Use Gravity Wisely
“Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off.” — Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Leave it to me to open a deep dive into spinal decompression and nurturing your mobility with a reflection on my lifelong love for Peter Pan, Narnia, and all things fantastical.
You can follow that surprising thread of thought and get a little insight into the origins and meaning of being a self-ascribed Lost Girl in my recent newsletter, Finding Neverland. (And if you’d like the longer adventures, you’re always welcome to join me for the full biweekly newsletter.)
For now, rather than simply rehash that discussion, I’d like to once again use this space to explore a single idea from that piece a little more fully.
Gravity. That quintessential universal force that is at once one of the most easily observed, yet still one of the most mysterious aspects of physics.
Gravity touches everything we do. Its invisible pull keeps our feet on the ground, our atmosphere wrapped around the Earth, and even helps shape the galaxies. We encounter it from the moment we gain consciousness. We learn to crawl against it. We learn to walk with it. We throw balls through it. We jump, skip, climb… and occasionally fall because of it.
Or of you were like younger me, you might have spent a late night dropping a watermelon off a four-story parking garage at two in the morning… for purely scientific purposes, obviously. 😉
Curiosity has always had a way of getting the better of me (and apparently runs in the family, as my grandfather once tested gravity as a child by jumping off a roof with an umbrella). 😅
For today, let’s focus on gravity’s effects, both positive and detrimental, on our long-term health.
Our bodies were engineered through millions of years of evolution to thrive within Earth’s gravitational pull.
Yet gravity is a bit like fire. Used well, it keeps us strong. Ignored, it slowly degrades us.
A sedentary lifestyle filled with unconscious habits, long hours sitting, slumping into recliners, and hunching over those wonderful yet remarkably consuming little glowing rectangles in our hands gradually compresses our spine, rounds our shoulders, limits our diaphragm, shortens our breath, and reduces the space between our vertebrae.
Gravity isn’t causing those problems.
It’s simply reinforcing the position we spend the most time in.
Every day, gravity asks a simple question, “How would you like me to shape you?”
Our habits become the answer.
Trees spend their entire lives negotiating with gravity. They don’t fight it. They respond to it. The wood they lay down changes depending on the forces acting upon them. Our bones do the same through Wolff’s Law. Our muscles, tendons, and fascia continually remodel in response to the loads we place upon them.
In a sense, life itself is an ongoing conversation with gravity.
The wonderful news is that gravity isn’t just something that compresses us.
It’s also one of our greatest teachers.
Every time we stand tall, gravity encourages healthy posture.
Every walk strengthens our bones.
Every hike challenges our balance.
Every squat reminds our hips of the movement they evolved to perform.
Every playful jump, skip, dance, climb, rebound, or game of tag gently reminds our body that it was designed to move.
And when our joints need a little kindness, we can even negotiate with gravity by stepping into a pool, where buoyancy gives our bodies room to stretch, twist, breathe, and decompress with less resistance.
A few simple ways to become better friends with gravity:
Stand up from sitting for one or more minutes every 20 minutes (timer suggested!)
Reach overhead several times throughout the day.
Hang from a sturdy bar for a few seconds if your shoulders allow.
Sit on the floor instead of the couch once in a while.
Skip, jump rope, dance, or rebound just because it’s fun.
Swim or stretch in the water when your joints need a gentler environment.
Spend more time playing and less time simply sitting.
Because that’s really what this comes back to.
Peter Pan wasn’t remarkable because he could fly.
He was remarkable because he never forgot how to play.
As children, we instinctively climbed trees, hung upside down from monkey bars, rolled down hills, balanced on curbs, and skipped simply because it made us smile. We were constantly negotiating with gravity without ever realizing we were also building resilient bodies.
In short, go play with gravity instead of merely living under it.
— Ariel
Eos
About Eos Coaching
Eos Coaching is rooted in the practice of making the most of today. Through functional wellness, performance coaching, and reflective practice, I work with individuals who want to build strength, clarity, and consistency without burnout.
This Substack is an extension of that work. A place for field notes, reflections, and practical tools that support steady progress and self-trust.
You can learn more about my coaching work or subscribe to my bi-weekly newsletter, Reflections, at eoscoaching.us.