The head balance
This crucial part of the body “the head balance” is often upset as a result of staring at computers, smartphone and not tacking care of ourselves. Your head knows how to balance itself. It is our interference with that natural, in-built ability that pulls our heads off balance. What we need to do is not put things right but stop putting them wrong in the first place. Using less effort (One), becoming aware of the power of habits (2) Thinking the direction (3) “Allow the neck be free, to allow the head to release forwards and upwards, to allow the torso to lengthen and widen.
For most people, most of the time, the head is out of balance. Muscles throughout the neck, shoulders, whole torso and even the arms and legs have to work to compensate for this imbalance of the heavy weight of the head (5-6kg). Try picking up something this heavy!
This is a vitally important area for balance, which affects the entire muscular skeletal structure. When the head is poised and balanced this give length to the spine and other parts of the body.
When walking well, the head leads the body follows.
To help you have a more accurate body map of this area gently put your index fingers in your ear-holes either side of your head. Again, imagine a line running from one finger to another.
The area immediately around the point where these two lines cross, right up between your ears and in the centre of your head, is your atlanto-occipital joint. That’s where the top vertebra of your spine, called the atlas, meets the back of your skull; your head pivots on this point. And your head isn’t shaped like a round ball. Most of your head is to the front of the atlanto-occipital joint – the part with your face on it, including your jaw. Start becoming aware of your head, delicately poised and balanced at this high place on the very top of your spine, up between your ears and in the centre of your head. In particular, don’t wiggle your head around to make it balance, or hold it in place using muscular effort.
Another tip – when we move well; the head leads our the body follows
This can be seen in young babies/children, their movements are more whole, integrated, balanced and aligned; rather than fragmented, segmented with lack of coordination often seen in adults.