Happy New Year! It is worthwhile to start the New Year and any new intentions with a clean slate. In the body that means starting from a place of ease. When you start by releasing tension rather than putting yourself in an idealized posture, it is far easier to recognize your inherent support. Your body was designed to support you and the way to feel that balance over your bones is to release the tension holding you in any patterns. The internal sense of rightness that comes from letting go and feeling this support can be profound.
When doing anything physical, It is helpful to stay away from the notion that you are trying to achieve some perfect posture and instead focus on creating more balance. You can change your alignment by pulling yourself into some idealize position, but how do you know your alignment is any better? How do you know that you are over your spine or aligned with your joints? You won’t! Generally letting go of bracing is an easier place to start. Most people struggle with sitting or standing upright because they feel like they have to do more work to get there. Usually this is based on some idea of what good posture or proper alignment is, rather than what their body is telling them. In other words, they layer a pattern of alignment (tension) on top of patterns of tension they already have (more tension). You can imagine how this might be counterproductive. Good alignment happens when we let go of holding and feel the support of our skeleton. It is not something that can be layered on top of existing patterns with good results. Your bones were designed to support you and there is no need to add anything extra.
The following audio exercise is intended to help you connect to your body's intrinsic sense of support and let go of some of the bracing that may be preventing you from moving freely. Make sure you are in a quiet place where there aren’t any distractions or where you can close your eyes and put headphones on. This is kind of like a meditation, so make sure you are somewhere you feel comfortable moving around and where you can focus inward.