June 2006

Special Feature

X-ray Anatomy

X-ray anatomy

The body's surface tells a story about what lies within, physically as well as emotionally. You can access this information with X-ray Anatomy, and use it to realign and heal your body.

The purpose of X-ray Anatomy is to help you see beneath your skin, using your eyes, intuition, and imagination. When you perform the technique correctly, it will allow you to discover where your bones sit, and how muscles and connective tissues rest over the bones. With the information you gather from X-ray Anatomy, you can properly strengthen and stretch muscles and connective tissues to achieve correct balance and alignment.

To perform X-ray Anatomy, stand in front of a full-length mirror, preferably with most or all of your clothing off. Study yourself. For example, look at your clavicle bones (or collarbone), which form the front part of your shoulder girdle. Ideally, your collarbone should be perfectly level. Is it? If not, what seems to be disrupting its position? Tight muscles in the shoulders? A tilt of the spine?

Focus on other body parts, such as your knees. Do the kneecaps turn in, turn out, or tilt? Look at your hips. Does your pelvis tilt, front or back? Is one hip higher than the other? How are your arms hanging? Are they in front of your body? Too far out from the sides?

Merely by looking at yourself, you can determine which muscles are too tight or too lax, which muscles lack tone, and which muscles or connective tissues are causing your bones to be pulled out of alignment. After you've gained this insight into yourself, you can use the knowledge to change the ways you move.

Keep in mind that alignment and posture are not static, but dynamic. They are maintained through the relationships you have with gravity (the "down" forces), and with the electromagnetic field (the "up and out" forces). Through movement, and by breathing deeply and fully, you can help your bones and joints slip into proper alignment, so that your bones can do the job they were designed to do: maintain the proper internal space that is necessary for the body to function efficiently. Your bones provide the framework for maintaining that space.

With X-ray Anatomy, you can easily see the vertical and horizontal lines that reflect the internal placement of your bones and joints. Using this information, you can determine which of your muscles are too tight, or too loose. Then, you can begin the process of self-healing, through movement. You can use the Nia moves, and your Nia workout – as well as the daily movements in your own life – to help bring your body back into proper alignment.

X-ray Anatomy 101

When your bones and joints are in alignment:

  1. They provide you with both stability and mobility.
  2. They make it possible for your bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons to work in proper coordination with your nervous system, providing you with a neuro-physical structure that moves more efficiently.
  3. They use the internal, small, intrinsic muscles the way they were designed to be used: for internal stability and support. This is exactly what you need in order to move efficiently, and to avoid overuse of the external, larger, superficial muscles.
  4. They use the external, larger, superficial muscles the way they were designed to be used: for external, gross mobility and stability.
  5. They support the necessary relationship between the vertical and the horizontal flow of energy, which supports you in moving dynamically, with less physical effort and strain.
  6. They help you achieve dynamic posture – posture that balances internal pressures with external, environmental pressures.
  7. They help you identify the sensations of proper bone and joint alignment, making it possible for you to break bad movement habits, and to choose better ways of moving.

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