Finding the center of you

Clothes don't really create the man or the woman, but the posture does. Even the smartest clothes can look shit if your body is not utilized effectively.

Throughout time, different parts of human physics have been highlighted by fashion - some parts more than others. Some clothes actually require you to have a certain type of body shape to wear them well, but if your attitude is good, you can wear most.

But where to start - from the top or from the bottom? In terms of posture, the best place to start is actually in the middle. Get your posture straight from the middle and whatever you wear will look great.

Exercise makes perfect, and practicing a good posture is something that anyone can learn to do well. With repeated practice, it will lead to an alert and positive frame of mind and a relaxed body. It is something that can be done while sitting, standing or walking and doing normal daily activities.

This is not about deportation. It is about learning to move from the waist and is something that has been known for thousands of years in the Far East.

Contrast the image of Rodin's "thinking" with a picture of Buddha, and you will get an idea of ​​postural differences. In the west, the upper body is usually exaggerated, and a 'belly-in' and 'chest-out' approach has been a cornerstone of images of virile masculinity. Women have not fared much better either, and have endured centuries of limited movement with health and well-being sacrificed to conventional images of femininity.

To move well, learning to stand well is the International Convention Centre. The abdomen should be relaxed, neither retracted nor pushed out. The breathing should be calm and use the diaphragm instead of upper chest breathing. The goal at this point is to let the body's natural center of gravity find itself.

The knees should be 'soft' and relaxed, and the spine straight but not tense. Shoulders should be held down but not rounded. And the head should be balanced lightly on the neck with the chin tucked in very easily. This kind of initial practice only takes a few minutes. You may find it more difficult than you think, but it is worth continuing to establish a good foundation.

The goal is to find and develop a strong center of movement. The slightly downward extension of the knees combined with the upward extension of the spine helps to create 'tensegrity', a term coined by Buckminster Fuller, an American systems engineer and author.

The same principle can be practiced in circumstances where opportunities are more limited and movement is limited. In this case, the tailbone takes the place of downward extension if the legs cannot be used.