Walking like a happy person can make you happy. The way you walk may not seem to reflect how you’re feeling, but it turns out your strike says a lot about your mood. “When people are happy, they tend to walk faster and more upright, swing their arms and move up and down more, and sway less side to side than sad or depressed people.” Res
Rearchers wanted to see if changing the way you walk could help boost your mood. “A recent study found that deliberately walking like a happy person can lift one’s spirits. And adopting the gait of a depressed person can bring on sadness.” The authors of the study point out that this is just one more easy way people can improve how they feel every day. They also hope that it might help those with depression. As one member of the team put it, “There is a mutual influence between mood and body and movement. There might be specific types of movements that are specific to depression and feeds the lower mood in a vicious cycle.
