The Therapy Edit - One Thing with Nadia The Osteopath on fostering healthy posture in your children

Episode Date: November 3, 2023

In this Friday guest episode of The Therapy Edit, Anna chats to Nadia the Osteopath about her One Thing; the importance of fostering healthy posture in your children.Nadia Alibhai has over two decades of experience empowering individuals to live healthier lives and addressing body-structural problems resulting from illness or poor posture. She has been hailed by her patients as their 'secret weapon to total wellbeing' and has helped thousands overcome various aches and pains, ranging from stressed-out executives and famous actors to busy school-run mums.You can find out more about Nadia on her website.You can follow Nadia on Instagram here

Hello and welcome to The Therapy Edit with me, psychotherapist's mum of three and author Anna Martha. Every Friday, I invite one guest to tell me the one thing they would most like to share with mums everywhere. So join with me as we hear this dose of wisdom. I hope you enjoy it. Hi, everyone. Welcome to today's guest episode of The Therapy Edit. I have a really exciting guest today. Someone that's going to get you sitting up that little bit taller. I have with me, Nadia, the osteopath. Now, Nadia is a posture expert. She has been practicing for 20 years as an osteopath. She treats babies to the elderly using a really holistic approach. She is the founder of Back to Wellbeing, which is a luxury health and wellness clinic in London. You might have seen her on this morning. She's also a BBC Radio London's resident osteopath. And she's worked in many different settings. both the kind of classic clinic, but also on film sets and in TV,

she has realized that people are so much more aware of their posture since working from home more. And I bet you're like, I'm just literally putting my shoulders back as I speak. I'm like, I'm all curvy. I think just as we've been sat at our desk a lot more and just I've even worked on my bed, I've worked at the kitchen table, you know, these settings which actually we know are not probably ideal for our bodies. So just been becoming a little bit more aware of our posture. and her Instagram is amazing.

It's Nadia the osteopath and she is just brilliantly informative. There are so many videos on there that literally just, oh, just give me this desire to go and have someone kick my back and I need to go and pay her a visit. And she is just passionate about empowering us to know our bodies and to improve our posture to support our general well-being. So Nadia, hi, it's lovely to have you. Hi, hi, Anna. I'm so happy to be here to have a chat with you about some things and some tips

that, you know, hopefully some people here listening will take away. And yeah, thank you for having me. Well, I loved the thought of having you on because, to be honest, I didn't really know much about osteopathy until I got a DM in my inbox. I'd done a story on Instagram about these headaches I had every single day and they were kind of like wrapped around my head and I was getting this weird like burning sensation on my scalp. And then someone who's local to me called Ben, he dropped me a DM.

And he was like, I can help you with that. And I was like, I really can you now? And I kind of just ignored it for a while, but it carried on. And he was an osteopath. And he said, come and see me. I can get rid of these headaches for you. I'm pretty sure I know where they're coming from. So I went to see him pretty skeptical. But honestly, I left absolutely transformed. And I didn't have those headaches anymore. Sometimes I start getting them back again. And I just call them up and I go in for a session. And it's just giving me this whole awareness of this approach and this need to, look after our bodies and how so many things can kind of tie into each other and sometimes get a weird numb tongue. I get a numb tongue sometimes and he sorts that out and I just think

we don't realise quite how much spine health and posture impacts this. And it's all connected and I used to be a migraine suffer as a child. So for me it's one of those things that, you know, when you know that you can help people as opposed to just being, you know, stuck numbing it by popping pills and actually feeling worse and not feeling better. So it's making the change and just having the tools to make the difference. Yeah, and just being aware that there is this amazing support out there. And I see on your Instagram, you know, on your grid, like all this, the different, the relief that you can give people with things that as you're right, they've just put up with. Exactly. And I think there's so many of us that have gone through years

putting up with things, but there's so much there now. There's so much. educational tools from, whether it's Instagram, whether it's different Google apps where we can actually get help at our hands. And with osteopathy, it is just about unblocking areas that have been stuck probably for years for so many people. And some people that come into me, they may, you know, they'll be suffering from headaches. And just after releasing certain joints and or some muscle tension, they feel amazing. Those headaches just disappear. And they're able to live a life where they're feeling healthy, they're pain-free, and they're not relying on painkillers. And that to me is a big, big deal. Yeah. It's a big deal. Yeah, it's a massive deal. If you've got kind of low-grade

headache constantly or you've got just this discomfort, this back pain or just, yeah, there are ways that you can do. I'm such a, yeah, I'm always sending my friends off now. I'm like, go and see an osteopath. Honestly. And I feel it's the best thing. I mean, okay, not just because I'm an osteopath, But I have people coming in sometimes, and they'll be, you know, they'll come in, say, Nadia, I've been in pain for years. I've had this low, you know, low back pain. It's just not getting better. And after a session, there's tears.

And I just think, oh, my God, are you okay? Is it painful? And it's just the joy, the tears of relief, you know, the tears of joy. And when you see that in a person and that they're able to actually then walk away, I had a lady once coming in with a walking stick. She was only in her 30s. And I said, why? what's going on. And she said, oh, she has really bad sciatica. She'd gone into A&E and they've given

her this walking stick, which she'd been using for months. And she left the clinic without that walking stick. And it's such a, such a joy to see how with the right tools, people can live a healthy and a pain-free life. And I think that's what it is about educating people on how they can do that. Yeah, and all those implementable things that you share about how we can look after our backs and look after our spines and all those nerves that go up and down and our bodies often hold so much tension, don't they? And we can just be, they can almost be bracing ourselves for life without even realising. Absolutely. And we hold our tension nowadays. And, you know, being a mom, being a working mom, there's the juggling, the constant juggling. And with that, it's like, you know, perfection

comes along the way. You know, my sort of Virgo Libra Cusp doesn't help either. But I do find that, you know, with trying to do so much, we then suppress. There's sometimes when, you know, you might just even be driving a car and you're like, but you hold the tension in your drawer because you don't want to shout it out. So we suppress a lot and we hold that in our bodies. So lots of times when people come in for areas to be released, there is not just a physical, but there's an emotional release. And when the two work together, it is like, you know, you know the term when they say,

you know, weight has been lifted off my shoulders. That literally, you watch it happen. Someone comes in wearing their shoulders as their earrings, and they actually leave with a neck, with their shoulders in the correct place. And, you know, you started off, Anna, saying that, you know, of being aware of posture and I'll pull my shoulders back. And, you know, that was something I had so much growing up as a child. I loved my books.

I played the trombone. So, you know, musical instruments, I was quite studious. And I had quite a rounded back. And I remember my mum saying, pull your shoulders back, but actually what I've learned through osteopathy, it's not just about those pulling the shoulders back. It's about raising the chest. So you know where our breast bone is? So don't think about your shoulders right now. Okay. Let's go into the most slouch position you can go into. Do it? Very easily. Very easily. Now, don't think about your shoulders. Think about your breast bone and lift that and lift your upper back. And just watch how the shoulders and actually just get to you in place. They've just kind of fallen down. Okay. against my back, my, my scapula, my, yeah, shoulder blades. And this is coming from that mid-back. And this is one of the things, at the moment, the amount of children that come in to see me, Anna, I can't, I don't even know where to begin.

I mean, I have to make girls and I'm constantly, you know, trying to correct them on things with their posture. But, you know, one big tip I have, my biggest tip to take away. Yeah, the one tip. Let's hear it. The one tip. And this to me is the game changer. Okay.

Because I'll go through all these little subdivisions, but the one biggest tip for you as a parent with children is to set an example. They're watching you. If you're going to tell your child, stop slouching, yet you're sat there on the sofa, slouched. If you're going to tell your child, oh, don't wear that rucksack like that, but you're holding, carrying your handbag with your shoulder up to your ears and, you know, not balancing out your bags,

they're watching this. So set that example of how you're sitting. Set that example of when you're on your phone rather than having that screen down, because let's talk about the screens firstly. Children today, the screen usage has increased, right? Whether we like it or not, I'm very, I don't like my kids to be on their tablet, but they have a tablet. They sometimes have to complete homework on their tablet. They're going to use that tablet at some point in their life. How do they use this tablet without hurting themselves? Lift the screen. Children sometimes want to watch their tablets in bed. And if they see mommy or daddy in bed with their laptop or hunched over and they're going to see you doing that, they're going to go back into that bed with that tablet punched over thinking this is cozy. But actually then when you say, oh, sit up. Don't sit like that. They're watching you do it again. Set the example. And what you want to think about here with things like screens, beat. phone, be it's a tablet, be it's a reading book, okay? Your head, on average, weighs around five kilos, right? And our skull is now balanced on these little vertebrae. So we've got the

cervical spine. Now think about it. If you've got a head, that's around five kilos and it's looking down for long periods, watching a film on a tablet, reading a few chapters in a book, that's going to strain the muscles in your neck. Your vertebrae can only take so much. It's like a fishing rod. It's going to give. So you want to focus on lifting at the chest, lifting the head. But the biggest thing here is how do you lift the tablet? And one of the tips I give to my children and to children that come to see me for treatment is get some cushions on your lap, pop your elbows on that cushion and then hold that tablet. You'll notice that child is looking up even if it's a slight increase in the angle. They, you know, research.

as says that, you know, the tablet, the screen or the book should be at eye level. But even if it's slightly lower, it's better than them looking down at their laps. So change those things up when you're at home, when you're actually on your tablets or doing your work or responding to text messages, change it. Yeah. So again, that example. Another one, you know, which I think is a really big one, is handbags. I found there was a point I went shopping with my two girls and I went food shopping and I had my

handbag on one shoulder I was carrying bags all over the place there was no balance and I you know I'm right side dominance I was carrying the majority of the bags on the right and my eldest daughter turned around she said mommy you look really crooked and I thought well did she just say I look crooked and she said yes you look very she said you can't she said why are you holding and I thought oh my god why am I holding all the bags on one side, balance it out? And that's when I now notice, if they're holding bags, they'll balance things out because they see I'm doing it. So it's the biggest, biggest thing to take away because it's so easy to nag at our children, sit up, shoulders back, sit straight. But if we're not doing that, how are they expected to do that?

Yeah, so true. I love the, I love the one about kind of bringing your chess forward because actually I just I'm doing that now and it's so much easier to prompt yourself to kind of bring your chest forward than it is to think, right, shoulders back, you know, shoulder blades down. And actually it just kind of, it's that one movement that just kind of puts everything else to place. And this is it. And I think with that lift, it just helps bring everything back. We're not, we're not just thinking the shoulders, the head, everything comes back with it. It's very hard to lift the chest and the head stay forward. You know, so it's a lift and it's a conscious lift. A lot of times people say, oh, but it doesn't stay in that position. It's not going to, if you spent

30 plus years in one position, it's not going to sit in one position overnight. It's gentle reminders. The same way we start training a muscle when we're exercising to try and get stronger. It's the same with the body. We're strengthening muscles. We're using our muscles in different ways to what we might have to keep it in a better position. So we don't have aches and pains. And it's not just an aesthetic thing. You know, growing up, it was, you know, children sitting right and, you know, that military position for the young boys and the girls thinking about, you know, balancing, what's it? Books, yeah, on your head. Which actually is a great reminder to train your neck muscles, but back then it was on how a lady looked. It makes you

look a lot more confident, a lot more feminine, as opposed to being rounded. But now we need to think about how it's making our bodies feel, what it's doing to our bodies on the inside. You know, someone who's hunched over at a childhood come over. And so this child had asthma. And when this child came in, the child had a very rounded posture and was asthmatic and shallow breathing. And with osteopathy and giving this child tips on, you know, carrying the rock sack with two shoulders, making sure the straps are padded, making sure the straps are padded, making

sure when you're filling your rucksack, you're not too heavy, but the heaviest item in your rucksack should be at the back of the rucksack. So that's closest to your back. So those little tips allowed this little, this child, to be able to, when they're carrying their rucksack, to stand better. And that with some exercises and lifting, just the tip I showed you of lifting at that breastbone, that's allowed them to have so much more confidence in school. they're feeling better in themselves, their muscles are less achy, and they're breathing better and their asthma attacks have actually got less. Incredible.

It's making more space. I guess you're just, when you're not hunched over, you're actually making more space, aren't you, for your organs? They're kind of less squitched in, so you probably breathe a little bit more fully. I love that you're encouraging moms to think about their posture because it's very easy to, and we so often do this, we value our children often more. we value ourselves. So we see the more hunched open. We're like we don't want them to have problems later on in life. So we must encourage them to sit in a certain way that's going to be good for

their backs. But actually the standard we often then hold for ourselves is way lower. But you're so right. They're watching. Annoyingly. They're watching. And they see it all. They see the things that we don't see. And you know, that's when actually to me, they like they are almost, there are mirrors. And the more we make those changes, the better it is for them. One, one of the things I've loved doing is I bought a Swiss ball, you know, those fancy pregnancy balls. And, you know, whenever I notice my child is on her tablet, I'll say, hey, do me a favor, sit on this ball and let me see how long you can actually be on your tablet while you're on this ball. And all of a sudden, she's using her core muscles,

she's using her tablet, and she's sitting so much better, but she gets tired so quickly, which means less tablet time, which is great for me. So I'm just like, great, she's done. But it's using different things for you, you know, to get your child to keep moving. And that's another tip is to keep moving. The more you're moving, the better it is. Because if, you know, one of the hardest times for me is if I'm watching a film, yes, I will enjoy my film.

But I make sure and do a stop and say, hey, does anyone need a loop break? Does anyone need to fill up their bottles of water? So there is a bit of movement going through that. But people that have filled up that bottle of water and don't need a new loop break. And the child's like, Mommy, don't pause it. I'm really into the film. Just think about the position people are sitting in. You know, if you're sitting with your legs crossed, change it up.

And it's about changing poses through the day. And that's so good for your body. So really it's about thinking about, it's an element of our health, isn't it, that we can often overlook that actually thinking about our future selves as we age, we're going to be so grateful for implementing these things because. Absolutely. I think back pain is such a common one as we get older and we start really paying the price of different postural, you know, habits that we've had and we can learn new ways and it does feel conscious at first, but actually not only are you supporting your own health, but you're actually showing your children and modelling how to support theirs as well. Exactly. And it's, again, it's that setting that example. And the stronger you are, the more we can do with our children. And we feel better for it. So when we're doing it and we're feeling better for it, we're in a better mood, naturally.

as opposed to, you know, you know that feeling when you've hurt your neck or you've hurt your back and your child is, mommy, mummy, and it's like, I can't do this right now. And not to feel that way and to feel healthy. And yes, you are going to have times when you might pull your back or you might hurt your neck. But having the tools, knowing what to do, what stretches to do, get the help. And I think a lot of times us as parents, we just want to soldier on and just keep going. And actually, there's so much out there nowadays that can actually help us. feel better. And also look better. You know, I find with osteopathy, I don't know if you've,

if you did manage to have a look at, I think you did look at my Instagram. If you look at the before and afters, not only do you. Incredible. Yes. And it changes your posture. You know, you feel better, but you look so much younger. You look so much healthier. You look more confident. And it's just, it just balances out. You know, it's a win-win. It's a win-win. It is. So I encourage people to head over to your Instagram. Just to be inspired and, yes, I mean, it would be amazing. I really want to come and visit you at the clinic. We're going to arrange this.

We're going to make that happen. We're going to make that happen. I can't wait. But also, for those that can't go and benefit from all the amazing information and prompts and just those little tweaks and changes that can have a huge impact that are really generously laid out on your page. So thank you so much. So to finish off, I have a couple of quick fire questions. for you. I haven't told you what they are. So you're coming in cold with this one. Tell me a motherhood

high. Was a motherhood high for you? Oh my God. Just one. There's too many. Just the one. Just I know. That's wonderful to know there are so many. There's too many. I feel is my motherhood high. Thanks, Anna. If you've just thrown me there. I think my motherhood high would be just watch. I'm not watching, it's the giggles, it's the connection, it's the love, it's the feelings, it's the feeling of being loved in a way that I didn't know I could be loved. And I did not know I had this much love to give. So that's my biggest high because I was, I used to think I was very, oh, I'm not bothered about children. I'm not very maternal. And knowing I can love the way I love my two little girls, it, I feel it's, it's the best feeling on this

planet i feel recharged every day although i end up going to bed exhausted completely on the floor but yeah that love and that that that discovering that kind of that capacity that you didn't really realize that you had i love that and then finally what is one thing that makes you feel good what do you do that makes you feel good my one thing that makes me feel good is my end of day baths i will have a bath every that's my end of day it's my ritual i will um get some magnesium salt in there, I'll do that twice a week and I add some oils, as in I have the magnesium salts twice a week in the bath. I'll add some lovely oils. I like to burn some candles. I turn my bathroom into a spark. I love this. I have to because for me, when I'm with patience all day, I finish

work, I go home, I'm with two little girls and it's full on. It's lots of energy and as much as I love what I do and I love being around my kids, I need that time for myself. And that's where I kind of wash off any energies I don't want to keep on and I just embrace the moment I'm in and I reconnect with myself and I feel once I've done that and I've got into my PJs I feel new again and I'm like back to I'm back on it my energy's back let's go I've been having more bars recently it's the weather I think it just makes you want to feel nice and warm and cozy but yeah I love it away to end the day really therapeutic the warm water well thank you so much for all your amazing insights and encouragement, empowering us to look after ourselves as much as we

want to look after our kids and know that we are deserving, both current us and future, older us, of thinking about how we're holding ourselves and how much of a massive difference some of these small tweaks can make. So thank you. Thank you for inspiring us. Oh, thank you so much for having me. And it was so lovely chatting with you. So thank you so much, Anna. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Therapy Edit. If you have enjoyed it, don't forget to subscribe and review for me. Also, if you need any resources at all, I have lots of videos and courses on everything from health anxiety to driving anxiety and people pleasing. They are all on my website, Anna Martha.com. And also, don't forget my brand new book,

Raising a Happier Mother is out now for you to enjoy and benefit from. It's all about how to find balance, feel good and see your children flourish as a result. Speak to you soon.