is this right

Simple instructions: really relax lower belly, but don't push it out or exaggerate your hips, just relax it. This can be the hardest part when we have been taught to suck our bellies in our whole lives; shoulders down, but not back; chest lifted up, but not out; neck pulled up with chin slightly tucked. Your knees are straight, but not locked or bowed back.
On hands and knees breathe deeply into lower belly letting it expand, breath out exhaling bring belly in.

I find that when I do the posture(stick my butt out), the rest of the body cooperates. Don't force your tummy to relax. Just don't try to tighten it.

Have you figured out what the bulge is yet, Grammy? Many of us have self diagnosed, and I know it was my cervix sticking out by the feel of it. It is a long tube with an opening. The only reason I ask is if it is a uterine Prolpase you have, you can bend over and shove it back in with clean fingers. It won't necessarily stay right away, but it does feel better, along with getting on knees and forearms with the deep breathing into the belly. Of course. Jiggling and firebreathing which you can learn are helpful.
But if it isn't uterine prolapse, I wouldn't know as much, because I am not dealing with the other prolapses.

Sticking your butt out causes improper alignment which isn't part of whole woman posture. I did that a lot in the beginning, and ended up in a lot of pain. It is not a hip tilting thing. It is really about relaxing your belly.

Grammy, it does feel strange to lift your chest up, because the belly automatically wants to tense up. Just keep working on it, and make sure you rest when you need to, because you will feel some muscle strain from holding your body differently. It is not going to click right away. I really like the exercise on the dvds(in the book also). They really helped me to strengthen and lengthen those necessary muscle to hold the posture better.
Don't be frustrated, you have just started. It will come.

I agree with AG, consciously sticking out your butt is not the way to go. When I was learning, if I was able to catch and remind myself all day to keep the belly relaxed, I was doing fine. I tended to naturally keep my chest pulled up so that I wouldn't feel like I had a big-belly look. If you relax the belly and pull the chest up strongly, the lumbar curvature will take care of itself. - Surviving

Grammy, if it's cystocele and/or rectocele that is bulging out, I can tell you from years of experience that pushing them in (or pushing them around in any direction) doesn't do much. What takes the pressure off the vagina is posture (and jiggling, and firebreathing). This practice takes time and it's something that you will do forever. And your organs will continue to move around forever! This is maintenance, girl! Not a cure. - Surviving

PS, if you don't know what you have, you can probably figure it out once you have the book. It would be good to know.

I have read the comments here and am trying to do them but when I pull my chest up which is hard to do without sticking it out my shoulders go up and they are suppose to be relaxed. I'm having trouble getting it right..can anyone help me?

Hi danadjb,
It really does take time to get all these aspects of the posture down, and it can be hard to fully understand it from a few short sentences on the forum. It is important to understand why we are doing it, to get our pelvic organs into the lower belly where they are pinned by the abdominal pressure. Christine's book gives a very comprehensive understanding to all this.
I wasn't able to really start getting it until I had visual in action. The DVDs show the ladies doing the posture while explaining every aspect of it. That really helped me to get a better understanding of it, but it still took me awhile to get it all together to where I could actually feel the changes in my body.
It really does take patience and perseverance.

There is a wonderful softness to the posture. I am short-waisted and found when I first started learning the posture that I would over-compensate in the chest/shoulder area and would end up in a fairly rigid military stance which, needless to say, isn't going to do crap for the prolapses and will make the muscles in your upper back ache like crazy. After several months of adjusting and readjusting my posture I have noted something and want to put it out there for consideration.

My chest/shoulder issue has greatly improved just by freeing-up my diaphragm. If I put my hand across my diaphragm and breath in I can tell by the way it moves or does not move as to whether I am slouching down and leaning forward, or over-compensating in my chest and upper back and shoulder area. If I am slouching down and forward it cannot expand fully, though at this point the lumbar curve is not in place so the pelvic organs cannot benefit from the each breath anyway. As well, if I am too pulled up in the chest and shoulders my diaphragm cannot expand completely so again, I don't get the "pinning" benefit because the breath feels trapped in the upper lungs, the chest gets tight, the shoulders feel rigid and the lower belly gets tight.

So I guess what I'm trying to say to short-waisted girls like me, check out that midsection. For me it was a gentle pull up and back in that area which in turn raised my chest naturally and the rest fell into place. I'm still working on my posture and have just recently noticed where my hips are starting to "settle" into place, which is a weird but nice feeling. Oh...the other wierd but nice feeling comes when one day out of the blue you have this weird sensation in the pelvic area and you run to the bathroom to whip out the old mirror to see "What now?", and find that bulge has moved up and that wierd feeling is the inner labia getting reaquainted.

Thanks again to the ladies who got me started...and since I like to name names, here we go: Christine, Aging Gracefully, Surviving60, and Louise. And to every woman who has contributed to this forum...we really do learn from each other.

Love how you put that about the softness, Arizona.
I also remember the rigidity that I held myself in the beginning, how sore I was trying force things to happen sooner than they were going to! Yes, when my body did start shaping into the posture all on its own, it felt and feels so good! Thanks for telling us about your experiences. It helps all of us to keep reminders out there about whole woman posture and the true benefits of it.