I was a brow beaten child growing up. My mother was so embittered by her life that at some point she began to take it out on us kids. She was a verbal abuser, harshly criticizing us at every turn and spewing out venomous, cutting words. I used to walk to junior high school in tears. My brother and sister seemed okay, but I had a physical reaction to my mother’s tirades. I developed very poor posture. My shoulders were rounded and I was bent forward in my chair. A teacher noticed it and I was put in a posture class instead of physical education. A person from downtown came to review our class after the first semester of stretching and walking exercises and singled me out for repeating the semester. My teacher said she thought a student who was given a grade of A shouldn’t have to repeat the class, but the downtown person said I needed it.
I was dismayed to learn that three and a half decades later, I still had bad posture. I went to see a chiropractor for neck and upper back pain. He said that some of it was caused by stress but 85 percent was caused by bad posture. I have to tell my self to sit up. Sit up! It’s over. She couldn’t help it. But healing takes a long time.