Can Your Posture Effect How You Feel?
Can you be happier if you sit up straight?
Our posture isn’t something we think about at all. We only think about it if we are having aches or pain in our back and we think oh I must need to have better posture or I slept wrong. I think everyone at some point has heard “sit up straight” from someone in their lives. Posture isn’t just good for your general health and movement, it is important for how you handle things.
What’s mind blowing to me is that our posture can influence how we process difficult emotions or situations. I notice when I’m speaking sternly to a student I feel seven feet tall. If I’m receiving sad information or difficult information I go into an immediate slump. There’s a reason for this, our bodies are intertwined with what we are experiencing.
If we have upright posture we can process emotions a bit better than if we are slumped. Like what?? I need all the help I can get with emotions, I love this little fact.
Socially we subconsciously relate a slumped seated person as sad. Sitting upright looks happy or confident. Some research has concluded that how we sit can not only influence how we feel, it can influence how we recall a memory. Meaning if you recall something that happened with slumped posture, you’re more likely to remember it in a negative light. You may even make the memory more sad because of your posture. If you are seated upright and remember the same thing, the opposite can happen. You can recall something with a bit more positivity around it.
What I think is exciting is that we can sit ourselves upright to make ourselves feel better. Sitting upright insinuates pride and confidence. It makes me think of fake it til you make it.
This upright posture applies to walking as well. If you walk in a slumped manner you are going to embody this emotionally. You will double down on negativity and feeling low. It will be more difficult to process emotions or whatever has caused you to slump along with anything new.
Emotional regulation is now something I think we’ve heard of. We all want to be able to regulate ourselves and it can be simplified a little with your posture. I think certain emotions can send us into a spiral or complete avoidance. We now know or at least I have learned that how we sit can help us to have an easier time with things. I like thinking I don’t have to do much to feel better or process something. I can just sit upright and let the subconscious benefits fall upon me.