20 Mini-Shifts in Poise and Posture

I believe I have written about "the empty shell" before, when I was watching myself from above, sitting in a worried posture—but I had already moved out of it.

More and more often, I become aware of my posture these days, about habitual postures or expressions. They are so related to my inner posture, or poise.

I think I am becoming aware because my posture and facial expressions are no longer aligned with the changes within myself. For example, it doesn’t feel right anymore to sit and read or work with my tailbone tucked in. My back wants to move into a straight, unforced line. It doesn’t feel aligned anymore to lie in bed in an embryo position; my neck wants to straighten between my shoulder blades, with my chest coming forward.

These changes, subtle as they are, seem related to the transition from victim to victress, from freezing to freeing my voice.

Dr. Joe uses the practice of becoming aware of your habitual thoughts, becoming so aware that no thought goes unnoticed—no thought produced by the old you.
Adjusted posture can be of great assistance here. Some thoughts are just not a match for straight-back-me. Some feelings are just not in harmony with chest-forward-me. I had heard before of techniques like: smile, and it is harder to think unloving thoughts. Or: power pose, and it is hard to feel small. Both are true. I just had always felt that these techniques did not change my identity, that they were rather faking it.
Now that I am truly changing my identity, I find those two techniques useful too. In addition to the ones my body suggested by herself. Sometimes, old thoughts can get really loud, and it is great to have your body as a shield, to mismatch the poise of the old thoughts with a new posture.