For many trauma survivors, it’s common to feel like they’re on high alert, scanning for threats. Overtime, this can lead to how we hold our body, creating subtle protective posture changes to make ourselves feel more safe. Overtime, this can lead to hunching or curling inward, sometimes without us even noticing this is happening.
In this post, we’ll explore how posture after trauma can change and ways to gently restore a natural stance to feel more comfortable in your body.
If you’d like to learn more about how tension can arise after trauma, I incite you to explore my guide to How Trauma Is Stored in Our Bodies.
Why Does Healthy Posture Matter?
Healthy posture provides many benefits in daily life and in yoga classes. This study from the National Library of Medicine explores a few health benefits for healthy posture:
- Proper bodily functions
- Reduced back pain
- Reduced musculoskeletal pain (muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones)
This same study also found that yoga and stretching could improve low back pain and posture with individuals who had poor posture.
How does yoga do this? Teachers encourage you to elongate your spine and find proper alignment in each pose. There are many important reasons for maintaining healthy posture in yoga classes, and here are a few:
- Prevents injury
- Allows more air into your lungs (if you wish to experience this for yourself, I invite you to take a deep breath while hunched, and then while standing straight and see if you notice a difference)
- More balancing for your subtle body and chakras
How Posture After Trauma Can Change
It may seem strange how trauma could impact our posture, but it’s actually a smart protective response from our bodies.
When you feel safe, your body responds by keeping you in a neutral state. As soon as your body perceives a threat (conscious or unconsciously) your body reacts. Maybe you hunch your shoulders, clench your jaw, or your heart rate increases.
This is your body protecting you and is meant for immediate survival. Where we can become frustrated is when we know we’re in a safe area, but we’re still experiencing bodily symptoms as if the past threat is with us in the present.
Overtime, our body may slowly adapt to these holding patterns. This is when we might experience pain in our body, shifts in our posture, or fatigue. I welcome you to learn more about your nervous system after trauma in my Nervous System Healing Guide.
Through a spiritual lens in chakra philosophy, poor posture can be the result of an unbalanced heart chakra. A closed heart causes your shoulders to roll inward to protect yourself. Over time, you may become used to this position and feel comfortable holding your body this way. If you feel you always need to be on guard or cross your arms while in public, you’re showing potential signs of a closed heart chakra and your posture may begin to adjust.
If chakras interest you and you’d like to learn more about how to find gentle balance, I welcome you to explore How to Unblock Your Chakras After Sexual Trauma.
5 Ways Yoga Promotes Healthy Posture
I’d like to preface this section first by acknowledging that a hunched posture doesn’t always mean it’s related to a past trauma. I invite you to consult with your doctor or medical team for best treatment options and to rule out any conditions or injury in your spinal cord, head, or other areas of your spine. I don’t recommend yoga for improving posture if you have any severe pain.
5 yoga tips to improve posture after trauma:
1. Mindfulness
Yoga is an accessible practice for working on posture because of mindfulness. When you become aware of your body, you make subtle changes for healthier posture. As your mindfulness practice improves, you’ll be able to notice your posture throughout your day.
2. Stretching
As mentioned earlier, stretching is an effective way to release muscles in your back and promote healthy posture. Many yoga poses offer back stretches like sphinx pose, cobra, and cat/cow.
3. Increase Abdominal Strength
Your abdomen strength is an important factor for managing low back pain and maintaining a healthy spine.
Yoga offers many core strengthening poses like:
- Boat pose
- Plank
- Four-Limbed Staff Pose (Chaturanga Dandasana)
- Dolphin
4. Explores Poses That Specifically Focus On Posture
One of the most fundamental poses in yoga is mountain pose (Tadasana). The more time you spend on this pose, the more you’ll be able to discover comfortable and proper alignment.
Many people think standing up straight means broadening their chest and avoiding slouching. I welcome you to try this in your body and you might notice how your lower back takes on more weight. Proper alignment in mountain pose is about a natural and neutral stance.
I welcome you to stand at the top of your mat and explore these cues for mountain pose and proper alignment. You are always in control of your practice and can end this at any time. My cues are only an offering, and you can take any form of this pose that brings you the most comfort.
- Feet
- Begin in any stance that feels comfortable. You might wish to start with your feet hip-width distance apart and adjust from there.
- I welcome you to have your toes facing forward and your heels directly behind. If you look down, they will disappear behind your feet.
- You might choose to rock forward, back, then left to right to find your center point on your feet.
- Knees
- I welcome you to have a slight bend in your knees.
- Hips
- You might choose to lengthen your tailbone toward the mat. If you have lower back pain, you might notice this sensation immediately.
- I invite you to level your hips, meaning that both hip points shine forward.
- Abdomen
- I encourage you to have a slight engagement in your abdomen to provide a gentle lift in your spine.
- Shoulders
- You may choose to roll your shoulders down and away from your ears. They don’t need to be pressed all the way behind you like you would in a chest opener, but just enough to prevent hunching by your ears.
- Your hands can rest comfortably by your sides or anywhere that brings you comfort.
- Head & Neck
- I welcome you to bring your chin parallel with the ground. This may mean only adjusting up or down a small amount.
- To elongate further, I welcome you to imagine a string gently pulling your spine from the top of your head. This may help you elongate your spine further.
From this position, I invite you to explore your body’s sensations or make any minor adjustments. Another tip to support alignment is to do this against a wall.
Mountain Pose is a restful pose, so there shouldn’t be any strenuous effort into trying to stand straight. It might feel different at first if you’re not used to proper posture, but it shouldn’t be painful or overly-forced.
I welcome you to explore mountain pose anytime you feel you need a good restarting point for working on your posture. It’s also a supportive grounding pose to recenter and come back into the present.
5. Relieves Tension In Your Body
Yoga provides gentle tools, exercises, and cues to promote trauma and tension release so that working on other poses and correcting posture feels more comfortable in your body. You might explore this quick Trauma-Informed Yoga Sequence for Beginners for a few gentle poses to get started.
Meditations are another effective way to check in with your body and points of tension. If you explored the mountain pose exercise, you also explored a version of a body scan meditation. You focused on each part of your body, made adjustments, and brought awareness to your sensations.
For deeper support, I welcome you to explore my free Healing Light Meditation Transcript for a trauma-informed body scan to release tension in your body. No email is required for access.
Release and Regulate with Free Classes
If you’d like to regulate your nervous system and release tension to support a healthy spine, I invite you to explore my free trauma-informed yoga library, the Cozy Corner. Classes cater to sexual trauma survivors with gentle classes to support regulation, release, and embodiment. All experience levels are welcome and this is a free resource to use as long as you like. If this sounds like a supportive resource, I welcome you to learn more below.
