Health And Wellness: Shrinking is Stinking – Lengthen Up And Revitalize

A DelhiPlanet Health And Wellness Exclusive, In Association With Queen Yogini Kristin McGee

Welcome to the first article of DP Health and Wellness. In today’s article, Kristin will share her thoughts on why it is important to always sit with an erect spine and how rare it is to find people doing so in day to day life. Read on to find out why she believes that “Shrinking is Stinking“.

The other night on my walk home after teaching yoga class I was wondering at what point in our life do we start to shrink? I mean it’s so hard to sit up straight and tall. Even the teenagers I teach slump in class and complain about how difficult it is to sit up and lengthen through the spine. My friend and fellow Pilates instructor, Carey, always says, Shrinking is Stinking, and when I did reformer lessons with her she’d force me to lengthen through my waistline and spine.

Joseph Pilates famous quote is you’re only as young as your spine is flexible. And Marianne Williamson says in her famous speech, There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. And yet I look around in class and on the subway and at restaurants and everyone sinks into their lower backs and into themselves. In Chinese medicine, our kidney area in that lower back region is said to hold our chi, or vital life energy. No wonder we’re all tapped out and fatigued after squashing our battery packs all day long. So many of my private clients complain over and over about low-back pain and tight hips.

The most beautiful thing about the practice of yoga is it’s all about length, lift, growth and breathing. How can we take deep full breaths when were slouched forward and slumping in our seats? I tell my students if you learn nothing else but to sit up straight then my work is done because it is so true in life “shrinking is stinking“. Who wants to shrivel up and be small? It is so rewarding to stand up straight and lengthen through the spine and feel yourself alive and long and constantly growing, not deteriorating. Look at babies sit in their cribs — they sit up perfectly straight without any effort, and they are happy, alive and growing. I think it’s so important to always keep a childlike viewpoint, open mind, long spine and to never stop reaching for the stars.

So Lengthen Up, Revitalize and Go After Your Dreams.

Note: The above has been published by DelhiPlanet in association with and with explicit permission from Kristin Mcgee and originally published by Kristin on findyourdetour.com. Any reproduction without proper approval and acknowledgment is prohibited.