A person with a low gaze, a curved back, drooping arms, half-bent knees and dragging his feet when walking. How do you think this person is, sad or happy?

And a person with a smile on his face, with his head held high, firm step, back straight. How do you think this person is?

Emotions can change our posture, certainly not 100% but largely yes. The posture we take in the face of feelings of tiredness, grief, or joy reflects a state of mind that is directly related to emotions or feeling.

This has been described in the biological field by Darwin, who already told us that body movement and facial expressions play a very important role in communication between members of the same species, transmitting information about the emotional state of the body. ‘organism.

So can we improve our posture to improve our mood?

The answer is yes, we have recent studies that people who maintained a high posture presented better self-esteem and better humor than those who were shrunken. Posture often projects our mood, so it’s important for everyone to be aware of their posture.

We also find a relationship with sport or physical activity, because if we do not do it regularly, we can lose muscle tone. Therefore it can also affect to have a more closed posture, and this will lead us to a more negative mood.

So can we do things to be happier?

Ellen Goldman in her book As others see us published by Routledge in 2004, gives us some indications of how to influence this postural and consequently emotional change:

1. Be aware of your posture by correlating it with your thoughts
2. Assess whether thoughts (feelings) are useful and / or effective
3. Try, if necessary, to take a new attitude
4. Introduce a feeling of change in the body
5. Use posture to help generate positive feelings.