What Does Your Posture Say About You?

What Does Your Posture Say About You?

You can tell a lot about a person just by looking at their posture.
Our collective life experiences shape the way we carry ourselves in this world. Physical injury and emotional trauma gets stored in the body as tightness and aberrations. Over time, these aberrations cause one shoulder to be higher than the other, one leg to be straighter, one side of the back to hurt. If you’ve ever taken a yoga class, these aberrations are more evident as you notice that you can twist further to one side than the other or extend toward the floor with one leg, but not the other.
This is normal. But here’s how the physical characteristics can affect our emotional and psychological stability:
Have you ever come across a person who is genuinely positive most of the time. Someone who is confident and resilient (even in times of adversity)? That person probably stands up tall, chest up, shoulders down, head held high. This person takes initiative and responsibility and acts with integrity. This is the posture of an enthusiastic person.

On the other hand, it’s relatively easy to spot the posture of a victim. This person carries their fear and their hurts as demonstrated by a caved in chest, shoulders curved forward and head hanging forward. It is the posture of someone who can easily get stuck in the negative. Someone who speaks defensively and frequently blames or judges.

If you look for it, these attributes are easy to spot. You can consciously identify people who will be a positive influence in your life and who will likely be draining. The real key is to watch for both the emotional and physical attributes in ourselves. Basic awareness can help us improve our our attitudes and emotional stability. A variety of other practices can help us improve the physical postures and ways we carry ourselves. The International Association of Structural Integrators has a practitioner finder who have gone through rigorous training programs on structural alignment and employ various techniques to help you improve your posture. Here’s a short list of practices that improve posture: Iyengar Yoga, Feldenkrais, Zentherapy, Rolfing, Hellerwork, Alexander Technique.