In this section, you will explore all our culture's influences on our posture. This will, of course, vary from culture to culture. I'm speaking from the perspective of a Midwestern upbringing. You and others will undoubtedly find more or even disagree with some I've identified.

Common Cultural Beliefs

When I talk with clients about these influences, they often do not take them seriously at first. In our American culture, we are taught to believe if we have pain, there is something wrong with us that must be fixed. Well, sort of, but not what they are thinking.

You are not a machine.

In our culture, we tend to believe our body is more like a car than an amazingly intricate system of cells and subsystems that work magically together to support our existence in this world. If we are like a car, we go to someone else to fix it. We pay them money (or our insurance does, or both), and they fix us. That is the deal.

In some cases, the physician, usually our first stop, might tell us to start eating better, lose some weight, and maybe do some yoga with little or no direction on any of these suggestions. Yes, I have had clients tell me all of these and more. They are not bad suggestions, but they won't amount to action without direction and support. Most often, patients are offered a prescription of pills and rest. If you keep coming back, maybe a round of physical therapy.

We did not inherit our pain.

I have treated entire families. In one case, a dad with low back pain was in first. He had a job where he sat all day, but he did work out with Pilates regularly. He had many opportunities to improve his posture. The most significant was a very tucked tailbone. After he started feeling better, he said, "You should see my (adult) daughters; they inherited my low back pain."

When the daughters each eventually came in to see me, they both had very tucked tailbones and pain in the same area. The family wanted to believe that they all had the same deformity or malfunction of their body. It took time for them to open up to the idea that culture had formed them, and they had the power to reverse the cultural influences on their posture and, consequently, their pain.

Katy Bowman cites a study in her book Alignment Matters. The study was looking at posture in kids. One young body walked with a slight limp, and they assumed he must have had an injury at some point in his young life. When the family was interviewed, they found that the body never had an injury, but his father had. The boy was mimicking his father's posture and gait patterns.

Like many other behaviors, such as language patterns, hand gestures, and many more, we unconsciously adopt posture and gait from the people we grow up around.

Learning about these connections is important to empower us in the healing process.