Standing Strong and Feeling Great
Getting Physical – The Amazing Power Within Your Posture
If you’ve been following these discussions on a regular basis, you’ll be familiar with the concept that our posture always reflects our thoughts and feelings. It’s a fascinating principle because it helps us to understand that our bodies provide a reliable barometer that reveals how we’re thinking and feeling.
You only need to glimpse your reflection and catch sight of your stooped posture and rounded shoulders to be reminded how you typically hold your body. Have you noticed how you hold your shoulders? Is your jaw tense? Do you grind your teeth? Do you hold onto your car’s steering wheel with a fierce and grim ferocity? Do you frown a lot?
The simple fact is that these physical gestures – plus a long list of others – always reflect how you feel. How you hold your body is an extension of your emotional condition.
A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind
- Morihei Ueshiba
Think about the idea for a moment. When you’re feeling good, it shows in the way you stand or sit. Equally, when you’re feeling stressed, anxious and under pressure – these attitudes can also be seen in your body. In fact, your body is a better indicator for how you feel than anything you might say.
Your posture speaks clearly and unambiguously, even when you’re not aware of how you’re really feeling.
This is the basis for our knowledge of body language. The way we hold our posture is a reflection of whatever we’re thinking and feeling. And whilst body language is a complex and subtle field of study that’s often been misunderstood and misrepresented, it’s helpful to recognise that it’s mostly an unconscious set of behaviours.
The really exciting part of this knowledge of how we hold our posture is that we can use it to our advantage. We can use it to feel much more positive and lower our stress levels.
In fact, we can learn to use our posture to influence exactly how we want to feel.
When the asana is correct, there is lightness, a freedom. Freedom come when every part of the body is active. Let us be free in whatever we are doing.
- B K S Iyengar
One of the most effective ways to lower your stress response, for example, is to relax your shoulders. It’s so simple that it’s easy to forget or overlook. But we’re hard-wired as a species to respond to our shoulder position. Whenever you tense your shoulders, you immediately feel defensive. Loosen them and you’ll feel much calmer, more relaxed and centred. It’s a fabulous and highly effective habit to adopt.
You probably know that when you stand up straight, you tend to feel more confident. Lift your chin and you start to feel much more determined. Widen your shoulders and open your chest muscles just a little, and you immediately feel more positive, more open, more creative and a little more assertive. Unclench your jaw muscles and relax your neck and tongue muscles and you feel much less anxious.
I would never encourage anyone to adopt a contractive posture. It's not good for you physically. It's not good for you psychologically.
- Amy Cuddy
Once you begin to explore the effect and range of these simple postural adjustments, you’ll probably be amazed at how quickly you can turn down your anger, your fear, your stress, your anxiety and any nagging doubts that might be lingering in the back of your mind.
Another area of concern is the fact that most of us simply sit for too long. It’s bad for our posture, our breathing, our ability to think clearly and creatively and it certainly impairs our flexibility.
The easy answer is to develop a new and very helpful routine of standing up from your desk - if that’s possible - every twenty minutes and moving around. I encourage people to stand up and stretch gently for a minute or so, taking a few deeper breaths and focusing the eyes on something in the distance to relieve eye strain.
When you put these simple principles together into a convenient routine, the effects can be extraordinary. You’ll feel better, you’ll lower your stress, you’ll improve your cognitive functioning, you’ll boost your creativity and you’ll start to feel the positive effects that flow from reduced anxiety levels.
Make a commitment right now to put these powerful principles into your daily routine and see how quickly you start to feel stronger, calmer, more balanced, more confident and more creative.
It’s always a pleasure to share these ideas. We’ve been teaching these techniques and principles to thousands of individuals for more than twenty years. Our aim is to help as many people as possible to enjoy life to the full in a powerful and meaningful way.
If you found the suggestion helpful, please feel free to share the post and encourage your family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances to discover the incredible power of breaking free from their limitations. Help them to enjoy greater levels of freedom, happiness and success in all areas of their lives.
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