Recently a lot of people have been complimenting me on how slim and fit I look; this makes me happy. These compliments seem to often come with extra feedback. They say I am looking good, but I need to stop hunching forward. Apparently, I need to work more on my posture. I have taken that feedback on board; it takes a conscious effort, but I have been feeling great because of it. Apparently, I am not the only one.
A study was conducted, where 74 participants were randomly instructed to maintain either a slumped or upright seated posture. In order to maintain this position, they were taped into place and then given a reading and a speaking task. Upon completion of the tasks, they were given questionnaires on their perceived threat, mood and self-esteem and also had their blood pressure and pulse measured throughout the task.
The results of this task were an increase in positive mood, a decrease in negative mood, and also helped the ability for the participants to maintain their self-esteem throughout the tasks. The speaking task also produced some interesting results where slumped participants used more negative words in their speech and upright seated participants were more positive in their speech.
Another interesting study was conducted where students were asked to talk about past experiences good and bad. They were asked to do this on two separate occasions, once in a slumped posture and then in an upright posture, and they found it harder to recall the negative experiences when they were in an upright position.
This is a big eye opener for me. It sounds like whenever we are feeling depressed and thinking about bad memories, we could possibly stop these thoughts if we just sat up straight. This could be where exercises like yoga could have a benefit.
