Self Confidence, Happiness, and Posture -

Home
>
Finding Happiness
>
Self Confidence, Happiness, and Posture

Self Confidence, Happiness, and Posture

Our use of body posture plays a key role in how we feel. When we are feeling "down", our bodies show this by hunching the shoulders, we stare at the floor, our heads hang forward. When we are seated we tend to be slumped rather than relaxed. Our walk is more of a shuffle, speech is slow and quiet.

Compare this to how we feel when on an "up". Shoulders back, eyes forward, head held high and so on.

Do the following exercise yourself and notice the difference between the two stances.

Firstly, stand up. Think of yourself as an actor who has been asked to portray a person who is feeling unhappy and sad. How would you stand? You would have all the physical positions as described above:-

Hunched shoulders,

staring at the floor,

head dropped forward,

arms hanging limply by your side,

back curved,

shallow breathing,

facial expression lifeless.

How do you feel? Awful, probably!

Now, change your position. The actor has now been asked to play someone that is full of confidence and happy. Again, how would you stand?

Shoulders back,

looking forward,

head held up,

arms forward as if offering a hug,

back straight,

deep breathing,

smiling face.

How do you feel now? That's different, eh!

Simply be altering the way we use our bodies automatically has the effect of changing the way we feel. Even if we have a genuine reason for feeling unhappy, we can reduce the impact on our emotions by standing, walking, sitting and talking in a more confident manner.

Another useful method for raising your self confidence and changing your mood is to smile.

Even just by putting a smile on to our face can be effective. Not only does it send a "happy" message to our brains, it also sends out a signal of confidence to others. This in turn will generate a more welcoming response from the people with whom you come into contact. We all respond at some level to a smile directed at us. It feels good to us and it feels good to the person sending it.

Notice the way you use your body posture and start practicing using it to improve the way you feel. Be aware of the times when you are not feeling the way you would like and how you are using your body. And, as you become more proficient at it, start enjoying the better feelings that it generates.

Allan Cowley is a Life Coach working on a one-to-one basis with clients throughout the world. He provides online life coaching via his website. You can contact him at http://www.uk-success-coach.com/

In The News:

Hatcher: Happiness lies in sex, chocolate
United Press International - 14 hours ago
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Having sex and eating chocolate are the keys to a happy life, says actress Teri Hatcher, star of the US TV series "Desperate ...

Wagner, not money, may lead the way to true happiness
WalesOnline, United Kingdom - 22 hours ago
With a recent survey showing Cardiff (often promoted as the most “vibrant capital city in Europe”) near the bottom of a “happiness” league, it is perhaps ...

Happiness, Satisfaction Might Lead To Better Health
eMaxHealth.com, NC - 19 hours ago
Moreover, the benefit comes with a quick turnaround time, with greater happiness possibly boosting health in as little as three years. ...

Pupils taught how to be happy
Times Online, UK - 12 hours ago
The government is backing a new project designed to “immunise” youngsters from getting the blues by educating them in the art of happiness at a young age. ...

Highs of happiness found after lows of sorrow
Henderson Gleaner, KY - 3 hours ago
Who can say what happiness is? Who can define its limits? Of what is it distilled? Happiness, I suppose, is a baby's smile, or an ice cream cone, ...

Los Angeles Times
The science of happiness
Los Angeles Times, CA - Sep 5, 2008
___ Happiness is genetic. You can't change how happy you are any more than you can change how tall you are. IF RECENT scientific research on happiness ...

Happiness at work comes from within
Foster's Daily Democrat, NH - 1 hour ago
What tends to happen, though, is that we go on a search for happiness. We look for happiness in things outside of us like a better job, bigger house, ...

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the ...
Art Daily - 4 hours ago
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness features many long-revered icons of American art, such as John Trumbull’s original series of eight Revolutionary ...

Los Angeles Times
How a 'Happiness' guide helped one Topanga Canyon family
Los Angeles Times, CA - Sep 5, 2008
By Marnell Jameson, Special to The Times Happiness, and finding more of it, has been on the minds of Adam and Kelly Radinsky for about a year now. ...

AceShowbiz
Sex and Chocolate, Teri Hatcher's Keys to Happiness
AceShowbiz - Sep 5, 2008
The actress credits the two things to have escalated her into happiness. In an October column for the publication, she wrote "Have great sex [and] eat the ...
Teri Hatcher's Key to Happiness: Sex & Chocolate People Magazine
all 4 news articles

happiness - Google News

Self Confidence, Happiness, and Posture

Finding Happiness