Stop for a moment and look at yourself. How are you sitting, standing, walking right now? Is your back straight, is your head up? Are you folded up and looking down?
No matter what you're doing right this moment, what you're doing at any given moment is telling a complete story about who you are, what mood you're in and how your day, week or life is going. Your body language communicates more non-verbally than anything would ever express coming out of your mouth. Perception is more often reality, which unfortunately is something you do not always control.
Your non-verbals (including your hand placement, arm position, the way your feet are pointed, whether you're taking up space or making yourself small) speak an honest story about you and your confidence, personality, and the way you're going to handle a conversation. It can impact everything from making a connection, landing a job interview or simply the way strangers may approach you.
Our non-verbals govern the way others view and perceive us, but what we explore today is whether we may be able to fool ourselves through body language to make ourselves look and feel more powerful?
Amy Cuddy in the TED Talk I've shared today recommends that we should be taking time out of our day to assume 'high-power poses' to teach our bodies to change our minds. Take two minutes out of your day as sort of a 'power boost' to open your arms out wide like a gorilla, spread those wings like an eagle, heck - even flaunt your gills like our Betta fish! It's a primal instinct to assume a large and dominating stance when we want to project power and confidence, so why don't we find it useful more often in our everyday lives?
It's okay to feel powerful. Powerful people feel more optimistic, they take more risks, they react better to stressful situations and they give others a reason to have confidence in them as a leader.
Take 20 minutes on your lunch break (or just listen) and learn how you too can benefit from power posing.
Don't fake it till you make it, fake it till you become it.
[ted id=1569]
TED Talks: Ideas worth spreading
