Your pain and discomfort keep coming back because all the things you've tried never fixed the real problem.
Most people swing between slouching (A)
and over-correcting (B) their whole lives —
never discovering there's a natural middle way (C)
that fixes what's hurting.
Who knew that natural skeletal alignment lies at the heart of so many people's pain?
You've tried everything: massage, acupuncture, myofascial therapy, yoga, strength training. And yes, you feel better—for a while.
But the pain always comes back.
Here's why:
You're managing symptoms, not addressing the cause —
skeletal misalignment.
Think of it this way:
The discomfort you feel in a tight muscle or a painful nerve
often exists because the bones assigned to support your body are "out of whack."
Try building a house . . .
with the structural framing not aligned along the vertical axis.
If a house felt what humans feel, its doors, windows, and walls
— even plumbing and electrical systems —would all be suffering!
Why doesn't everyone already know this?
It's a head scratcher, to be sure. We assume we already know everything about the skeleton—down to the tiniest detail.
While it's understood that the skeleton provides a framework of support for the body, we've failed to understand how all 206 bones function together as one complete, integrated architectural structure, as essential to our human wellbeing as aligned framing is to a house—or a skyscraper! Everything in our world, including these human bodies, is governed by laws of nature and rules of physics pertaining to gravity and verticality.
Hence, when our muscles complain loudly or are easily injured when we exert ourselves, it's usually because misaligned bones to which these muscles are attached disrupt their natural state. Skeletal alignment provides the precise framework on which all our body's systems and components rely. Just as the various parts of any fine-tuned machine must function optimally in coordination with each other, the human body relies on this same coordination of its many parts—musculoskeletal, circulatory, respiratory, nervous system, and more—to maintain homeostasis and overall health.
Imagine what a game-changer it would be if doctors learned about structural skeletal alignment in medical school. If physical therapists and fitness trainers understood how natural alignment maintains essential muscle elasticity. If parents, teachers, and sports coaches knew that poor postural habits developed at a young age can devastate health and aging.
Your body already knows how to do this!
There's a simple path you can follow to re-establish
the lost alignment you discovered as a baby.
It's not hard to learn this! It can be fun and enlightening to get to know your body at a bone-deep level. You simply learn a handful of simple steps to follow, and almost immediately, as you apply them to yourself, you'll notice meaningful changes taking place as progress on this path builds upon itself. There's no finite destination to be reached, just a here-and-now path to keep traveling along that will serve you for the rest of your life!
The earlier you start, the easier the transformation—but it's never too late to feel meaningfully better. I've watched students in their 70s and 80s make remarkable progress.
I've been traveling this path—practicing and teaching these principles—for the past 32 years.
34 years old
SAD DOG PHASE
A sad dog tucks its tail and rounds its back.
Regular stiffness and pain was already a part of me when I was in my teens. By my early 30s, I struggled with chronic TMJ syndrome and bouts of back pain after lifting something heavy or a long day of gardening. On occasion, back pain kept me in bed for a few days. What I remember most vividly during this period was the relief I discovered when I first began doing yoga with Lilias Folan, who led yoga sessions on PBS TV. Stretching away tension, and discovering aerobics classes at the YWCA were key factors in giving me the relief I needed, but always had to be repeated again soon after.
43 years old
TENSE DOG PHASE
A tense dog lifts its chest and holds itself up with tension.
A decade later, I was now a massage therapist and was certified to teach yoga. Yoga was still considered a bit woowoo back then, and my Wellspring Yoga studio was the first one in Hilo (on the Big Island of Hawai`i) at the time. I hadn't yet figured out that I was dependent on stretching regularly to relieve the familiar stiffness that always returned if I didn't keep stretching. Yoga, itself, was not the problem but HOW I was doing it! It came as a big surprise later to discover that aligning my bones and giving up all stretching had led me to being far more naturally flexible than when I stretched. True story!
79 years old
HAPPY DOG PHASE
A happy dog wags its tail because its spine is straight and relaxed.
My life changed forever in 1994 when I met Jean Couch, who channeled the work of the late Noelle Perez-Christiaens of Paris. Noelle laid out principles of natural alignment based upon observations of how people with aligned spines moved with great ease. After my children were out on their own, I traveled solo for a year, seeking out people who moved easily, whether carrying heavy loads on their heads or being in their 80s and 90s. I've written books about this, taught classes over many years, and created an online course that has reached people all over the world!
If learning this at age 47 worked so well for me,
imagine what's possible for you!
I'll be turning 80 on my next birthday! 🥳 😱
Had I not been so fortunate to learn basic principles of natural alignment, I am certain I would not be enjoying the benefits of mechanical strength, easy mobility, and a good supply of vitality I enjoy today.
So far, I don't struggle with getting up and down off the ground, and I believe this and my ability to squat so easily comes from the way I bend to put on my shoes, lift a heavy box, reach for a book on a high shelf — in other words: all the ways I inhabit my body that continuously reinforce our innate human design
Aging would look and feel so different for me today
if I had not learned how to transform myself from chronic structural collapse, then from being "overly upright", to finally, having a simple roadmap for how to align my bones in the course of my daily life. This path continuously reinforces natural elasticity in my muscles, so I can enjoy freedom from unnecessary tension and dysfunctional movement. I've watched first-hand as hundreds of others have enjoyed the same results.
Turn up volume to hear the soundtrack and Click above to replay video
"Kathleen's work, to me, has been personally transformative.
I am a family physician treating my share of patients with back and neck pain, osteoporosis, and dysfunctional labor . . .
Kathleen Porter's observation of peoples around the world who retain their natural alignment, relaxation, and movement is a clear window into
the healing of the chronic pain syndromes of our culture."
Leah Morton, M.D.
Santa Fe, New Mexico
It's not hard to learn how to BE a happy, healthy skeleton
(rather than just having one),
— a skeleton that serves you well for a whole lifetime!
Pain-Free Living w/ Natural Posture
is a richly illustrated, step-by-step video course that guides you along the path of rediscovery that reveals the forgotten blueprint for solidly strong, easily flexible, pain-free living that resides within you. You'll learn how to sit, stand, bend, walk, lift, carry, reach, lie down to rest or sleep . . . and then apply these basics to how you play sports, hike up a mountain, lift a child, sit at a computer, rake leaves — anything and everything you do all day long.
Ready to remember what your body is waiting for you to re-discover?
Repositioning my bones gives me an immediate feeling of relief and relaxation.
Now whenever I notice I'm stressed or in some unpleasant mood state, I check out my alignment. As a shrink, I ask myself if some of the symptoms my patients experience could be caused by the constant muscle tension of living in an unaligned body.
Daniela Gitlin, M.D.
Plattsburg, NY
Taking Kathleen’s Alignment Basics course changed my life.
At 67, I was experiencing neck, shoulder, and knee pain that worsened with age and seemed chronic. The pain melted away, along with what felt like a life- time’s worth of stored tension. I began performing life’s daily activities—bending, squatting, climbing stairs, reading in bed —in total comfort again.
Martha Raglund
Portland, OR
I cried when I realized that I could feel better.
After two back surgeries, I was still in almost constant pain. I thought I was fated to be this way forever. I didn’t see much point in doing this because nothing else I had tried did much good, but my husband insisted after he met Kathleen.
Kathleen showed me I could straighten my spine and take pressure off areas of pain.
Tracy Maddox
Portland, OR
