ruminating on this I’m sure, if you wish to join me please leave a comment below.