Stand. Up. Straight.

Credit: Karolina Grabowska

A good posture can deliver a multitude of benefits but so often it is hard to find the mental space to concentrate on your body in the hustle and bustle of daily life or when staring at a screen all day.

Taking time to be aware of your body is a key first step to better posture and while it might seem counterintuitive, lying down with an eye pillow can actually help improve your poise.

Savasana, or Corpse Pose, is the final resting pose at the end of almost every yoga practice, and for good reason, as it is the perfect mode to calm the mind and connect with the body, listening to the movement of your body while at rest.

But you don't necessarily need to have completed a yoga session to benefit from this awareness, simply lying down and tuning into the rhythms of your body can help strengthen your mental body image and slowly improve your posture the rest of the day. Adding an eye pillow to this practice can further deepen your awareness, letting you tune out the world around you and focus purely on sensations from within.

Credit: Karolina Grabowska

A key reason this can be so effective is the vagus nerve, also called the X cranial nerve or 10th cranial nerve, which plays a vital role in calming your mind and rebalancing your body. The longest and most complex of the cranial nerves, the vagus runs from the eye through the thorax to the abdomen, and is central to the parasympathetic system that is responsible for stimulation of "rest-and-digest" or "feed and breed" activities that occur when the body is at rest.

Stress management expert Melanie Weller explains that "the vagus nerve is the biggest component of our parasympathetic nervous system, which balances our fright, flight, and fight responses. The 73% of people with a fear of public speaking are very familiar with what happens when their vagus nerve gets dialled down: The lump in the throat, sweaty palms, racing heart, shallow breathing, and churning stomach are all the result of reduced vagus nerve function.”

Studies show that gentle pressure on the eyes can help stimulate this nerve, delivering multiple benefits across the body and sending calming messages down the back of the neck to the shoulders and chest, heart and stomach.

Charles Conway, MD, psychiatrist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, highlights the growing number of studies that show "vagus nerve stimulation" leads to reductions in anxiety and notes “clearly, the vagus plays a critical role in the mind-body connection and we likely are only scratching the surface of how critical this nerve is with regards to emotional well-being and other health conditions.... As it turns out, the afferent (toward the brain) projections of the vagus do synapse in multiple regions of the brain known to be critical in mood regulation."

By closing your eyes and taking the time to listen to your body, you can not only increase your awareness of your limbs, nerves and muscles, but also set a firm foundation for your movement throughout the rest of the day.