Yesterday,
I wrote about trying to walk by pulling my legs farther behind me
and pushing firmly into the ground through the soles of my feet.
But honestly?
It felt really hard.
I already knew I barely use my feet and calves properly in daily life,
but even so,
it was exhausting enough that I could already imagine myself giving up.
Even if something is “good for you,”
if it feels too difficult,
eventually you start thinking:
“Maybe my normal way of walking is fine after all.”
That’s exactly what I was thinking.
Later,
while sitting on a bench,
I noticed my posture had collapsed forward a little,
so I gently lengthened my spine.
The moment I did,
I felt my lower back arch strongly.
My body naturally tends toward a swayback posture.
And when that happens,
I always imagine something specific.
It feels like squeezing a soft ball in the middle,
almost like pinching it into the shape of a trumpet.
The area being compressed collapses inward,
while the untouched area pops outward.
That’s what my body feels like when I overarch:
my back compresses tightly,
while my stomach opens outward.
But then I wondered:
What if pressure were distributed evenly from above?
The front of the body
and the back of the body
would both maintain equal length.
So I tried applying that image to myself.
Keeping the front of my torso
and the back of my torso
equally long.
Not shortening only the front.
Not overextending only the back.
And the moment I did that,
my abdominal muscles engaged naturally.
Not forcefully—
just naturally.
It felt like my body suddenly had a center.
A quiet sense of internal support.
Then I started walking again
while keeping that feeling.
And suddenly—
all the effort I had been forcing into “pushing through the feet”
became unnecessary.
Instead of trying hard to push the ground away,
my weight simply transferred naturally into the floor.
The push happened automatically.
And I thought:
…Ah.
So this is why the core matters so much.
When the center of the body activates,
the right amount of force naturally reaches the places that need it.
Instead of desperately trying to control the outer parts of the body,
everything begins working together once the center is organized.
That’s what it felt like.