The Five Gifts of the Spine

The Indispensable Role of the Spine in Human Conscious Development

What is Sense of Self—What does it take to be who I think I am?

How is spinal anatomy indispensably involved in your sense of self? In fact, what does it have to do with who you think you are? Whether you are confident or insecure, a success or a failure, kind or mean, these are all states of being that are set up within you. Who you are is really just the sum of all the states that you typically spend your time in. It is made up of the range of emotions you will allow yourself to experience, all the behaviours you find acceptable and unacceptable, and what you think you are capable of and not. Simply put, your sense of self is the set of limitations you define for yourself on what your potential is to experience any state possible. It is what, when, where and how we end up telling ourselves, “This is me and this is not.”

Recall that every emotion has a particular spinal posture necessary to tune into the energy of that emotion. There is also very specific spinal motion necessary to experience the emotional energy in the body. Without the proper posture and movement, the energy of an emotion cannot be embodied. We may have a mental concept of an emotion, but we will not truly experience the actual emotion.

As we define for ourselves which emotions we find acceptable to experience and which ones we will not allow ourselves to feel, we begin to set the parameters for who we are. After all, what is sense of self other than the sum of what you will or won’t do because you want to remain in the range where you feel okay? We position ourselves in life as a particular kind of person who has specific traits, attributes, beliefs and values. Ultimately, we set our high and low thresholds for what is too much and too little of a certain feeling. Whether it has to do with taking risks, being considerate or intimacy, we set for ourselves a range in which we feel comfortable. The inside is our comfort zone. The outside is scary and just not who we are.

Controlling emotions so they fall within our comfort zone means we have to ensure that our spinal anatomy remains at a level of mobility that keeps us from exceeding the high and low points we established. We end up posturing our spines in a way that defines who we think we are. The way we hold our bodies actually reflects the person that we are being. When we talk about how a person holds himself, we are not just talking about the kind of person he is. We are literally saying that he holds his body in a particular way. This is exactly the point of the indispensable role of spinal anatomy in defining our sense of self.

What is posture other than the way we hold ourselves? People often ask how to have good posture or how to correct posture. They try exercises for posture because they want to look better. The problem is that by changing the way they hold themselves, they literally shift their spinal anatomy and subsequently begin to feel things outside of their comfort zone. This conflicts with their sense of self and they revert back to their old posture.

It all comes down to managing emotions. Our spinal anatomy, its range of motion, what we are okay with feeling and our sense of self are all tightly linked. We cannot simply try to change the way we hold ourselves without accepting that by doing so we will also experience different feelings and be, in essence, a different person.

So consider your posture (good or bad) as what it takes to be who you are. What is sense of self? It is all your rules, beliefs and limitations that keep you being the person you are now. These are anchored in your spinal anatomy and posture. If you want to change who you are, you must change your posture. If you want to change your posture, inevitably, you must be ready to change your sense of self.