I have a confession to make: I have generally terrible posture; terrible to the point where it does harm to my back on occasion.  This is a fault that I readily recognize, but also a fault that is hard to work on.  When I think about it, I try to correct my posture to the best of my ability.  However, this only occurs when I realize how I am sittting or standing.  My general pose at my computer is leaned back in my chair, providing no support to my lower back, or leaned forward, resting on my elbow with a curved spine screaming its aches and pains at me.

When I try to correct for this, my back screams just as much: I tend to over-correct.  If I just took the time to scoot back in my chair and use it how it was intended, I would be in much less pain at the end of the day.  The interesting thing that I noticed yesterday is that when I am generally walking, I still have my characteristic bad posture.  I slouch.  My years as a runner have made it so my lower body moves in a rather fluid way, so the only suffering my body goes through is my back.  When I fix that, I do not over-correct; I move directly into the proper position for my build.

The amazing thing is that when I correct my posture, I feel better about myself.  It brightens my self-image perceptibly, though in imperceptible ways.  I couldn’t point to what exactly it changes, but it just seems like the world is more in tune with me and I with it.  That pays dividends to how the day goes.  I think a large part of this is one of the things that J.D. pointed out on Get Rich Slowly today:

To think confidently, act confidently. You’ve heard the phrase “fake it ’til you make it”. Research has shown that faking confidence actually leads to the real thing. If you’re in a situation where you’re not sure what to do, act like you know what to do. Act confident and you will become confident.

A proper posture helps one feel confident due to feeling “right”.  It is impossible to feel great if you mistreat your body and that abuse subconsciously harms your self-esteem.  Without a healthy self-esteem, there is no drive to treat yourself well; thus forms the downward spiral for posture.

A goal of mine is to slowly correct my posture so that I am treating my body properly within a year.  I think the rewards I will reap from this self-investment will come back and pay off many times over.  The problem is that I am not quite sure how to go about changing the wiring in my head to say “sit up and stand straight” instead of “slouch and be uncomfortable”.  Are there any suggestions for accomplishing this?