A New Posture for Life

by Susan Mankowski

According to Breema, “a new posture for life is needed for new thinking and feeling.” I had always thought that posture refers only to the physical body—“Stand up straight!”

Thanks to my years of studying Breema, I now know that the body is a system of interrelated parts and when we understand what it means to move harmoniously, we can go through life with less tension and more ease, with a posture that is integrated and efficient. 

Breema looks at the body as integrally interconnected to the mind and feelings. A “new posture” in Breema lifts the bar from how we stand, move, and physically do things to an experience of harmony within oneself, with others, and with all life. This holistic relationship is expressed as “body, mind, and feelings working together,” and is referred to as being present.

While Breema brings to the front our possibilities of functioning from a higher level of consciousness, it also emphasizes an all-inclusive posture of acceptance of yourself and of how you find yourself to be at any given moment. Acceptance, supported by the principle of No Judgment, lessens the hold of identification with the myriad of situations we find ourselves in every day. When inner conflict and resistance are replaced by acceptance and receptivity, we find the wish to take a step towards harmony, along with enough clarity to begin to see what may really be needed. The influence of acceptance is essential for our growth.

Being truly available to life and having the possibility to think and feel with clarity and openness (rather than with self-criticism and judgment of others) is founded on a deep and profound experience of oneself in unity. The freedom to think, feel, and move through life, guided by a direct inner connection to harmony—instead of mechanically living only according to our conditioned ways of reacting—is a new posture and a new possibility that Breema offers us.

Susan Mankowski is a staff Instructor at the Breema Center in Oakland, California, currently working offsite in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  She teaches ongoing online Self-Breema classes found at breema.com/susanmankowski.