Today we’d like to share with you one of the not-so well known ways to quickly improve your wellbeing, and improve the way people around you perceive you. Got a guess of what it is? It’s manipulating your body language and posture. For those of you who don’t know what body language is, it’s the way we express ourselves through our body. A great example of this is passionate people who gesture with their hands wildly as they speak. Their body movements are adding to the message they are delivering. So how does body language effect the way we feel, and knowing that, how do we use body language to feel better?
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), is the leading form of psychotherapy and is evidence based, meaning it’s based off of what is studied to be most effective. One of CBT’s main models talks about the link between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. This model shows that the way we think influences the way we feel, which influences the way we behave. Within this model however, it shows that by modifying one part of this triangle, you can influence the other parts. So if you’re feeling bad, you can work on improving your thoughts or behaviours.
Body language is a behaviour that can be quickly manipulated to make you feel and think better in a short amount of time. We’ve all heard the terminology, fake it till you make it. Well with body language, if you fake a ‘powerful’ posture you may actually begin to feel more powerful. Cool right?
This phenomena has been studied in different ways, one of the most famous of these studies was done by Amy Cuddy. Amy presented a ted talk on the topic of body language and its influence over our feelings, and this Ted talk has been viewed over 40 million times. Within Amy’s study, she tested hormone levels of both cortisol and testosterone of her subjects, then got them to hold either a ‘high-power pose’ or a ‘low-power pose’, re-testing their hormone levels afterwards. Testosterone is a hormone associated with power, risk taking and strength, whereas cortisol is associated with fear, stress, anxiety and depression.
Amy found that the subjects who held power poses had more testosterone and less cortisol, and those who held the low power poses, had less testosterone and more cortisol. This showed that our body language influences our biochemistry. which in turn influences the way we feel or act. So why are certain poses more powerful and others less powerful? Some body language is universal across all people, where as others are cultural. The victory pose, seen below on the left, is a prime example of a high-power pose. This posture is one we naturally maintain when we are victorious, which has even been seen in blind people who have never had the opportunity to mimic posture of those around them. Low-power poses on the other hand are postures in which we ‘close off’ or protect our vulnerable reasons such as our heart, neck, or inner thighs. These postures may even resemble the foetal position.
Rocky, rocking his power pose on the left. And a sad, low power pose on the right
Not only does our posture or body language influence the way we feel, it also influences the way people perceive us. It is estimated that as much as 70% of our communication is through body language, the rest being made up through language and the tone of our voice. This means people will subconsciously be reading our body language during communication which heavily contributes to their interpretation of what we are trying to say. This means two things, when listening, pay attention to the persons body language, this will give you an idea of the emotions they are feeling whilst communicating with you. If you are talking to someone and their posture becomes closed, perhaps you are being too forceful, or they aren’t in the mood to talk. It also means you should pay attention to the message you give off yourself. If you are trying to appear confidence and positive, try to maintain more open postures so people perceive you in a positive manner.
So if you’re feeling down. Jump up, open your arms in the air and smile for 2 minutes and enjoy the decrease in stress hormone and increase in powerful feel good hormones.
References:
Study – The Benefit of Power Posing before a High-Stakes Social Evaulation
