We all remember our parents admonishing us not to slouch, or to stand or sit up straight. As much as we may have resented being nagged about our poor posture, our parents were actually looking out for our best interests.

What they probably did not know is that they were also trying to help you improve your mood by reminding you to work on better posture. There has been some interesting recent research showing a link between mood and posture.

Read further as Dr. Nathen Horst discusses how sitting or standing properly can improve your mood.

Mood-body Connection

Think about how you hold your body if you are stressed or depressed. You probably clench your jaw, hunch your shoulders, and drop your head downward.

In doing this, you tighten up all of the involved muscles. This action places pressure on the various nerves that form the network between the muscles and the brain, via the spinal cord.

Such pressure can interfere with proper signaling to and from the brain, leading to pain, stiffness, or susceptibility to illness or injury. Of course, these physical issues can worsen your mood, setting up a vicious cycle.

Research on the Posture-mood Connection

A 2015 article published in the journal Health Psychology looked at possible connections between posture and response to stressors. A group of study subjects were randomly assigned to be seated in either a slumped or upright position, held in place using physiotherapy tape.

They were then given a speech task as the stressor. The researchers also assessed their mood and levels of self-esteem and threat, as well as blood pressure and heart rate.

At the end of the study, the subjects in the upright position reported better self-esteem and mood compared to those in the slumped position. Subjects in the slumped position tended to use more negative words in the speech task and reported feeling sadder than those in an upright position.

A similar study from 2017 was published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. In this instance, researchers were looking at the connection between mild to moderate depression and posture.

Changes in mood and level of fatigue were assessed as the study subjects gave speeches, which were analyzed for their word content.

Those patients in the upright posture group reported significantly better mood and less fatigue compared the baseline, slumped posture subjects. Those with upright posture also had less anxiety than those with slumped posture.

Improving Your Mood and Posture

Fortunately, Dr. Horst can improve your posture and mood with chiropractic care. This will usually start with what is known as a spinal adjustment, in which he will assess which of your vertebrae are out of alignment as a result of your poor posture.

This adjustment is done either by hand, or with the help of a small metal instrument, to open up the space around the misaligned vertebrae, allowing them to move back into alignment.

This will release the pressure on the nerves leading in and out of the spinal cord at that location, thereby restoring proper signaling to the brain and improving your mood.

If you stop and think about it, the connection between your mood and your posture makes sense. If you are sad, you tend to curl yourself inward, whereas you will stand up straight, with your head held high, if you are in a good mood.