Stand Tall and Proud | How To Improve Your Posture and Body Language to Exude Confidence

Good morning everybody. You are currently listening to a Tall Girls podcast hosted by a tall girl named India. I hope everyone who's tuning in is doing super fantastic. Before I get into this episode, I do want to say make sure you're following me on my socials at a Tall Girls podcast, on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, so that you can stay up to date on all of the latest podcast episodes and catch a glimpse of my everyday life. Also, feel free to leave a review and let me know how tall you are. I'm genuinely curious. Everything is going to be linked in the description. By the time this episode is up, I would have finished my first week of my last semester of undergrad But by the time I'm recording this right now, like today, because I record on Sundays. Now, by the time I'm recording this, I would have only finished my first day of school. So every single semester, it seems like school starts on the twenty fifth. So in the fall semester, I started August twenty fifth, and then in the spring semester, which is now, I started January twenty fifth. It just seems like a usual starts in the late twenties twenty four for twenty fifth, it's just a pattern with my school. I don't know why. So the twenty fifth of January was of twenty twenty four was a Thursday, and my classes are pretty much just most of it's just Monday through Thursday, so I literally have one class on the first week of school. Technically, my first day was quite literally my last day of class for the week, so it was kind of weird. And then on Thursdays, I only have one class at six pm, so the commute is quite literally longer than the time I'm actually at school, which is kind of gross, but it is what it is. I'm taking a business policy class on Thursdays, so I went there for my business policy class. Don't ask me what that class is about, because all we did we spent the entire time doing an icebreaker. So we were like sectioned off into groups, and then everybody had to introduce each other to the group, and then one person had to pick another person from their group to introduce to their class. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either, but we spent most of the class doing an icebreaker. Because there's like a class of thirty students and that classroom. That classroom is not big enough for thirty students. And on top of that, there's no window, so there's no air circulation. So I was struggling to breathe in there. But whatever, I got the class. It's a required class, so I there's only so much I could really do. It's a required class. I had to take that class, so I'm just gonna try my best to see the positives in it. But I don't think I'll actually be able to see that till I actually start learning something, So we'll see how that goes. But like I said, by the time this episode is up, I will be I will have almost finished my first full week of my last semester of undergrad Oh my gosh, senior year. I'm graduating this semester. You guys will probably see all the updates on what's going on in my life that week in my stories, so make sure you follow me on Instagram so you can just keep updated with what's going on in my life. But yay, see your years the last hurrah, So please keep me in your thoughts and wish me the best of luck. Now, as you could probably tell by the title today, I'm going to be talking about posture, which is very weird that I never actually spoke too deeply about this. I feel like I keep saying I kept saying that I wanted to talk about posture and how to get better posture and the connection to body language and confidence and all that stuff, but I never actually did it. That's why I'm a little confused as to why to me almost two and a half years to get to this point. Behay better late than ever. So in this episode, I kind of want to get a little bit deeper into it because I feel like one of the major tall gold problems tall people problems, one of the major problems with tall people in general that they have experienced is posture and the struggle to maintain good posture on a daily basis. If you're tall, you understand this. Low desks, low sinks, low countertops, low tables, the bottoms of bookshelves. Oh my, we wonder why we're constantly in so much pain. We just start looking at the daily things and daily tasks that affect our posture. I'm not even joking my I feel like my biggest enemy is the low countertops. I have an apartment where the countertop is probably below my waist. That's that's pretty low, especially for a tall person, a tall person with long legs. That's pretty that's pretty low. And I do a lot of my own cooking, especially on the weekends, where I have to basically prep for the week ahead so I actually have food to take to school, and I'm just cutting stuff. I'm seasoning stuff, this, that and the other. And when i'm doing that, like I'm slouching so much because I'm trying to be as close to the counter as possible so that I can comfortably do these things. But after a walk, it's very uncomfortable because I feel it in my neck, I feel it in my shoulders, I feel it in my back. I tried so many things. I've tried squatting, I've tried widening my legs so I could be closer to the counter at a certain level. I even tried like putting, like stacking stuff, you know, like stacking cutting boards and stuff so that it could actually just be closer to me. But I just don't have enough countertop space to make that feasible. So I'm constantly struggling with these low countertops. But I also want to say that it's not just like the daily things that we do is also from trauma and bullying that a lot of us tall people experience, and just wanting to make ourselves smaller, to hide ourselves, to even be closer to our friends by slouching. There's a lot of reasons why our posture could be horrible. Personally. For me, it's been a mix of a variety of reasons. I Like I talked about before with the low countertops, I've also had my issues with the low desks and hunching over my laptop or my books. Also with transportation and cars. On public transportation, the bus to train has always been uncomfortable for me because I'm trying not to stick my legs out and hit other people. But then also I'm pretty cramped in certain positions when I'm sitting down, whether the car, are on the bus or the train, So that has always been uncomfortable for me. But all of those things combined has kind of led to my terrible posture. Over the years, I have developed the tall girls slouch, the rounded shoulders, the protruding head, and that kind of led to another problem, which is my lateral and interior pelvic tilts. Yeah, my body has been going through it for the past couple of years. So if you're struggling with horrible posture, where we're in the same boat. So my muscles tightened in some areas specifically, like my shoulders and my neck and muscles and my left hip. It's so weird how my pelvic bone works now because now that it's shifted to the right, my right side, my right hip, and my right leg is just much looser and more free flowing. But my left side is very tense and tight. It's much tighter than my right side. And all of this is just like it caused me to walk crooked essentially for years. And it wasn't literally until I was like nineteen twenty when I realized that I've been walking horribly. No, twenty twenty one, actually, because that's when I went to the doctor to find out my new heightens. She told me I was six y two and blah blah blah, like that was a story time for way back when. But I've been walking crooked and incorrectly, and sitting crooked and incorrectly and all of these other things for years, and that caused so much pain on my part. I'm only five cent and a half and I've been dealing with neck pain and hip pain and back pain and shoulder tightness for the longest time. I can only imagine what the girlies who are six three and sixty four are going through. But no matter the reason for poor posture, it can affect your body language and how how you nonverbally communicate with others. Body language and posture play a crucial role in displaying confidence. So if you're slouchain and trying to make yourself smaller, you could be communicating to others that you have a low self esteem and we don't want that. That's one of the main reasons why I wanted to provide tips and techniques to improve your posture and therefore improve your body language. Starting with the first one. As a tall person, it's super super important to prioritize exercise and stretching at least a few times a week. It's crucial to balance out the negative effects of poor posture, which if not treated, can lead to back pain and headaches all the way to arthritis and degenerative changes. You can't tell me that doesn't sound scary. The exercise in the stretching doesn't have to be anything insane. It can be going to the gym for some people. Other people, it can be taking walks and taking breaks in between your work to stretch. There are so many YouTube videos out there for five minute, ten minute, fifteen minute, twenty minute yoga stretching, to stretch out your back, for back pain, for neck pain, for sciatica, all of those things. There's also a lot of online workouts too on YouTube that you can watch for free, so you could get some type of movement in and throughout the day. A stretch that I definitely recommend is the cat cow stretch. It's good for your upper and lower back, and also like a doorway stretch to kind of like open up your chest and like kind of relieve that shoulder tightness. And something else that I definitely recommend is investing in a foam roller. Oh my gosh, I a pham roller changed my life. I didn't start pham rolling until I had super bad back spasms. That was because I was like straining my back muscles because I was carrying my super heavy book bag and I was not like stretching or like moving the areas in my back, so it cost a lot of tightness and then I had really bad spasms. So I read online that a pham roller could help. So my gym has pham rollers and I tried it out. Life changing. It feels so so good afterwards, I think because it like increases blood circulation in the area that you're foam rolling, and it could also help with stretching as well. So I definitely recommend a film roll. And this kind of goes into the next tip of lifestyle changes, So just kind of incorporating new things or doing things differently that can help with your posture. So yes, exercising and stretching more and incorporating that into your daily or weekly routine, but also using standing desks, taking breaks in between work and school, using taller chairs, using elevated cutting boards. There's also these contraptions that help with your posture. You kind of like put it around your shoulders and it kind of forces you to straighten your back. You can also use that for the time being until you get used to it and then it becomes like second nature to you. Another thing is be conscious of how you're standing and you're sitting. Very often tall people can be slouching without even realizing it. Like if we're around people who are shorter than us, especially our friends. Naturally, we're going to want to be like them and want to be closer to them, and then we start slouching without even noticing. So it's very important to be aware of how you're standing and sitting while you're around other people. And while we're on the time topic of people, there's also the idea of bullying and other people shaming you and you just wanting to be shorter because other people are making fun of you. Listen, I'm gonna tell you right here, right now, if you think people are making fun of you because you're tall, they're gonna make even more fun of you because you're tall, but you're trying to not be tall, Like, it doesn't look right that you're slouching and hunching over and trying to hide yourself and make yourself smaller. It doesn't look right because you're not meant to be smaller. You're not meant to hide yourself. So my best tip is to take the heat for a couple of years, be made fun of for being tall, but at least down the line, you're not going to have these back and neck problems and shoulder problems. Trust me, it's not worth it. Posture is so important for a confident body language. Not only will you look good doing it, not only will you look good standing tall, we will also feel good because the pain will be kept to a minimum. And when you feel good, that is also when you feel confidence. That's a true way to feel confidence, when you feel fel good with what you're doing. In twenty twenty four, we're standing tall, and we're standing proud. We're standing with our backstraight, are head held high, and chin up, and our body language will command respect and project confidence. So this is your reminder right here, right now, if you're sloushing to stop doing it. Stop slauching, and I'm gonna end the episode here. Thank you so so much for tuning in this far. I really appreciate it, and I appreciate you as always. Feel free to hit me up on my socials. Let's talk about our posture. Let's talk about how bad our posture is. Please make me feel better about the fact that my posture is bad. Okay, I won't say it's as bad as it was when I was, like in my teen years, when I was thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, but it's still pretty bad and I'm making progress. So if you have any other tips for me or for the rest of us that you want to share, let me know, hit me up on my socials are going to be linked in the description. You can also leave me a review. That link is also going to be left in the description. And I think you're super awesome and super amazing and you're doing just fine, and you're doing the best that you can, So keep on going and I'll catch you in the next one. Good night and goodbye.