Posture Confidence

Posture is often the number one thing humans use to determine confidence.  We see someone who looks confident and we see a straight back, chest up, head lifted, eyes ahead… someone who looks unafraid of what life has to throw at them.

Posture confidence is more than pulling your shoulders back

That is what confident posture looks like from the outside, but how is it serving you on the inside?

I too used to think of posture as something that existed mostly on the outside.  How does my posture look? Am I tall enough?  Am I straight enough?  Are my shoulders back?  Is my head lifted?  But then when I would try to do anything, my body would be stiff. The reality was my back was often in pain, my shoulders hurt, my traps were tight, I would pull a neck muscle on a weekly basis and my singing and wellbeing suffered as a result.

I had a really clear idea of what good posture looked like, but I wasn’t clear about how it was supposed to serve me.

I think most people see posture as an external, aesthetic idea as opposed to something functional that can help us move better, feel stronger, have less pain and give us more confidence without having to pretend.  But the reality is, if you’re trying to achieve good posture from the outside in, it’s never going to be as strong, stable, and sustainable as posture that’s driven from the inside out.

When you can see posture from the inside out, you’re really coming from a place of “is this serving me?”  Instead of worrying about how you look from the outside, you’re focusing on how you feel in your body… and what a shift that is.

One of the quickest and easiest ways I teach clients to rethink posture is through breathing.  

Take a moment to breathe and just notice what’s happening in your body.  Where does your breath want to go?  How does your body want to move?  What can you let go of or create a little space in so your breath has a little more room?  You don’t need to force the air or breathe deeper per say, but just noticing where your breath wants to go can give you a lot of information of where your body is tight.  Where you might want a little more space and movement.

And then see what happens if you start to allow this air to support you from the inside out. Our bodies are designed, brilliantly, to use air pressure to support us from the inside out.   Our bodies, our skeletons are stronger with air inside of them.  So what can you let go of knowing that air and the simple act of breathing is supporting you.

It’s really exciting to see this happening in real time.  I led a similar exercise at a group event recently and when I sat down again, the woman across from me had absolutely transformed her posture without me having to say anything .  She simply felt the breath move in and out of her and her body followed.

These are the kinds of tools I use for myself and with my clients to explore softer ways of being in your body.  Instead of trying to hold everything perfectly in place, what can you soften into so that your body can move the way it’s actually intended?  And this, in turn, starts to rewire what posture looks like so you can start enjoying your body more.

Instead of focusing on how posture looks, you’re focusing on how it feels.  And instead of trying to force the aesthetic of posture, you are focusing on what feels good for YOU.

It’s subtle, but it’s a totally different way of working with your body.  And the more you can engage with yourself this way, the easier it is to actually be IN your body.  To know what your body wants and needs and how to support it… so that you don’t have to be in pain, so that you feel stronger, so that you are more confident in your own skin.

“I know I am doing what’s best for me and I feel better for it.”

And that is unshakable confidence. When you embody confidence, it isn’t about “looking strong” it’s about knowing you are strong.  Knowing what you’re good at, what you’re not, and how you can get what you need when you need it and knowing your body is 100% part of that confidence.