Everyday Deportment & Posture

‘Bodies… are born beautiful, but it’s the way we stand and sit that misshapes them.’

Clover Stroud

Good posture is important. It means using your body as it was designed to be used. Proper posture is beneficial for your health because it helps to train your body away from distorted positions that could cause issues such as backache later on in life. Aside from the health concerns, posture radically impacts your appearance – both in terms of beauty and as body language. Your posture communicates how you feel about yourself and is arguably the single easiest thing to change to instantly appear more beautiful and more confident. What’s more, it doesn’t need to cost anything.

Traditionally good posture was taught in finishing schools as part of lessons on deportment. They recognised that deportment, or knowing how to move and hold yourself with elegant grace, was subtle yet important in contributing towards success in life. These days we spend so much time hunched over computer or phone screens that many of us seem to have forgotten this. Bad posture has become so normal that sometimes we don’t even recognise what’s wrong. I hope this guide will help.

Head & Neck

Keep your head up and your neck straight, with your ears in line with your shoulders. Look forwards in the direction you are going instead of letting your neck hunch forwards as if you’re constantly bending over a phone screen. Keep your chin up and level, with your head straight. You want neither for your nose to be snootily in the air nor for your head to be bent down in shame. If you rest your index finger vertically against the front of your neck, it will help check your chin is in the correct position. Imagine you are wearing a crown. You want your posture to be regal. Traditionally this has been practised in finishing schools by balancing a book on the head to make sure the head is straight and movements are graceful.

Shoulders & Arms

Roll your shoulders back and down, so that it opens up your chest. Make sure your shoulders aren’t hunched up like they’re trying to curl up in a foetal position. A trick is to check that your thumbs are pointing forwards instead of inwards towards your body, because because that automatically rotates your arms and shoulders back. However, make sure your body is relaxed and your shoulders aren’t stiff or forced into an extreme position.

Spine & Pelvis

Rotate your pelvis under you as if you were tucking your tail bone in. You want to keep your spine straight all the way through your back, from your neck through to your tail bone. Stretch your spine straight as tall as it goes. There should be a natural curve in your spine, but don’t intentionally arch your back (something many women tend to do when trying to improve their posture) because that will only lead to back ache long term as it’s not correct posture.

Stomach

Pull your stomach in and stay relaxed. The idea is not to worry about your weight, but to elongate the front of your body. Hold your body to its full height. You have value and should carry yourself in knowledge of that. Elegant posture doesn’t try to hide and isn’t ashamed to exist.

Legs & Knees

Stand with your weight evenly distributed across both feet. Keep your legs straight but with your knees relaxed. Good posture is neither stiff nor lazy, and should be relaxed yet regal. Deportment is something to practise everyday until it becomes second nature. It may take some time to break old habits, but your long-term health and beauty will benefit greatly from it.

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