Squat Sitting
A simple practice that helps decompress the spine. Especially in the West, the average human sits many hours in a day and this leads to many body problems. Doing this a couple minutes a day can have great impact on your life.
Getting Started:
Location
Find a place in your house or outside where you feel comfortable, and wont be disturbed for a few minutes.
Look for somewhere with a counter or table to be able to grab on to for support, because you might not be able to stay in the position without tipping over. (Don’t feel bad, I still struggle with that and hold on for support when I need it, especially when twisting and turning)
If you don’t have anything to hold on to, fold a yoga mat or towel a couple of times, and put it under your heels.
Movement
While sitting move your weight around from your heals to your toes, shift more of your weight to one leg and then after sometime to the other.
Turn your neck to one side, then the other. Learn your body.
Breathing
Remember to breath during this practice.
Send the inhalation to where you feel tightness and allow the body to release it through the exhalation.
My Practice
5 min
In the beginning you might not be able to last even a minute. Do what you can, but challenge yourself.
Benefits
The spine is a thing of wonder, yet the average human seems to not realize this is the case and this is why they never even think about putting any work on strengthening it, aligning it, or even just maintaining it for optimal health and performance.
Much of the world suffers from pain in the back or neck because the posture that they spend the majority of the day in is abysmal, and the lack of daily movement doesn’t help either. The spine is useful only when it maintains flexibility, otherwise it becomes rigid, and the load of weight becomes harder and harder for it to hold causing you all sorts of problems.
Squat Sitting allows your spine to be decompressed, giving you relief from all the load, and at the same time becoming in better alignment and getting stronger.
The squat sitting practice can be done anywhere, at home, at work, or even in jail if you happen to be stuck there at the moment, so no excuses! You just have to convince yourself to not be lazy and create a daily habit out of it, so that it can be as programmed as brushing your teeth (remember to be mindful when you do it though).
“couch” and yoga mat taken from Paint 3D gallery. “Low Poly Bench” used from Sketchfab.