8 Benefits of standing up for yourself and being assertive (2023)

FAQs

What are the benefits of standing up for yourself? ›

Standing up for yourself can improve your happiness, well-being and relationships. It's important to express your thoughts, opinions and feelings clearly and respectfully because this will allow you to set and maintain personal boundaries.

Being assertive is a core communication skill. Assertiveness can help you express yourself effectively and stand up for your point of view. It can also help you do this while respecting the rights and beliefs of others. Being assertive can also help boost your self-esteem and earn others' respect.

Standing up for ourselves is about having boundaries, and importantly, knowing how to assert them. When we don't do this, we become passive – we allow life to just “happen”, often trampling over us along the way.

More calories burned: One study showed that standing sheds 88 calories an hour, compared to 80 calories for sitting. Walking burns a lot more -- 210 calories an hour. Less back pain: Sitting for long periods of time tightens your muscles and can hurt your lower back, especially if you have bad posture.

Standing helps us feel healthier, and when we feel well, we're often in a better mood. Participants in standing studies at work have reported improved mood as a peripheral benefit of standing at work. So if you're having a slow workday (or feeling down), get on your feet!

PRINCIPLES OF ASSERTIVE COMMUNICATION

Communicates concerns directly to the person he or she has an issue with, rather than talking indirectly about someone behind his/her back. Listens actively and reflectively to others. Offers direct eye contact.

adjective. Britannica Dictionary definition of SELF–ASSERTIVE. [more self–assertive; most self–assertive] : very confident and willing to express opinions.

An assertive person is one who acts in his/her own best interests, stands up for self, expresses feelings honestly, is in charge of self in interpersonal relations, and chooses for self. The basic message sent from an assertive person is “I'm OK and you're OK.”

What is a good word for standing up for yourself? ›

(stand up for someone/something) to defend someone or something that is being criticized or attacked.

The sit-to-stand exercise (also known as the chair stand or chair rise exercise) strengthens your lower body and helps you maintain or improve your mobility and independence. The end goal is to do the sit-to-stand exercise without using your hands. This will be easier as you become stronger.

So the short of it is yes, standing did help these students perform better on their tests and their brain activity was more active. Keep in mind this is one study in a classroom setting, but the results are certainly encouraging.

It is more tiring to stand in one place for an hour as it causes a few muscle groups in your feet and legs to fire for an extended period of time. When you are walking, all the muscles in your feet and legs are used as they share in the work. This prevents any one muscle from getting excessively tired.

Reducing Depression

The researchers conclude that limiting the amount of time people spend sitting and instead encouraging them to stand while working could play a significant role in improving their mental health.

Moving & Standing Can Improve Focus. When we stand to work, we shift our weight and burn calories. The energy is similar to the mental effects of a workout, which can improve focus for many people. Standing to work provides a brief energy boost that activates our focus.

Standing Helps Work Your Core

One of the benefits we've touched on but haven't focused on is the muscles in your core. Your core is surrounded by muscles that have to work to keep your body in equilibrium. They're part of how you keep your balance, and they're an integral part of a healthy body.

What are the four rules of assertiveness? ›

The basic assertiveness formula has four steps: (1) the situation, (2) the feeling, (3) the explanation, and (4) the request. Another way of stating the formula is (1) here's what happened, (2) here's how I feel about it, (3) here's why I feel that way, so (4) here's what I want.

The book offers effective methods for transforming passive-aggression into healthy assertiveness to communicate in constructive ways through eight keys: Recognize Your Hidden Anger; Reconnect Your Emotions to Your Thoughts; Listen to Your Body; Set Healthy Boundaries; Communicate Assertively; Interact Using Mindfulness ...

What Are The 3 C's Of Assertive Communication? Confidence – you believe in your ability to handle a situation. Clear – the message you have is clear and easy to understand. Controlled – you deliver information in a calm and controlled manner.

Assertiveness also increases your own belief in your ability to handle whatever will come your way – again reducing stress, buffering you from anxiety and depression, and reinforcing your self-esteem. It makes it easier to say 'no' to inappropriate or overtaxing requests as well.

Assertive vs Non-Assertive Behaviors

Appropriate tone, being honest and direct, and positive verbal and non-verbal (body language) communication are important aspects of assertiveness.

Assertiveness is about persistence, calmness, standing firm, being confident and being willing to find the win / win outcome. It is often associated with aggression; however, this is a misconception, aggression is far from assertive, rather it is manipulative.

Do assertive people get angry? ›

Assertive people stand up for themselves and their rights and do not take crap from others. However, they manage to do this without crossing the line into aggressiveness; they do not attack the person they are communicating with unnecessarily.

Unassertive behaviour can lead to low self esteem. We are all born assertive but as we grow we learn different patterns of communication. Our environment can make it difficult for us to be assertive.

altruistic Add to list Share. Someone who is altruistic always puts others first.

Nonassertion is failing to stand up for oneself, or standing up for oneself in such an ineffectual manner that one's rights are easily violated.

Self-worth is the internal sense of being good enough and worthy of love and belonging from others. Self-worth is often confused with self-esteem, which relies on external factors such as successes and achievements to define worth and can often be inconsistent leading to someone struggling with feeling worthy.

Take Action or Say Something

Once the conscious choice is made to stand up for your beliefs, commit to taking action. Take a deep breath, muster your courage, and speak up; take a stand and point out that a line has been crossed.

to fail to meet someone you had arranged to see: He was supposed to be here at seven, so by seven thirty I began to think that he stood me up.

Remember to move for approximately three minutes every 30 – 60 minutes. Why? Research shows that staying stationary – whether sitting or standing – for long periods of time, can be bad for your health. Our bodies are built to move and doing so for approximately three minutes every hour helps us feel our best.

How often should you stand up? ›

Sitting behind your desk all day is bad for your health and experts have long been advising people to stand at their workstations for about 15 minutes an hour. But a University of Waterloo professor says his research shows that people should be standing for at least 30 minutes per hour to get health benefits.

For every half-hour of work: Sit for 20. Stand for 8. Stretch or move for 2.

If you're just standing, you need to do so for five or more minutes at a time, says Buckley, but if you're moving, two minutes is enough to give benefits.

Muscle fatigue, back pain, and leg swelling. All these conditions can arise from or get aggravated by standing for extended periods. Sure, it's not healthy to sit in one place for long hours, but neither is standing. In fact, in some cases, the effects of prolonged standing can actually be worse!

Stronger core, better posture

Medical research studies show that standing as little as 30 minutes a day can lower your risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Standing for 90 minutes can lower that risk by more than 33%. The more you stand, the more the benefits add up.

Prolonged standing is defined as over 8 hours of standing per day without a lot of movement and walking around. Jobs that require standing all day are commonly associated with lower back pain, issues with leg muscles and tendons, and chronic venous insufficiency.

How many hours a day are you supposed to stand? Experts have found that you should try to stand for at least 2 hours per day, but up to 4 hours per day could be optimal. This might seem like a lot, but there are lots of ways you can fit standing into your day.