Head High, Shoulders Back: Why Good Posture Matters Even Today
“Stand up straight” is a common piece of advice, frequently told to us by our grandmothers and Jordan Peterson. And, like usual, there’s good sense in what they’re telling us to do.
Proper posture has many benefits, physical and mental, immediate and long-term. Here are just a few ways that straightening up your spine can elevate not only your head but also your life.
Is There Power in the Power Pose?
We communicate our mental and emotional state through our posture all the time, often without even realizing it. If you’re feeling stressed and burdened, you’re most likely slumping, looking down, and shuffling your feet. If you’re feeling happy and confident, you’re most likely walking with your shoulders back and your face up, smiling and making eye contact. Our bodies express our internal state. But can we change our internal state by first changing our bodies? We can, according to social psychologist Amy Cuddy from Harvard Business School.
In 2012, Dr. Amy Cuddy gave a widely popular TED Talk on her findings of the effects of “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence (even if you’re not feeling confident). She claimed that participants who stood in an open, dominant, expansive, and powerful pose consequently felt more powerful and confident — leading them to perform better in mock interviews. She further claimed that power posing raised the participants’ testosterone levels and dropped their cortisol levels — seemingly proving that manipulating our body’s position could impact our internal chemistry.
Cuddy said, “Our bodies can change our minds, and our minds can change our behavior, and our behavior can change our outcomes.”
Expansive postures, like power posing, give the feeling of being powerful and confident.
This power pose discovery seemed like a life-changing finding, until 2015, when another study attempting to replicate her results wasn’t able to. Amy Cuddy wrote a follow-up academic paper in 2017, analyzing over 55 studies, in which she arrived at the conclusion that expansive postures, like power posing, do give the feeling of being powerful and confident. However, that feeling doesn’t reliably impact behavior and hormone levels weren’t impacted. So essentially, power posing has a placebo effect.
While there are fewer scientifically proven benefits to power posing than initially thought, simply feeling more confident or powerful might be all you need to help you in that job interview or on that first date.
Good Posture Improves Organ Function
Good posture does more than make us feel confident. The way we carry our spine, shoulders, neck, and head can negatively impact our internal organ function, sometimes resulting in chronic pain.