Walk It Out

November 28, 2001

When you’re dreading an especially rough day at the studio or a challenging performance, improving your mood could be as simple as changing the way you walk. A recent study published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry found that subjects who walked in a more depressed style (with shoulders rolled forward and less arm movement) experienced worse moods than those who walked in a “happier,” more upbeat style.  

In the study, participants were shown lists of positive and negative words, and then asked to walk on a treadmill, where their gait and posture were measured. After, they were told to write down as many words from the list as they could remember. The people who had walked in a more depressed style remembered more of the negative words, and vice versa.
Previous research has already shown that our mood can affect the way we walk, but these results suggest that the opposite is also true. So the next time a difficult rehearsal is getting you down, hold your head high and put a little extra spring in your step as you walk to your next class. It might just give you the boost you need.