The Battle Against Bad Posture

Throughout elementary, middle, and high school, as well as some of college, I had terrible posture. It was because of those tiny little desks. I'd hunch over them whenever I was working.
Every now and then Mom would tease me about my posture and try to get me to sit up. It didn't work very well.
Now of course people are getting bad posture from hunching over smart phones (I probably hunched over my GameBoy though, to be fair).

I get anxious watching my cousins folded in half over their screens. And they insist they aren't getting bad posture @_@

My shoulders are the main problem. They were always rolled forward and inward, which also dragged my neck down.
It wasn't until college that I started to make a real effort to change my posture. I guess it was something I had to decide for myself (though I'd been thinking about it for a long time).
I've been fighting to fix it for several years now. And it has been steadily improving. I'm very lucky to have my mom, a yoga teacher. If I ask for advice she will let me know how to relax my muscles or fix my shoulders. I have to be careful if I ask her for a shoulder massage though. She never gives a shoulder massage. Instead she stabs her fingers into any tense muscles in my neck and shoulders and demands that I relax that muscle. It never feels good @_@ Though I guess it's good to know to relax specific muscles (even if it hurts like hell to have stiff muscles poked/pinched).

At first I made zero progress. I would try to straighten my spine while I was walking around, but it would only last a minute or two at the most.
The first step that actually worked was just to sit for 5-10 minutes before bed and try to focus on my posture.
That worked some. But then I asked Mom to step in. I think by then she'd given up trying to comment on my posture. She still doesn't say anything unless I ask her. She told me to roll my shoulders back, but to not arch my spine back (by relaxing around the solar plexus area). And that worked as a good next step. But my neck was still forward more than normal.
Once again, I'd try to straighten my neck while I was walking or sitting, but it never stayed that way for long.

It was only about a month ago that she gave me the next step. I was rolling my shoulders up and back, but that wasn't enough. See, if you look at someone from the front and they have their arms hanging naturally at their side, you should be looking at the thumb side of their hands. My shoulders were still slumped in enough that it rotated my arms in. If you looked at me from the front, you would see the backs of my hands. So Mom told me to pull my shoulder blades together and down. But still, don't arch your back. I have trouble with that. My rib cage keeps wanting to arch back along with my shoulders.

(All I can think of when I start talking about bones)

It's still the worst when I'm standing and walking because then I get distracted and forget to hold my posture. If I'm sitting in a good chair, I can feel that my back is straight. Like my computer chair, right now.

I'm still getting steadily better. And I feel like I'm finally at the home stretch.

If you are one of the many people to have sucky posture, do what you can to fix it. It will screw up your back and neck when you get older.
My advice might be helpful, but you may have different posture problems than me, and I'm not an expert. Talk to someone who knows what they're doing, because you don't want to sway current posture problems with whole new ones. .
Don't take this post as medical advice XD It's here to encourage you to sit straighter, and to persist even if it takes... years.


Zoooo stuff~~
More of the sifakas! They like to play wrestle