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The natural squatting position

During our lifetime, we spend at least ... 3 full years in the toilet!

• 20% of the population is regularly constipated,
• Millions of laxative medications are consumed each year,
• Millions of people are affected by incontinence problems due to pushing too hard on certain muscles,
• A non-toned perineum leads to a less fulfilling sex life,
• 30% of the population regularly suffers from hemorrhoids. Not to mention inflammatory bowel diseases.

Everyone is concerned: children, adults, elderly people, pregnant women, young mothers...

WHAT DO DOCTORS AND SCIENTISTS TELL US TO SOLVE AND AVOID THESE PROBLEMS?

Let's meet Charlotte Muffang , physiotherapist and sexologist, who knows how to pass on her knowledge, and through this video, talks to us about the natural squatting position.

Our postures shape us. With the help of Andy, our videographer, as artists we drew on the experience and advice of researchers and built bridges with design genius.

Here are the meeting points that inspired us:

INSPIRED BY BIOLOGY

"The intestine is a sensory organ whose neuronal, endocrine and immune responses are in constant interaction. The rectum is covered by the intestinal mucosa which contains 3 types of neuronal detectors, endocrine cells and immune cells, which are connected to the brain (brainstem)" (1)

Thanks to the astonishing anatomy figure in this article, we draw a character who has integrated everything, head, body, and we imagine a simplified approach to its interior. Our cat-shaped object is also animated, from the static position of the Sphinx to the dynamic position with Ty Shee Zen, thanks to the video by Andy Yong (Melbourne, Australia, 2018, on our site).

"This very complex area is sensitive to the pressures necessary for the defecation reflex. The evacuation and emptying of stools is thus done by sliding, without pushing effort." (2)

Sophie Frignet is a Parisian midwife full of sensitivity. In her book, "The perineum of girls" she refers to the poem to Madeleine by Guillaume Apollinaire "The nine doors of your body" (3). She writes with humor: “the girls’ perineum”:

" Learning to better use your perineum to pee, poop, fart, to make love and babies, it's the whole complexity of the subject that drives us; this permanent interaction between functions: sexuality, reproduction, urination, defecation . " (2)

Changes in posture (for example, a few centimeters between squatting and sitting) change our anorectal angle. This entire anorectal area has a very complex architecture.

Dov Sikirov, an Israeli doctor, comparing the tension forces applied in different positions during defecation, gave his results for human health. In 2003, he wanted to check by asking volunteers to test several different positions (4). "Result : In the squatting position, the sensation of eliminating stools was more effective, the intestinal canal more relaxed. While in the sitting position, it took more time and required excessive expulsive effort, compared to the squatting posture. In a squatting position, the intestinal canal is straight as a highway." (5)

“The digestive tract is the interior architect of our insides” ( 4).

And it seems quite logical: in the great outdoors, squatting is the easiest way to defecate without getting dirty. In their book, In Search of a Better Lifestyle , "The Discreet Charm of the Gut", scientist Giulia Enders and her graphic designer sister, Jill, illustrated and described our digestive system: "The way out of the The digestive system is naturally designed to open when squatting and not when sitting or standing. In both positions, a muscle wraps around our intestine like a lasso and pulls it to create a bend." (5)

What an amazing interior!

THE NATURAL SQUATTING POSITION

Raising your legs and leaning slightly forward allows for perfect alignment of the colon ducts.

Once tried, we can't live without it!

Changing our postures means changing our angles, changing our emotions, and sharing good daily habits.

THE WORLD OF DESIGN 

Since the dawn of time, toilets have been installed in homes and public spaces, their shape has evolved and will continue to evolve depending on cultures, thus enhancing our interior spaces. We have been squatting for thousands of years, and even today, when there are no toilets, we naturally go out into nature.

It was only really from the 18th century in Europe that we adapted to a changing world with these "thrones", "commode seats", which then became widespread, and which we We still use it today! However, in some parts of the world we still squat, and toilets are designed for this posture.

Modern comfort offers us this accessible room, which preserves our intimate sphere. Standards of each era have attempted to rationalize comfortable toilet height. Several models have emerged: “standard”, “medicalized”, “suspended”, integrating washing, lighting, perfume and music functions. They have even become great works of art (6) as evidenced by the "Gold Movie Toilet Seat" created by Subogh Gupta and the "Throne of Thought" by ROBBERT (7) .

The world of design is constantly evolving, it aims for functionality, but also teaches us to be relational and intimate. Perceived as an oracle, design objects inform us of our destiny: "Ultralight to travel better, chubby to protect us, bourgeois to reassure us, intimate to cajole us, meditative to soothe the mind, figurative to delight us". (8). Asking yourself “When will we become nomads again?” is perfectly suited to our omnipresent and cosmopolitan cat Ty Shee Zen!

Lidewij Edelkoort's look at design (8) "which is a discipline rooted in ordinary life", immerses us in this empathetic world: "joining the body to the soul, the object to man, the function to experience . " Creator of trends, she teaches us design with "a long-term vision, announcing the currents of life." Object all the same, it inspires Comfort (utility), Beauty (between art and artifice) and Good ( nestling in people's lives). It is an object of desire and collection, between industry and hand-finished.

SENSITIVITY TO DIFFERENT APPROACHES

Also, the comfort of our toilets is one thing, the art of doing everything from one's hara (central part of the lower abdomen, in Japanese) is another. In Chinese medicine, this part of the body is very important because it is the main source of vital breath. The intestines and bladder (plus uterus for women) are found in the hara .

Some meditative and practical reading on complementary postures, as well as other holistic approaches, allowed us to move beyond squatting in the toilet. Health has several entry points!

As Nicolas Bounine works with great energy in his therapeutic practice for the whole family: "Once the balance of the pelvis is restored, the body is liberated" (9), he dares to speak openly about the harmonious place of the pelvis , its rebalancing , postural maintenance consisting of sitting or standing consciously, respecting the physiological curves of the spine. “Healing allows pain and the symptoms of illness to transform us. Let us enter into the encounter with what we are running from, consciously and unconsciously, that is to say our inner world, our true nature.” 

 EMOTIONAL LIFE

Our bodies are intelligent. With our cat Ty Shee Zen, certain questions about social and emotional life emerge: What is our share of animality, intuition, emotional intelligence? Do our emotions make us unique? Sometimes, don't they transform us?

“A heartless seat is a vertical of boredom.” Jean-Yves Leloup in his book "L'assise et la marche" (10), evokes our free space as well as the freedom not to disperse, the meaning given to the initiation of postures. Healing ourselves means paying attention to these postures and identifying what is essential in our eyes: “The center is not a particular point of the body but an opening, a space in which we welcome what is.” After reading his book, “sitting, or walking on a daily basis” become actions “linked to the movement of life”: “Sitting does not mean remaining seated, it means being centered”. “Feeling our solid body, without depriving ourselves of our fluid body, then even lighter, our airy body.”  

INTERIOR SPACE

With our cat Ty Shee Zen, we address the idea of ​​territoriality: Some ambassadors of our brand live with animals and chose our cat because it is symbolically linked to living beings, much more than a small "medical-looking" bench ".

Boris Cyrulnik, thinker and scientist, measures the impact of our representations on our actions and highlights our ways of being alive.

"Animals live in a more sensory world, while humans live in the world of verbal and technical artifices. ... /...the more we know them, the more we understand our place in the living world. And this place n "is not quite what we thought! Man is the virtuoso of virtuality. He invents a representation and then submits to it!" (11)

COOPERATIONAL RELATIONSHIP

Passionate about ethology, the philosophers Vinciane Despret and Corine Pelluchon question our way of observing the living world and certain habits that we have acquired during our evolution . Vinciane Despret places her research in the sensitive world which requires "inhabiting" our bodies, whether we are birds, women, men or children, and listening to them with "the possibility of being part of a relationship of exchange and proximity which has nothing to do with a relationship of identification. (...) The body reconnects with the Spinozist proposition, it becomes the site of what can affect and be affected. A site of transformations". (12)

Corine Pelluchon, one of the most important voices defending the animal and environmental cause, speaks to us about "the awareness of the bond that unites us to other living beings /... which triggers our desire to repair the world.../ ...to defend life by reshaping our representations. We share the earth, the "Oikos", the home of earthlings." (13)

Frédéric Worms (14) gives priority to our modes of action, between interdependence and vulnerability: “there is no “subject of care” facing an “object of care” .../... can- be that the most fundamental dimension of care is the relational dimension that it reveals in our lives.

POETIC PRESENT

Philosopher and founder of the Paris school of meditation, Fabrice Midal invites us to “become our best friend ” (15) and to take time for ourselves by sitting in meditation.

Another poet, Charles Baudelaire, elevates us: “My spirit, you move with agility / And, like a good swimmer who swoons in the waves / You merrily crisscross the deep immensity / With an indescribable and masculine voluptuousness. / Fly away from these morbid miasmas; / Go purify yourself in the upper air" on Elévation , Spleen and Ideal, Les Fleurs du mal (16)

REVELATION

The sensitive universe of the artist Lydie Arickx highlights “ the power of revelation” . Carried by his cheerful voice, his masterful work and his presence in these times of transition are reassuring (Arborescence 2021, Château de Chambord). “When I close my eyes, what do I see?” : "When I close my eyes, what do I see? Bodies ejecting, removing bodies that we bury or conceal, dragging them into a paradoxical whirlwind, .../..." We do not We are never, with her, in the nauseating illustrations of biological failure. What Arickx says without saying it is that sadness is nowhere other than where the body is silent. The body of the living dead is silent, but not the one where life and death talk to each other about what they can make of it, an inexhaustible crucible, a seminal night." ( 17) 

TRANSMISSION

Our Ty Shee Zen cats could one day take a grand tour of Japan. They would be very well received there because the Japanese understand the language of cats.

In Natsume Sôseki 's book "I am a cat": "No ridicule escapes this nyctalope. There is nothing more difficult to understand than the psychology of men. I don't know if my master is now angry or if he is happy (...). I can't say. Everything becomes very simple for us cats. We eat and sleep when the need arises, we get angry without restraint and we meow heartily when the opportunity presents itself. And first of all we don't waste time keeping a diary (...). If we have time to keep a diary, why not use it to sleep on the veranda? “Necessity is the mother of invention”: Bringing out little soothing truths, with fantasy and humor.

“The Cat” by Kwong Kuen Shan meets the great philosophers and the teachings of the Zen tradition. In its collection, we find maxims, watercolors, stamps and seals.
"Do not let temptation blind you. Do not let the clamor from outside deafen you. Do not let worries weigh down your mind and your heart. Watch over your senses and your energy. And they will watch over your body and your soul."

Zen as an art of living (much more than that) is not a Western tradition.

Our French cat is connected to life, seeking a harmonious experience. Western or non-Western practices (emotional, energetic, artistic, spiritual, etc.) are all opportunities to explore new rhythms. Stories of our origins, and essential oral transmissions.

It is quite a journey to address the nature of changes in the nature of man. Energy is expressed in the body through our breathing. Qi Gong helps us work on our energy and our postures by seeking harmony in static and dynamic movements, through breathing and through the mind (Roles and effects of Qi Gong, practical sessions at “Les temps du corps” , Paris 10).

Bibliography 2020. Just this literary point since 2021: other names are inscribed in the Ty Shee Zen DNA without being present here, we are in 2024!

(1) The intestine is a sensory organ: neuronal, Endocrine, and immune responses, 1 Nov 1999 John B Furness, Wolgang AA Kunze and Nadine Clerc Vol 277 N)5 American Journal of physiology, gastrointestinal and liver physiology Figure
(2) Sophie Frignet, the girls' perineum: perineal education essay, Ed éveil Santé, Chapter 1, Paris
(3) Guillaume Apollinaire, the nine doors of your body
(4) Dov Sikirov, Comparison of Straining During Defecation in Three Positions: Results and Implications for Human Health – Digestive Diseases and Sciences, July 2003, Volume 48, Issue 7, pp 1201–1205. 11
(5) Giulia Enders gut, 2016, Scribe Gut: the inside story of our body's most under-rated organ Giulia Enders, Pages 21-34
(6) Subogh Gupta, everyday objects "gold movie Toilet seat created by this Indian Artist, exhibition at the Galleria Continua, Paris 3, 2021 02 10,
(7) Robert, the Throne of Thought, 2021 Paris MOM 2021
(8) Lidewij Edelkoort, Oracles du design, la Gaîté Lyrique, National Center for Plastic Arts, Pyramyd NTCV, 2015 during the exhibition “faire corps” at the Gaîté Lyrique, Paris
(9) Nicolas Bounine, Living upright or regaining balance, JC Lattès, 2002
( 10) Jean-Yves Leloup, sitting and walking, free spaces, Albin Michel, 2011
(11) Boris Cyrulnik, Psychologies, April 3, 2020, Animals help us redefine ourselves
(12) Vinciane Despret, what would animals say if we asked them the right questions? Paris, La Découverte/The Preventers of Thinking in Circles, 2012 , Location 424
(13) Corine Pelluchon, the elements for an ethics of vulnerability. Men, animals, nature, Deer, 2011
(14) Frédéric Worms The Moment of Care. What do we care about?, Paris, PUF, 2010
(15) Fabrice Midal “leave yourselves alone!”, Flammarion 2017, Paris
(16) Baudelaire Elevation, The Flowers of Evil
(17) Lydie Arickx, the roots of chaos, 1998, Poligraphie Bolis Spa, Bergamo, Page 95 Exhibition at the Château de Chambord 2020
(18) Sarah Marquis Instincts, Pocket, 2017, 3 months alone on foot, surviving, in the Australian wild west, To all the indigenous peoples of this planet, especially to the Australian Aborigines who shared their knowledge and their ancestral wisdom with us.
(19) Deconfine with lightness, In our best light, Philomist newsletter reader 05/13/2021
(20) Roger-Pol Droit What unites US, Plon, 2015
(21) Natsume Sôseki, I am a cat, Gallimard, 1986 P 52-58
(22) Kwong Kuen Shan, The philosophical, zen cat who loved me, 38. My rose garden. Pocket

TY SHEE ZEN INSPIRING LIFESTYLE

The cat, like a miniature sphinx, has almost always been part of the human universe.
As a symbol of the link between our senses and our emotions, the Ty Shee Zen cat has its symbolically significant place, which adds a touch of cheerfulness to our daily lives! Agile and fun, the Ty Shee Zen footrest is an inspiring and emotional design object that fits into every room of your house, on your terrace and in your garden!

Ty Shee Zen is more than a cat, it's a " state of mind.

Our motto “ Ty Shee Zen, a better you ” carries two main values: “emotional design” and “No taboo”, in connection with Nature, our nature.

Conscious emotional design

Offer a realistic vision of our current civilization which will feed on emotions and not just robots! In the context of the technological evolution of our world, it is fundamental to take care of ourselves and others.

Develop the philosophy of “sharing is caring” : our dream team works all over the world. Ty Shee Zen provides employment to its collaborators via digital platforms, supports creativity and organizes youth programs in schools, with the cooperation of teachers.

3% of our sales are dedicated to funding cancer research.

We also support contemporary artists who bring emotions to life by creating unique designs.

No taboo

As a footrest, Ty Shee Zen offers much better comfort in the toilet, without effort!

The beautiful and the good count in our lives.