Stress and Posture

Stress is often talked about these days.

As RNP practitioners, we frequently see individuals with muscle tension affecting their well-being (and therefore posture), as well as experiencing stress.

For instance, it is quite rare to receive people who are very stressed but do not feel tension in their back.

To start, I suggest a little test to do while reading this article; it can be done anywhere.

Scan Your Body

First, stand up, close your eyes, and perform a "scan" of your body:

• Feel your grounding in the floor.
• Be aware of any muscle tension in your body; is there any, and where is it?
• Feel your breath; what is its frequency and amplitude?

Next, think of a very pleasant memory, as pleasant as possible, and try to relive the memory, to feel it.

This memory can be very recent or very old, but preferably it should be an emotionally positive memory.

Scan Your Body Again:

• Has your grounding in the floor changed?
• Are the muscle tensions different?
• Is your breath more relaxed?

The next exercise is less pleasant.

Recall a memory when you felt worthless. Try to feel that memory.

Now Do a Scan:

• Has the tension in your face changed?
• What about the muscle tensions in your body?
• Is your breathing shorter and less deep?

Finally, think back to the first pleasant memory and notice how quickly changes in your feelings occur.

This experience is generally quite revealing, and most people feel the changes in their posture almost immediately.

Why Do Emotions Affect Our Posture So Strongly and Quickly?

Like any function of the human body, it is important to view emotions from an evolutionary survival perspective.

Emotions are one of the pillars of our brain's functioning, and each emotion affects the cortical and subcortical structures differently to help us manage a situation better.

For instance, if we take a situation considered dangerous, for example, I am walking in the forest and I see a snake, the information filtered by the thalamus and the amygdala will trigger a flight response, creating a series of reactions in the brainstem:

• Activation of the sympathetic nervous system
• Acceleration of breathing
• Increased tone of extensor muscles to enable flight
• etc.

What Is the Impact on Our Daily Lives?

Two important elements to remember are:

• Our nervous system does not differentiate between experiencing the emotion in the present moment and feeling an emotion when we recall that moment.
• The nervous system does not differentiate between unpleasant emotions generated by a threat to our life (like a bear chasing us) and a very unpleasant situation (like our boss yelling at us).

The Final Word

It is easy to understand the impact of chronic stress on posture, creating unnecessary muscle tension today, but inherited from times when our immediate survival depended on our body's ability to instantly adapt to danger.

In a future article, we will see how RNP allows for analyzing and acting on these tensions.

By Baptiste Jannic Physical Trainer and Practitioner in Neuro-Postural Reprogramming

INSTAGRAM: BAPTISTE JANNIC