Here's an excersize to check if you are sitting effectively:

The Yoga Asana (position) of Tadasana "standing like a mountain" is a good way for one to get a feeling awareness of the natural alignment of the back.
1--Stand with feet flat, shoulder width apart. Arms loose to the side.
2--Shoulders back but not excessively.
3--The top of head is parallel with the floor. Eyes softly gazing down at about a 45 degree angle.
4--Knees slightly bent.
5--Feel the power of this stance. The body is soft but grounded and centered.

Now put your hand on your lower spine, just above the hip. Feel the inward curve. Then, with your zafu or meditation bench nearby, slowly move to it and sit, without changing the angle of the back, head, shoulders, or torso. Once you are sitting on the cushion or bench, notice how or if the back is still in the same position it was when standing in Tadasana. Did the curve in the lower back change? Now try moving to a chair, and notice if and how the curve changes.

Then get up from sitting and reestablish the Tadasana position. Try this a few times. It is a good way to check to see if your sitting is creating unneccessary strain in the back, neck, arms, or anywhere else.

If you have trouble holding that alignment when sitting, perhaps your seat is not the right height, or angle. Basically the spine-to-pelvis angle in Tadasansa or natural standing is about 120 degrees. The 90 degree angle of a standard chair collapses the torso inward. Rather, the surface of a seat should be slightly angled forward, such as a zafu, kneeling bench, or tilt seat.

One can convert a chair to a tilt seat by placing a book or block about one inch high underneath each leg in the back of the chair. (Or try cutting the front legs off by one inch.) However, the chair should also be flat surfaced and not concave .

Any furniture which causes the body to fold in on itself is counter productive to a healthy body in correct alignment, with optimal breathing filling up every cell with vitalizing oxygen. That rules out soft sofas, overstuffed chairs and beds, waterbeds, airplane seats, car seats. The reason most of our public and personal furniture is doing just this--collapsing the torso, pelvis, and spine in almost every direction it can--stems from the controversy over the definition of comfort.

Western Ergonomicists, who began in WWII to make airplane cockpits more comfortable, believe that comfort is the result of the body doing no work. Therefore these experts make furniture and work stations which pamper and compress the human body. In an attempt to "cradle" the body, they are creating unseen pressure and stress. The more back pain created, the more they apply their "cradling" principles to try to alleviate back pain. The body is treated somewhat like a bag of bones, rather than a dynamic, living system.

The New Ergonomicists on the other hand see comfort as overall well-being and health. One aspect of comfort is that of the musculoskeletal system. New Ergonomists believe that equal amounts of work performed by complimentary muscle groups, creates comfort. This means keeping the body in the state it would be in if we were in our natural element, engaging in natural activities (e.g. walking, hunting and gathering). The human skeleton is naturally wide and open, with distinctly separated, free flowing, and aligned parts. When joints are compressed, overused, underused, misused, or demineralized, comfort is compromised.

Autonomous sitting requires one's own muscles to hold the body up (i.e.work) and many people associate work with discomfort. However, if the muscles are toned and proper technique is used, there is little effort required. Many of us have lost the tone of our torso muscles--from years of leaning back into chairs--and will need to gently ease into autonomous sitting. Simply by sitting this way, the sitting muscles will come back into shape. Start with short periods and build up from there. If tiredness if felt, it is better to lie down and rest the back than to lean back into a chair (or backjack). Social norms don't always allow lying back, but when this is possible, it is the best alternative.

Often we get tired from lack of movement, which creates an oxygen shortage in the bloodstream. Sometimes getting up and going on a walk, or getting a few deep breaths of air (always breath through the nostrils for maximum oxygen) will bring vitality back.

In Asia where zafus and zabutons were ancient tradition, they were not just for meditation. The entire space and structure of the house was traditionally designed around this floor-sitting type of furniture. Trying to be like Americans, with cars (the ultimate C-shaped forming culprit) and chairs, Asians are loosing their much wiser practices. And in America, the land of the free, having tired of chairs and their effects, we are looking at the teachings of the wisdom traditions.

Autonomous sitting is not just for meditation. Meditation can be the beginning point for awareness of body and mind, and practicing autonomous sitting in daily life can be an extension of the meditation practice. Unless we rearrange our furniture and the way we use it, the entire rest of the day is contributing to an uphill battle with aututonomous sitting and it's benefits. The good news is, making autonomous sitting a habit rather than an exception can contribute to a healther, more relaxing, comfortable life, as well as deepen the meditation practice.

Sit Well is published and copywrited by Carolina Morning Designs. No part of it should be copied for publication without written permission from Carolina Morning Designs.