Tall Posture, High Self-Esteem
You read it right… a tall posture is directly correlated to a higher level of self-esteem and an uplifted mood.
Self-esteem is measured as an overall positive or negative attitude toward oneself. Global self-esteem consists of two aspects, the first is a sense of social worth or ‘self liking’ and the second is a sense of personal efficacy or self-competence.
Your posture has an impact on how you view yourself! Stand up tall to keep reading!
The Stress Effect
From a physiologic perspective stress affects your posture, and your posture affects your stress levels. Researchers performed an experiment aimed to investigate whether an upright, seated posture could influence affective and cardiovascular responses to a psychological stress task, relative to a slumped seated posture.
The researchers found that by adopting an upright seated posture in the face of stress can help people better maintain self-esteem, reduce their negative mood associated with the stress, and increase positive mood compared to a slumped posture.
“Sitting upright may be a simple behavioral strategy to help build resilience to stress” (Nair et al., 2014). What a great way to combat the ill health effects associated with a stressful lifestyle!
Upright Posture for an Uplifting Mood
Slumped posture is now viewed as a diagnostic factor of depression. Meaning, that patients who present with slouched, closed postures are more inclined to suffer from clinical depression.
The opposite is also true. New research shows that sitting upright with proper posture reduces fatigue and improves positivity of mood in depressed patients (Wilkes et al., 2017).
Meaning, that a natural way to manage symptoms associated with depression is through postural correction.
Researchers have also found that students suffering from exclusion of social groups, or ostracism, tend to have a “submissive” slouched posture. These students that were evaluated had a greater tendency to utilize video games and to sit in a slouched position while playing games whereas the children who were not excluded did not.
The students who were included in the social circles demonstrated more self-confidence, an upright posture, and a more positive mood (Oberleitner, 2014). The “In” crowd gets the importance of good posture.
Your posture, the structural framework of your body is directly related to your level of self-esteem and your mood. Obtaining a slouched posture is not only bad for your body physically, but it is robbing you of a good mood mentally.
To offset negativity and to promote higher levels of positivity you need to change your physiology to change your mind. Sitting up straight and standing up tall with a resilient upright posture will help you achieve the mental shift that will add quality to your life experiences.
Your posture matters, good posture isn’t going out of style. Be sure to take care of your posture to take care of your mind.
References:
Nair, S., Sagar, M., Sollers III, J., Consedine, N., & Broadbent, E. (2015). Do slumped and upright postures affect stress responses? A randomized trial. Health Psychology, 34(6), 632.
Oberleitner, D., Welker, K., Cain, S., & Carré, J. (2014). Upright and left out: Posture moderates the effects of social exclusion on mood and threats to basic needs.
Tafarodi, R. & Swann, W. (1995) Self Liking and Self Competence as Dimensions of Global Self-Esteem: Initial Validation of a Measure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 65(2) 322-342.
Wilkes, C., Kydd, R., Sagar, M., & Broadbent, E. (2017). Upright posture improves affect and fatigue in people with depressive symptoms. Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 54, 143-149.
