You may be a workaholic and you sit for long hours before your system or at desk to complete your work. You may be someone who dislikes getting up before finishing off work but when you complete it, do you feel happy or sad? Don’t you feel sad and depressed even after successfully completing your work after many hours continuously? If it is so, then you should think about the reason. Do you know that sitting for long hours can lead to early ageing? It’s even ruining your mood by the time you finish your work. Research has proved that sitting for hours can affect your mood since your other body muscle groups are also affected. This leads to imbalance in hormones and disturbs the working of nervous system. Slouching over the desk makes one really sad and depressed as result of which the productivity also gets disturbed.
How Does Sitting For Long Hours Affect The Mood?
Not only sitting for long hours but also the posture also affects your mood and leads you into depression. We usually think that mind effects body but even body can affect mind in different ways and lead to cognitive behavior. A study was published in American Journal of Preventive Medicine which showed that women who sat for more than 7 hours a day had about 47% higher risk of developing depression than those who sat for 4 hours or less a day. So, remember that you should actually sit not more than 3 hours a day. Not only that; you shouldn’t slouch over desk since this results in feelings like fear, nervousness, still, dullness, hostility, quietness, passiveness and sluggishness. So, you should sit upright to keep yourself confident and boost your moods.
You know that our emotions and thoughts affect the body posture greatly. The opposite is equally true which many are not aware of. Focusing on body posture takes efforts and consciousness.
What Shall I Do Now?
If you are still prepared to sit for hours, then here are few things you should do any way.
Sit upright and do not slouch: Sitting up right will give your spine a stretch which is quite effective to improve your mood. So, this is the simple and best solution to this problem.
Body Alignment is equally important: Check if you spine, shoulder, neck and head are aligned or not. Make sure you aren’t slumping your spine or neck. If you do so, your brain gets signal that you are tired and this will make you feel weak.
Stand at regular time intervals: Make sure you get up and stand for a while in certain time intervals. This will help you relieve stress in your spine and neck; it will help your nerves to rest and get energized. Stand and take at least 5 minutes break every 3 hours; do not sit in these 5 minutes. You can choose to walk for a while or do few stretches. This will boost your mood and help you get motivated and energy to sit back and finish your work. Are you sitting here since more than 3 hours browsing internet and reading our blog? Then stand and get a 5 minutes break, and come back. We’re right here.
Never let sitting for hours make you depressed again.
