How you Stand Effects How You Feel

Why am I standing like this, looking out into the distance in my ‘active wear’, you ask?
Did you know our posture can chemically affect not only how we feel about ourselves but even how others view us? How we stand or sit can trigger the release of either testosterone to make us feel strong, calm and confident or cortisol- the stress hormone- which makes us feel anxious, shy and easily intimidated.
This is a new and exciting finding discussed by Professor Amy Cuddy of Harvard business school who states that ‘changing “your posture for two minutes a day could significantly change how your life unfolds”.
How we use or hold our body is a language, a non-verbal communication that tells others who we are, it can affect our idea of someone more significantly than the words they use.
Not only does posture tell others about who we are but it shapes our own thoughts, feelings and physiology. Through clinical experiments it was found that the strength hormone testosterone is increased within the body when a “power pose” is held for 2 minutes a day, and interestingly the stress hormone cortisol was decreased at the same time.
The same is true but in reverse when a ‘powerless pose’ is held- cortisol the stress hormone is increased by as much as 15% and testosterone is decreased by as much as 25%. So what does this look like? When we feel powerful we open up, stretch out, and take up more space, when we feel powerless we shrink ourselves down, fold ourselves up and try to almost hide.
People that feel powerful are more confident, optimistic, assertive, feel they are going to win, and think more abstractly. When they speak it was noticed that they are more passionate, enthusiastic, comfortable, and captivating.
Professor Cuddy says- why not “fake it until you become it”, so stand or sit in a power pose for 2 minutes a day in order to gradually change how you feel about yourself, how others see you and even what life events unfold for you.
One of the proven power poses that we are talking about here has been dubbed the “wonder woman” or superman pose which is where a person stands upright with feet slightly apart and hands on hips- give it a go for 2 minutes a day.