This scene from Miss Congeniality is one that I had long forgotten about, until it happened to pop up on my social media feed… 24 years after the film’s initial release.
As Michael Cain coaches Sandra Bullock on the art of ‘walking tall,’ it occurred to me how easily forgotten this advice is, and how readily the foot-dragging, shoulder-slumping alternative can become a default.
A default for which there are few warning signs, until such point as a side-glimpse in a shop window, reveals the full, stooped reality.
Given how well-known the health benefits of walking tall are (easier, more efficient breathing and improving circulation, for starters) it’s amazing really, that it doesn’t get more air-time as a self-improvement tool.
Maybe it’s because it seems too obvious, or maybe it’s because it’s not capitalistic enough (this is one of the few ‘magic pills’ for feeling better, that is both free and almost immediately effective.)
Either way, the lack of noise about this #healthhack is no reflection of its usefulness.
Having spent a week implementing the ‘invisible string running up your spine’ trick, I can speak from experience, that it does have subtle, aggregate gains for confidence.
In fact, in public and social contexts particularly, there’s little doubt that the currency of ‘shoulders-back-chin-up’ is almost as much, if not more, than being Miss Congeniality.
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