It’s said you wear your emotions on your sleeve. I can see your emotions in your posture.
Rounded forward shoulders and a hunched chest tell me quite a bit about you and your life.
I wonder what has you shrinking to be invisible, feeling small, or being down on yourself.
Unless someone is born with a structural abnormality like scoliosis or a rib cage issue, most youngsters do not have this type of posture.
From observation, I’d say these postures develop in the early teen years.
Look around at tall teenage boys. How many of them are hunched over?
Is it all the tech and gaming, or at some point did it stop feeling safe to get so tall?
As a teen, my mom would yell at me all the time to roll my shoulders back, and I’d get so annoyed with her!
I had taught myself to roll forward because, by age 13, my breasts were growing fast, and I figured out this posture could minimize the comments from the boys in my class.
Many of my girlfriends talked about how they would kill for a chest like mine, but for me, they were in the way. I couldn’t hide them well in my swimsuit and ice-skating outfits, so I hunched to minimize their appearance.
In my teens, my pediatrician noticed I had a heart murmur, and I would have episodes of fainting after exerting myself during swimming races.
I can’t help but wonder if it was more related to posture and subsequent compromised breathing than the diagnosis that my heart hadn’t kept up with the growth of my body.
Only in the last few years have I explored my posture on a deeper level, and 30-plus years later, I still feel my pec muscles tightening to pull me forward when I feel down or self-conscious.
What’s wild is I feel it more on the left side, where my heart is!
Many of my clients who have had breast reductions have noticed their blood pressure, palpitations, and arrhythmias reduced afterward. Could there be a connection here?
My Dad, who has cardiovascular disease, has a severely rounded-forward posture that I’ve seen in pictures dating back to his teens. He also has significant emotional trauma from childhood that impacted his confidence throughout his life.
There are lots of connections to be made here, and ancient teachings from Chinese Medicine even highlight the impact of anxiety, sadness, and grief on the chest.
Do you notice anything like this in yourself or someone you know?
Can you feel certain muscles tighten when you get emotional or stressed?
I challenge you to explore the connection between posture and mood, as well as open up a conversation about it with the teens in your life.
Looking back, I wish my mom would have asked why I did that instead of just yelling at me to change. Perhaps I wouldn’t have had an immediate answer, but it would have gotten me thinking about it.
This is why I’m posing this question to you today!
Emotions impact the body in very real ways, and posture is a clue.
So if you’ve been trying to change your posture and it’s not working, look deeper.
Breath work combined with myofascial and muscle-release techniques can do wonders, along with exploring it with someone qualified to help you work through it.
I’m seeing a lot of clients really struggling with emotions, and I can see it in their posture.
This week on my podcast, I’ve brought on Laurie Hammer, host of the Take Back My Brain podcast, who specializes in amino acid therapy, something I believe has a huge impact on emotions.
What better way to support postural alignment and emotional well-being than by pairing bodywork with amino acids?
Tomorrow I’ll dive into my favorite amino acids for supporting the mind—stay tuned!
Here’s to looking at all aspects that impact your heart,
Dr. J
PS: If you haven’t watched my workshop with Deanna Hansen – now is the time to see how to release your shoulders, neck and upper back! Watch it HERE
