Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world

by J. Mark G. Williams

Psychologist Johannes Michalak5 and colleagues at the Ruhr-University at Bochum used an optical motion capture system to see how depressed people differ from non-depressed people as they walk: they invited depressed and non-depressed people to their lab, and asked them to walk, choosing freely how to walk and at what speed. They tracked the walkers’ three-dimensional movements using over forty small reflective markers attached to their bodies as they walked up and down. They found that the depressed volunteers walked more slowly, swinging their arms less; the upper body did not move up and down very much when they walked, but was more likely to swing from side to side instead. Finally, they found that the depressed people walked with a slumped, forward-leaning posture. It is not just that such slumped posture is the result of being depressed. If you try the experiment of sitting for a minute with your shoulders slumped forward and head down, notice how you feel at the end of it. If you feel your mood has worsened, perhaps finish the experiment by shifting to a posture in which you are sitting upright, with your head and neck balanced on your shoulders.