This Graceful Posture Boosts Self-Esteem, Improves Mood, Reduces Self-Consciousness…

…causes people to speak faster and improves their memory.

Your mother kept telling you to sit up straight and she was right!  People sitting up straight rather than in a hunched position report a better mood, higher self-esteem and a host of other benefits.  Sitting up straight has even been shown to improve memory.  For the research, people answered mock job-interview questions.
Some sat slouched, while others were upright.

The study’s authors explain the results:

“The upright participants reported feeling more enthusiastic, excited, and strong, while the slumped participants reported feeling more fearful, hostile, nervous, quiet, still, passive, dull, sleepy, and sluggish.
The upright participants also reported higher self-esteem and reduced fear compared to slumped participants.”

The authors think the simple act of sitting up straight may help build people’s ability to withstand stress:

“Adopting an upright seated posture in the face of stress can maintain self-esteem, reduce negative mood, and increase positive mood compared to a slumped posture.
Furthermore, sitting upright increases rate of speech and reduces self-focus.
Sitting upright may be a simple behavioral strategy to help build resilience to stress.
The research is consistent with embodied cognition theories that muscular and autonomic states influence emotional responding.”

The study was published in the journal Health Psychology (Nair et al., 2015).