Your body loves variety.

You are made for movement. Your body does not like being stuck in the same position hour after hour, day after day.

Yet, often if you sit a lot, you have a position that you tend to get stuck into.

Or maybe you have the idea that there is a perfect position you need to find and keep.

Not.

If you want to make your body happy then spice things up and work in more variety to your sitting. Start by realizing that there are two types of sitting: Active Sitting and Restive Sitting. Learn to use both and alternate between the two when you sit during the day.

The difference between active and restive sitting is whether you are supporting your back (active) or something external is supporting your back (restive).

If you read the last blog post I asked you to start observing how you sit. And to figure out if when you sit you lean back all the time or not.

If you lean back all the time, why is that?

I haven’t done a scientific study, but my hypothesis is that most of us have just lost our skill of sitting actively. Simply because we don’t do it. We equate sitting with leaning back against something.

We tend to sit this way all the time.

And you get good at what you practice.

I say lost because when you were very young you probably sat beautifully upright, supporting your back and playing with your toys.

The next time you are around a 1 or 2-year-old observe them as they sit on the floor and play with their toys.

Unlike most adults, very young kids don’t appear to be straining to stay upright but balance easily as they sit on their sitting bones (base of the pelvis)

Your body is different than it was when you were two, but you can learn how to find balance again and skillfully practice actively sitting.

We need to alternate between both throughout the day. And learn to do both types well.

The first step is to separate your sitting into two types so that you can more consciously choose what you wish to do and when.