Dear Permission to be Powerful reader,
Holy shit.
I’m shocked by how little I understand my own body…
Even though I’ve been using it for 38 years.
I never read the user’s manual, and I have paid the price.
My shoulders drooped forward.
Creating a natural slouch.
A hunch forward.
I looked defeated from the jump.
And tired.
And sad.
Not a good long.
But that was my look.
As my teacher tells me…
“You lean forward so much, your head’s natural position points to the floor.”
But nobody wants to live like that…
So I tilt my head too far back…
Crunching my spin into an unnatural S shape.
Now I’m learning about how to have a “J” spine.
Apparently, this is how we are supposed to organize ourselves in order to have a healthy posture…
And I had no idea.
The body has no user’s manual.
We just use it and abuse it.
Until it starts to fight back…
With crippling neck and back pain…
Constantly crack my back…
My neck…
Constantly in pain, which I just suffered through for years.
And made everyone else suffer through…
Especially in the Zendo.
There’s nothing worse than being the guy who can’t sit still in the Zendo.
It get’s a bad rap.
One teacher always tilts my head forward…
A little awkward but I’m only hurting myself to fight it.
Back pain affected my sleep.
And it got expensive.
Lots of massages and chiropractor visits.
I met up with the people behind the Gokhale Method here at the Zen Center, and they’re changing my life one session at a time.
I’m training my copywriting knowledge for a new back.
The incredible thing is this:
Bad posture makes you look fat and ugly.
Small and timid...
Now, I look taller…
Leaner…
Sturdier…
Calmer….
And the benefits to my meditation practice are undeniable.
I wrote an article recently explaining all the noise I am making inside the zendo shifting around.
This time around…
I forgot my back brace that I depend on.
If I don’t wear this clavicle back brace, I feel twice as exhausted by the end of the week.
I was so worried about it…
I went shopping around for one…
But this monastery was in the middle of nowhere….
No luck.
To my surprise…
My back pain had been reduced by about 80%
My teacher noticed without me pointing it out.
And I look like a completely different person.
When you slouch, you literally stick your gut out…
In other words…
You are shorter… and fatter…
I really like what I see in the mirror.
I look more handsome…
And younger…
I look and feel like a new person.
And that’s just the side benefit.
More importantly:
No more back pain.
And, I haven’t even completed the course.
Only about halfway…
But the results have been stunning.
I’m the bastard who keeps cracking his neck in a room where you can hear a pin drop.
Or, I used to be.
Not anymore.
Tony V.
Editor-in-Chief
Permission to be Powerful
P.S. If you suffer from back pain, check out the Gokhale Method.
I am going to interview the creator at some point.
So you can always become a paid member.