Are you conscious of how much your body posture affects your life? The way you sit, stand, move your limbs and walk affect your breath flow, voice, emotions, and thoughts & they reveal the truth about how you are and where you are now: it is your body language.

The posture you adopt has the ability to change the way you feel and people’s perceptions of you. Body language is an outward expression of who you are, how you are, and where you are. Standing tall with your neck long, your gaze straight forward, and your shoulders back help you be centered, enhances your perception and clarity of mind, and lets the world know you deserve to be heard.

Our posture and body language have the ability to influence our moods and emotions, too. Adopt small, diminishing, and hunched poses, and you will contribute to feeling small, sad, and diminished. This, of course, also works in reverse: when we are sad, we tend to hunch forward, and if we consciously begin to lengthen our spine, it will help us feel more positive and cheer us up. When we are in balance, we have a greater awareness of our body posture.

Poor posture also makes everything in your body work harder. Muscles overcompensate to stabilize out-of-position bones and joints. Compression of the spine, nerves, and blood vessels interferes with the proper functioning of the nervous system. Slumping forward squashes your ribcage, leaving less room for the lungs to expand and absorb adequate amounts of oxygen. All important bodily workings are taxed by poor posture, often leading to pain, soreness, and fatigue. The solution? Take time every day to work on your posture and invest time and energy in creating healthy living habits!

Sitting hunched forward or folded over compresses your intestines, backing things up and predisposing them to constipation. Not only that, but increased pressure on the digestive organs has been connected to hernias, reflux, and IBS-like symptoms. Poor posture is also the enemy of a trim waistline. Sitting in a slouched position pushes your internal organs downwards, with nowhere else to go but out to the sides or drooping over your pants!

Similarly, a hunched back affects the posture of the head, making you have a double chin. Working on our posture on a daily basis is super important to stay healthy, young, and feeling good, as we spend so much time sitting on the computer and looking at the phone. Practicing Yoga and walking for at least 20 minutes every day will also contribute to a healthy posture!

The position of your body has the power to affect your mood, your mind, and your stress levels – and science agrees. Studies suggest that people who adopt more powerful postures enjoy dramatic decreases in cortisol (the stress hormone). This may be due to the fact that poor posture promotes shallow chest breathing, activating the fight or flight response and taxing the cardiovascular system. When slouching, the body strains and signals to release stress hormones.

So every once in a while during the day, remember to pause, take a deep breath and align your posture. If you find yourself struggling to withhold the right posture or any of the above symptoms, it is a signal you are overloaded with toxins, so you may choose to do a 21-Day Yoga Cleanse & Reset for yourself to put all the above-mentioned issues on the right track so you can live joyfully.

Be more attentive to these aspects of life. When our body is full of toxins, these important aspects of life, yet simple, are very difficult to manage. Your posture affects the overall balance of your life and the way you perceive it. As I always say, simple practices, like addressing your posture and small details in your daily habits, make the biggest difference in finding inner balance, health, and wellbeing.