Your Beautiful Bones and Mindfulness
Last Sunday, I taught a workshop on how to keep your bones healthy and strong. As I was sorting through an immense amount of information, what I was most struck by was the connection between our bones and mindfulness.
But let's bookmark the mindfulness part for a moment - I’ll make my way back to that in just a bit.
The primary reason to keep our bones strong is to avoid fractures as we age.
***One scary fact: a large percentage of hip fractures lead to immobility or death.
So how do you know if you are at risk? Generally, when thinking about fracture risk, we’re looking through the lens of bone density as measured by a DEXA scan. And yes, bone density is important, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle. When it comes to your bones, you really need to take a more integrative approach. In other words, consider all of the ways you can protect them.
The best ways to prevent fractures is to:
Avoid falls by improving:
Posture
Balance
Coordination
Body Awareness (proprioception and interoception)
and
Strengthen your bones
Let’s focus on posture and balance for a moment.
How often do you find yourself two hours into work meetings with your head jutting forward, your back slumped into your chair and your shoulders caved in?
What about an hour into a good book, with your book on your lap and your chin angled down to your chest or on an uphill walk with your spine at a forward angle?
All of these actions lead to poor posture and excess weight loading on your lower back. It’s no surprise that the majority of vertebral fractures in the lumbar spine come not from a fall but from bad posture.
And what about balance and coordination?
How often do you lose your balance or fall because you’re not paying attention?
Do you ever find yourself walking while looking at your phone or bending down to pick something up without thinking about how you're moving?
Cut to mindfulness.
Paying attention is ½ the work! When we take those pauses throughout the day and do just one thing at a time, we are able to take care of our bones in such a significant way!
What I heard from students after Sunday’s workshop was that they were paying attention to new ways to carry themselves uphill, new ways to organize their bodies at their desks and their reading chairs and taking a few extra pauses to notice their posture both in motion and in stillness.
#567 why I love mindfulness practices like yoga. Spending an hour paying deep attention to how we move our body has huge benefits!
Here are a few ways that yoga helps your bones:
Learning healthy ways to move, translates into healthy functional movement throughout the day.
Yoga’s focus on alignment improves your posture.
Yoga improves balance and coordination.
Paying deep attention to where your body is in space (proprioception) and noticing your physical sensations (interoception), increases awareness. This awareness boost leads to quicker responsiveness to your body's needs throughout the day.
And of course, yoga helps maintain and build healthy bones!
And it all starts with attention! So there you have it. A mini-bone-lesson and the ever reliable link to mindfulness.
As always, there are a few ways I can support you in your “bone-care” endeavors:)
1. It’s not too late to purchase Yoga for Bone Health: An Integrative Approach and receive the recording.
2. I’ll be offering another free “Tuesday Taster” on June 1st at 6pm (MST). In this monthly class you’ll get a taste of my Your Brain on Mindfulness course. I’ll share some tips about starting or reinforcing a mindfulness meditation practice as well as my perspective on how to individualize your practice to meet your unique needs. Bring your questions and register here. Repeats are welcome!!!
3. Join me and the Your Yoga community for a free 7-day trial and explore yoga and meditation with us.
Have a wonderful week and feel free to reach out with any questions.
Yours,
Rachel