Energy Express by Marilynn Preston

"Summer is a-coming in. Loudly sing, Cuckoo!" Yes! Go for it! It's time to sing like the birds — and certainly a good time to reset your motion detectors to full blast. With that one tiny adjustment, you can make this summer the one you walk more, bike more, move more, play more, and eat more real food that isn't processed with icky chemicals and suspect substances that keep this country from being as healthy as we could be.

But I digress.

Here's a little mind-body experiment I want you to try. Sit in a chair in a slumped posture: shoulders dragging, stomach sagging, head down. Now tell yourself: "I feel fantastic! ... great! ... never felt better!"

Notice the disconnect between your posture and your thoughts.

Now sit up smartly and reposition yourself into a strong, centered, upright posture. Chest wide, shoulder blades moving down your back, neck and head relaxed and aligned over your spine. Think to yourself: "I feel awful . . . sad . . . miserable." Again, your thoughts are at odds with your posture.

So what? So know this: Your posture (how your body is positioned in space) and your thought process are intimately connected. This isn't really news, but if it is to you, sit down, and take in this truth from a book by Eric Franklin called "Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery," (Human Kinetics): "Both the pictures and the words in our minds influence the feelings in our bodies, which in turn feed our thoughts and mental pictures."

Once Franklin understood the power of the mind to influence the body, and vice versa, he starting using imagery to help himself feel better. In Franklin's case — he was a dancer with backache and knee problems — he learned to release intense, debilitating emotional and mental stress by lying down comfortably for about 30 minutes and "imaging my legs as pant legs, collapsing over a clothes hanger ... and watching my back spread out on the floor . . . and I suddenly experienced an incredible release of muscle tension. It was a tremendous relief and brought tears to my eyes."

It's that remarkable, emotional release of muscle tension that keeps us coming back to yoga class, to enlightened body workers, to sex.

Franklin's story gives us a clear insight into the power of imaging, something anyone can learn to do.

After about a year of enthusiastic and daily imaging, his crippling back tension and knee problems receded in a marvelous way. "I discovered that a postural change initiated as an image creates and reflects a psychological change," he writes. "I learned to trust the image, and that there is no limit to what can be accomplished with imaging."

HARDNESS VS. SOFTNESS. People are always being told to relax, but not how to relax. To relax is to feel soft. Feeling hard is the opposite.

Here's a sensory image exercise from Eric Franklin's book to give you a felt sense of going from hard to soft. You might try it to ease tight shoulders, a stiff neck or a sore back. It's free, and your insurance covers it 100 percent.

He writes: "Hold a piece of wood in one hand and a piece of cotton in the other. Notice the difference in texture and quality. Shift your concentration from the hardness of the wood to the softness of the cotton. Project this experience onto a specific place in your body that needs to transform from hardness to softness."

FOR BETTER BALANCE. "Proprioceptive imaging" can help you improve your sense of balance. So what if you can't spell it. Proprioception is your sense of your body position. It's crucial if you're a gymnast, diver, yoga enthusiast, etc. Improving your sense of balance is hugely helpful in any sport and, as you age, better balance means fewer falls.

Here's another cool exercise he recommends: Stand with your weight equally distributed on both feet. Lift one foot off the floor, and balance for a moment. Do the same with the other leg. Now lift one leg, and imagine that a clone of that leg is still standing on the floor. Notice the difference between your ability to balance when using the image and not using the image.

NEXT WEEK: More thoughts on mental fitness. Imagine that!

ENERGY EXPRESS-O! NEVER STOP PLAYING WITH YOUR MIND

"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else." — Margaret Mead

Marilynn Preston — fitness expert, personal trainer and speaker on healthy lifestyle issues — is the creator of Energy Express, the longest-running syndicated fitness column in the country. She has a website, http://marilynnpreston.com and welcomes reader questions, which can be sent to MyEnergyExpress@aol.com. To find out more about Preston and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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