I'm a big fan of adressing things on several levels to be able to work on multiple causes at the same time. Last time I went to see my Chiropractor she asked me to watch my shoulders during meditation. I tend to pull them up and my wholer upper body was closed down because of that. Which meant I wasn't able to breath as deeply as I should be able to. I followed her advice and also during the day I realised how again my shoulders were up to my ears. Sometimes only a bit, sometimes more. Suddenly it dawned on me why I was doing it. I used to feel quite unprotected and unsafe and that was I way to make myself feel safer. The thing is - I don't feel unsafe any more. Quite the opposite indeed. But it looks like my body is still locked in this behaviour because it has be become "normal" to me. Another thing is - when my shoulders are in this position I tend to feel a bit more uncomfortable. I watch it and it doesn't affect me but still there is something going on. It's easy to see why - the body and mind are connected. So if my body signals "unsafe" there tend to be more "unsafe thoughts" in my mind. These kind of thought patterns are activated more easy. The actually did a study where participants had to hold a pencil with their teeth or with their lips. The one holding it with their teetch (which looks a bit like smiling) rated a comic book more funny than the other group. Interesting, isn't it?

So what does that tell me? I'll pay more attention to my body posture. It's easier to not make up certain feelings and impressions than to deal with them. So: shoulders down, corner of mouth up and cut capers! ;-)