Posture In Relation to Psychological State

While postural problems are certainly caused by over-training muscles in a certain region and neglecting those opposite that group, they can also be caused by changes in your psychological status. Our muscles all react to stimulation by information gathered from our environment. For example, when we see an attractive woman, blood rushes to our penis, causing it to get hard. Nothing actually happened, but our body reacted to the information of “hey, there’s an attractive woman. I know what to do when there is a possible opportunity to reproduce.” The same thing happens when information is interpreted by our brain in other areas, such as communication, traumatic experiences, or nervousness. These physiological reactions are caused by “nerve vortexes” throughout our body. Our brain is the antenna that interprets information to the rest of our body, but there are several other bundles of nerves located throughout our body that send signals out to muscles in response to those interpretations.

When an individual is trying to communicate something, but keeps getting shut down, it stimulates the nerve vortex just inferior the brain, but superior all the other nerve vortexes. That vortex branches out to the muscles in the neck, upper traps, and some of the lower jaw. So, when their communication is constantly being inhibited, those muscles contract, leading to the head to extend and the shoulders to hunch up.

When an individual experiences a traumatic event, it stimulates the nerve vortex that branches into the heart and the left arm (this is why heart attack victims often feel the left arm go numb when they start to feel the attack coming). Some people may say that “their heart hurts” when they see or hear about something sad happening, and that’s because it really is stimulating the heart in such a way that it truly feels pain. This will also contract the muscles in the chest, causing it to cave in.

One more example is when an individual is faced with nervousness. They may feel short of breath, and this is because being in nervous-inducing situations stimulate the nerve vortex associated with the lower chest, which includes the lungs and, I would assume, the diaphragm. This contraction restricts movement of the lungs, causing short and quick breaths.