Your Definitive Guide to Understanding and Improving Your Posture (Part 5)

Posture is a social construct

So while your posture might not be linked to any type of pain outcome, there is one big reason why you might care to improve your posture. ‘Perfect posture’ is a social construct and as such it has real implications for the way we behave and what we believe. There is strong research linking specific postures with our emotional state, with those exhibiting a slumped forward posture showing higher rates of depression. On top of that, we can actually improve someone's depressive symptoms by improving their posture. Now, I don’t believe this is because of anything inherent in our anatomy or physiology, but refers back to power of expectations. There is growing literature linking our beliefs and expectations with pain outcomes. When we see everywhere in popular media the specific message that certain postures are bad for us, it should be no surprise when that messaging has real effects. I would love everyone to break free from this harmful narrative. But even if we know that Santa Claus is not real you are still going to be disappointed if no one gets you a Christmas present. The effects on us and our emotions are real if we believe them, independent of any actual veracity. Posture is no different.