The Daily Insight – 4-5-09 – Body Posture

This blog post is going to discuss how the body posture assumed by a particular human being is indicative of how their body is developed, as opposed to their body posture being assumed because of a mental choice or desire, using the following example picture of two women sitting down together.

Firstly, observations about the distinctly different body posture each woman has assumed will be made.

The woman on the right is sitting with her legs pressed together,

both feet of the woman on the right are flat on the ground.

The legs of the woman on the left look completely different. Her right leg is crossed over the left leg,

and the right foot looks like it is mostly flat on the ground.

The left leg of the woman on the left is angled back towards her buttocks,

with the left foot angled so the outside of it only is resting on the ground.

The woman on the right appears to be sitting with her torso mostly straight up and down,

while the torso of the woman on the right is leaning forwards at an angle.

The head of the woman on the right is rotated to her right.

Although it is difficult to see because of the angle of the photograph, the head of the woman on the left is slightly rotated to her left.

( Readers who are uncomfortable accepting the head of the woman on the left is rotated to her left should take a moment to sit in the exact way the woman on the left is sitting. The reader who does that should discover their head unavoidably rotates to their left. )

And finally, the right arm of the woman on the right is raised up to her chin,

and her left arm crosses over her body so her left hand is on the right side of her body,

while both arms of the woman on the left are laying down in her lap.

There are a variety of answers that might be provided by a person who was asked “Why are the two women sitting as they are?”. The most common reply would most likely be “because the woman wanted to sit in the posture the picture shows them in”. Meaning the person giving the reply feels the woman have made a mental choice or acted on a desire to sit in the postures they are holding.

While it is possible the postures the woman have assumed are the product of a mental choice or desire, the author of this blog entry does not feel that is the case. And even if it was the case, a curious and/or astute person would ask “what influenced the women to make the mental choice or feel the desire to sit in those particular postures?”.

A thoughtful person might then respond “The women made the mental choice or experienced the desire to sit the way they are because they feel comfortable sitting the way they are”. That is a reasonable possibility, but it leads to another question. Why do the women feel comfortable sitting in the exact way they are sitting?

Wouldn’t it seem more normal for a human being to feel comfortable sitting with their backs against the back of the chair, with both feet on the floor, and their hands resting in their laps or on the arms of the chair?”. After all, chairs were designed the way they are to be comfortable to sit in for a human being, so why would a human being contort their body into some posture that did not fit the shape of the chair?

Another response a thoughtful person might provide to the question “Why are the women sitting in the way that they are?” is “because the women have been trained to sit that way”. That response would likely be based on the observation that both women seem important, elite, or upper class, and the knowledge that it is traditional for human beings who are important, elite, or upper class to be trained to sit in a way that indicates to others that they are important, elite or upper class.

That response might actually be accurate to some extent in the case of the woman on the right, because human beings trained to sit in a way that makes them appear important, elite, or upper class, will usually have their legs together, both feet planted on the floor, and erect torso as the woman on the does.

While the mental choice or desire to sit a particular way, or any training the women might have received to sit in a particular way probably has influenced the posture the woman have assumed, it is the position of the author of this blog entry that the main influencing factor on the posture of the two women is the underlying condition or development of their bodies.

What evidence or arguments support that claim?

The most obvious evidence supporting that claim is the shrinkage of parts of the body whose presence is indicated by the posture assumed by each woman.

The posture of the woman on the right is indicative of shrinkage of the right side of her body,

 while the posture of the woman on the left is indicative of shrinkage of the left side of her body, which is difficult to outline properly because her left side is obscured by the right side of her body due to the camera angle.

One of the observations that support the claim the right side of the body of the woman on the right is shrunken,

is the rotation of her head to her right that was noted earlier.

The reasoning being that her head rotates to her right because the shrunken right side of her body is to weak to keep her head pointing straight forwards.

That same reasoning explains the raising of her right arm up towards her head.

Because her right side is shrunken, it is too weak to to keep her right arm down in her lap or on the arm of the chair, so the right arm raised up to the chin.

And because her right side is shrunken and therefore weak, it cannot stop the left arm from reaching across the body to place the left hand on the weakened right side.

It would also be natural for a human body that was weak on the right side to brace itself against something for support, which explains why the woman on the right is sitting with her right side close to the side of the chair,

instead of sitting in the middle of the chair.

Moving on to the woman on the left, the fact that she is sitting with her left side up against he side of her chair,

instead of sitting in the center of her chair.

supports the claim her left side is shrunken. Since the shrinkage of the left side makes it weak, it feels more comfortable for the woman to brace her weakened left side on the side of her chair.

The head of the woman on the left rotates to her left as noted earlier,

which also supports the claim her left side is shrunken, because if her left side was shrunken and weak it would be unable to make her head point straight, as is the case.

And finally, if the left side of the woman’s body was shrunken and weak, that would explain why her right leg is crossed over her left leg.

The shrunken left side is too weak to push the right leg over to her right side where it belongs.

The title of this blog entry stated “The Different Body Postures Assumed By Two Women Is Based On How Their Bodies Are Developed”. That statement has been addressed by pointing out development of shrinkage of one side of their bodies influenced the posture of their bodies.

It is also relevant to point out the development or lack of development of the Yin part of the body of each woman, which has influenced the shrinkage of their bodies and the particular side of the body that shrank.

The woman on the right has a relatively weakly developed Yin part of the body. That judgement is based on the fact that every part of the body of the woman on the right is thin. Her legs are thin,

her arms are thin,

her torso is thin,

and her head is small or thin.

The woman on the left has a more strongly developed Yin part of the body which is indicated by her thicker legs,

thicker arms,

thicker torso,

and bigger or thicker head.