Body Posture and Strength: Interview with Chantel Byrne
This story appears in Issue 1: Body Posture of Studies, a series of magazine-style studies in art and design.
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Chantel Byrne spends most of her time finding the balance between motherhood and career aspirations. In New Mexico, she juggles life at home with her husband, fourteen month-old daughter, and baby on the way (Brixton is due in March). She’s currently working on a new style and clothing project, while pursuing the idea of strength in womanhood, found on her blog. She’s also family (she married my brother) so any time I sit down and talk with her – it’s a good time.
September 29: Body Posture and Strength
Body posture isn’t just about having proper posture, but it’s also about the posture in which we carry ourselves – how we hold ourselves in conversations, and hold ourselves as people. Today we’re talking about strength in posture. Can you talk about what it means to be a strong woman?
Being a strong woman means really knowing who you are, not physically, but knowing who you are emotionally, spiritually – the depth of who you are. Once you know those deeper parts of yourself (emotionally and spiritually) it comes out, it’s expressed though your physical [posture].
Being a strong woman is being strong in the good, in the bad, in the great parts about yourself and the bad parts about yourself, and being okay with them.
Can you talk more about the external marks of a strong woman?
Honestly, I feel like those who are able to bear skin are strong, not in the way of revealing yourself [physically], but revealing yourself in your face and not covering it up. Strength is being okay to not cover who you are.
Talk about your experience with makeup.
I didn’t start wearing makeup until I was in tenth grade, and that wasn’t even like foundation, that was just mascara. I didn’t really start wearing foundation and things like that until my junior year. For me it became more so a cover-up for me. I’ve struggled with my skin. I have rosacea, so [makeup] was a way I could cover it.
I would feel prettier. I would feel more confident to talk to people and look them in the eye. I started to notice that’s where my confidence was coming from, from covering up who I was. To me, that’s a scary place to be in. That’s a place where you start to hide who you are and you’re not allowing yourself to be who God made you to be. For me, I just started to challenge myself – not wearing makeup and strengthening who I was on the inside so that it didn’t matter what was on the outside.
I was able to look someone in the eye and know who I was, and know where I stood. I don’t think I could say that when I was in that place, always trying to cover up and hide.
I always notice how much you smile when you greet others. Tell me more about that.
Strength comes from building people up. I don’t think people do that as often as they should. I haven’t met many encouragers in my life, and because of that I’ve felt the weight of not being encouraged and not being lifted. That weight is really heavy and I don’t want anyone to ever feel like that. I feel like it takes a lot of strength to think of others before yourself, even if you’re not feeling a lot of joy that day. How I greet someone – that’s going to affect them, and I can either affect them positively or negatively, and just because I may be feeling negative, I have to put others before myself.
It’s not that I’m putting on a mask, because I’ll be real, I’ll be straight up, but you have the power with the way you greet someone or how you look at someone to lift them up or tear them down. There’s a lot of power in that. A strong person puts that person’s feelings ahead of their own.
Moving on to form or shape in posture, do you notice it makes a difference when people stand up straight our slouch?
Definitely. Growing up, I was a sloucher, and my dad would literally kick us in the back, me and my sister (laughs). I grew up knowing the importance of standing up straight, but I think its deeper rooted. I wasn’t confident growing up, I just discussed my rosacea and things like that – I wasn’t confident. I didn’t know who I was. Now, I can stand up straight but it’s because I’m able to stand straight in my identity.
Final thoughts:
If I find myself slouching in a situation, I have to check myself. “Where is my confidence coming from? Why am I slouching right now?” Sometimes, it’s because I don’t feel cute in the outfit I have. But then I have to check myself: “Is this who you are? Is this outfit who you are? Is that what defines you?” Really knowing who you are – that gives you that confidence to stand up straight, regardless of those petty appearance things that women think about, I don’t know if men do (laughs).
I think that goes as far as owning your own style. Sometimes people aren’t able to express themselves through style because they don’t feel confident enough – knowing who they are to be able to stand straight in their style.
Do you know who you are? That’s what it comes down to.
