A Self-Help Series of Postures for Special Conditions

and stress in the dorsal [thoracic] spine, which acts as a block to natural current flow and nerve transmission of energy.

This posture is also very beneficial to spines which lack the natural posterior dorsal [thoracic] curve. The higher on the back the flatness of the spine appears, the higher the hold on the head must be. In lower dorsal [thoracic] flatness of the spine, the hold is lower on the neck, in order to bring out the spine posteriorly in that area, until normal compensation remains in the musculature. One-half minute of this rocking stretch is sufficient if repeated daily.

After these exercises, when relaxation is complete, grasping a bar with both hands and hanging from it usually releases a number of vertebrae in a general spinal stretch. This stretch on the spine, arms and shoulders by hanging lifts the gravity compression from the articulating joints and from the cartilages between them, and it completes the stretch from above downward, as a gravity lift. This is also a fine stretch that compensates for the downward position of the hands in lifting objects and working all day long. It is easy to install a one-and-a-half inch curtain pole in any doorway. When it is so conveniently located, one is more apt to make good use of it by hanging from it as mentioned above, for a minute or so after having taken the posture stretching exercises, or at any time.

The position of the body for the stretching exercise shown in figure 6 is the same as shown in figure 5 but uses a contact with one hand placed on the back of the head and extending down over part of the neck, with the head bent to one side, for a stretch on the side of the spine and back that is troublesome, tense, or limited in motion. Either hand may be used and either side may be stretched, depending on where it is needed. This exercise also frees the brachial plexus on that side where the pull is felt. It is done gently, only once or twice each time, but regularly when it is needed. On the left, the pull can be felt over the posterior heart region, and on the right side it is felt over the liver region, acting as a release there.