EMOTIONAL MOVEMENTS: THE CATHARSIS OF POSTURE AND GAIT
Imagine for a moment …
You win a BIG Lottery prize. The emotions you might feel. How would you walk into the room? How would you stand when you share the news?
Now …
Imagine losing a very close and dearly loved one. The emotions you might feel. How would you walk into the room? How would you stand when you share the news?
Is the gait or posture the same in both scenarios? Which one is the correct … the right … version!?
A substantially large portion of human communication is non-verbal (between 75% - 93% dependent upon the study). Most of that non-verbal communication is visual communication - posture / gestures / spatial proximity to others / etc. The remaining is vocal prosody, or tone, speed of speech, cadence, and such.
Our movement is a visual expression, a communication, of who we are.
Our posture and gait … are movement.
Is there a right way to express our Self? Is there a right posture? Or gait?
Just Google “Posture and Emotions” and you’ll see a list of studies / articles / references linking how posture affects mood … and with a deeper dive, how mood affects posture. Just imagining the two scenarios above you feel how that would be true. Movement and expression are linked, and communicate to others how and who we are long before (and in a deeper way) than any thoughtful words you know.
Current research is also showing that cultivating and experiencing emotional diversity is more important than being 100% positive … and is even more important than happiness. Being “emodiverse” is shown to directly lead to lower rates of depression. Emotional diversity is also linked to lowering the need for medications / lower government health care cost / and leads to fewer doctor visits. Additionally people with more emotional diversity generally have better exercise / dietary / smoking habits.
Being okay with … aware of … acknowledging … and sharing emotions is apparently …. HEALTHY. (Allegedly)
If emotions and expressions are directly connected with movement (posture and gait included) … and having a wide range of emotions that are both felt and expressed is healthy … then a logical assertion must be that practicing and conveying a wide range of movements (posture and gait included) must also be healthy.
Movement is the language of self-expression! Hierarchically valuing one posture over another … one way of walking versus all others … one best way to do ____ (name any movement) … would be like saying Joy is more valuable than Sadness … or fear more important than trust. It not only stigmatizes muscles, but emotions.
IT JUST DOESN’T HOLD UP.
I think more important is to address what any good therapist (movement or mindset alike) would address - not getting stuck in any one emotion or gesture.
No one would want to live their life always sad … or always joyful … or always surprised … or always angry. Any logical person knows that we need seasonality in emotion. We need to perceive the spectrum in order to appreciate the fullness of life. We prefer and feel more or less comfortable in specific emotions, but even science has now caught up to knowing that ALL emotions have value and lead to greater health.
If posture and gait are expressions (communications) of Self, then embodying different movements must be more valuable than doing one correctly … getting posture / gait “right.” More importantly readily having access to a number of postures / gaits / movements may indicate that a person is more emotionally diverse than someone who attributes a hierarchical value (prioritizes) a singular version of posture / gait.
I’m just gonna be honest: When I see someone with chronic “perfect posture” I think … what are they not ready to address within themself? What are they hiding? What are they trying to get me to believe is true about them?
Having access to “perfect posture” (you know it when you see it) is lovely, and I want to be clear when I say that knowing how to organize yourself into the most attentive and aware version of yourself communicates a high degree of discernment and self-efficacy - I just don’t highly value staying (getting stuck) there. The ability to elegantly slide in and out of curves and straightness, erectness and slouching, a knowingness of side shifts and perfect middle … that communicates a degree of comfort / openness / vulnerability / decision-making / curiosity / spatial awareness / and embodiment that outweighs doing posture / gait … correctly.
If I said always walking around with a shuffle, slouched shoulders, and your head dropped was locking you into a defeatist mode of operation that is keeping you from accessing your most joyful self … not many of you would be surprised or disagree.
Here’s a truth as I see it …
Always walking around with “perfect posture” and a floating gait is keeping you from accessing your most emotionally diverse (healthiest) Self.
Again, to be clear … I’m not suggesting you never experience (or even know) your individually specific perfect (attentive) posture. I am suggesting we stop stigmatizing diverse postures and gaits as less than in comparison to a text book ideal. I am advocating for each of us to acknowledge that movement has meaning beyond muscles, and to make space in our lives and teaching for the full spectrum to be explored and embraced. Knowing that avoiding emotions and postures is NOT the answer to health … but getting stuck in one mode (Im/Perfect alike) may be keeping us from accessing our healthiest Self.
At its best movement is more about catharsis than it is about control. Allowing the body … the highly sensitive receptive portion of you … to move in and out of physical space with more empathy and less judgement just might be the answer to allowing your mind to move in and out of spaces you’ve felt long stuck … at work … within relationships … and in life.
HOMEWORK: This week when you notice yourself feeling a little off … check in with your posture. Are you slouched / slumped / side-shifted / or outsourcing your support to a chair or wall? What happens if you notice that and make the choice to stand and embody a more attentive and aware movement choice? Likewise … if you catch yourself critiquing your own posture (or someone else’s) or stuck in a chronic “perfect posture” can you create a space for a different choice to be made?
~ james CRADER
