Balance is natural posture and pain-free movement. A person in balance is erect and looks at ease. A person in balance feels energetic and is free of pain.

In the US, 80% of people suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. Pain in the neck, shoulders or joints is also extremely common. Often this is due to mechanical stresses on the body caused by misalignment. The spine is too curved, bones are off-center and muscles have to work too hard.

Anthropologists have found that in less developed countries back pain is not an issue: it is rare or unknown. People there have a slightly different posture and move naturally with ease. Noelle Perez, a French ethnographer and yoga teacher, found that people in traditional lifestyles preserve graceful and pain-free movement at any age. She notes: "When undisturbed, human mechanics work perfectly well according to the laws that govern them." Undisturbed human movement is like that of any animal – no thought is given to alter a look or gait.

But living with desks, computers, TV’s and cars has changed the way we move. We no longer have the erect posture of our great-grandparents, the stamina of a field worker in Portugal, or the easy gait of a person in the streets of Bali, Mexico, or India.

The solution is to return to a more natural way of standing and moving. By closely observing people with non-sedentary lifestyles we have learned what balance looks like and how it can be relearned.

The most striking difference between people in or out of balance is their vertical alignment, as can be seen in the photos of three people standing. Only the mariachi on the right is in balance. His legs are vertical from trochanter (upper leg bone) to heel. The line on the side of his pants is as straight as a plumb line! When the hips and legs are placed like this the upper body has to be erect.

In the US few people are in balance, although we all began life that way. Our lifestyle has lead to a gradual reshaping of the spine: curves have grown deeper, backs rounder. Look at young children to see a dramatic change even at an early age as they imitate the adults around them. Children under the age of three are still in beautiful balance, but many begin to stoop by age 5 or 6 and look like broken flowers by age 14.

Children and adults alike have become stiff and immobile in the hips and pelvis. The trend is to bend from the upper back, rather than the hips. Hips become stiffer and backs rounder until pain or injury stops the cycle.

To see people in balance, look at construction workers and some recent immigrants; the need for physical fitness in everyday activities keeps these people in the natural condition we call balance. Although healthy body mechanics were normal for all of us in earlier times, now they remain commonplace only in the more traditional and less industrialized cultures of the world.

Travelling abroad to rural areas of Europe, India or Africa it is easy to spot people in balance. Once you learn to see it ads a fascinating element to travel! In the arts we see clear examples as well: Greek sculpture and Impressionist paintings come to mind.

Yes, you can go back to the natural movement you knew as a child. Balance helps you rediscover this movement and preserve it despite a sedentary lifestyle.

Most people in the West lean slightly forwards or backwards; that is to say their muscles are in perpetual tension. (Take another look at the photos above.) This tension has become so familiar that we are no longer aware of it. But with a slight change in position balance can be restored, freeing energy and relieving pain.

You can learn to sit in real comfort, stand without fatigue, bend and lift without fear, drive without back pain and walk without tiring. All this transforms and eases life. To be in balance is to discover true freedom of movement and a profound sense of wellbeing.

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