Posture(ing?)

Stand up straight!

Listen to your inner grandmother and pull your shoulders back, elongate your spine, and draw in your abs. Imagine a hook in the top of your head drawing you all the way up to the ceiling, and follow it upward. Good posture helps you in so many ways.

First, standing up straight makes you seem more confident. It makes you taller, and if the reasons why are controversial, we know that taller people make more money and are seen as more attractive and more responsible. In fact, the taller presidential candidate wins the popular vote two-thirds of the time. Even aside from being taller, good posture suggests a comfort and a strength in your own body. You have nothing to hide, and you are perfectly capable of withstanding challenges. Standing up straight helps you project a positive image.

Second, standing up straight improves your voice. You can't draw sufficient breath to support your voice if you're hunched over, because your lungs and diaphragm and intercostals--the muscles that help opera singers support those amazing tones--can't expand. It's like trying to blow up a balloon in a jewelry box--it can't go anywhere! If you've dropped your head forward over your chest, you're also crimping the alignment of the parts of your body that make your voice warm and resonant and attractive to hear. If you compress the volume of your breathing space and also crunch up the resonators in your head and throat, it's ten times harder to project your voice so that the back of the room can hear you, and it's twenty times harder to do it without straining and while keeping your tone of voice pleasant to listen to. Standing up straight helps you with the techniques of good voice and speech.

Third, standing up straight makes you seem less nervous. If your posture allows you to expand your breathing space, you can take deep breaths. It's almost impossible for your voice to wobble with deep, diaphragmatic support for your breath. As a bonus, deep breathing can often make you relax! Good posture will send clear cues to the audience that you're sure of yourself and of your message. Standing up straight helps you manage speech anxiety.

If you're standing up straight, you're comfortable in your own body, your voice is pleasant and easy to hear, and you're showing me that you're proud of what you have to say. You're attracting the attention of the room in the very best of ways.