What do you do when you have an upcoming test, presentation, interview, date etc.? You desperately want the success, the deal, the job, the hubby or wife, the body, and the life, but there’s one problem: you feel ill-equipped, inadequate and you’re worried because everything depends on you getting it. What do you do? You may even have the job, the hubby or wife, the body, the life or whatever, yet still you feel inadequate, like you don’t deserve it- you’re an imposter.
How do you get past your problem? Do you stand in front of a mirror and affirm yourself until you believe it? Do you start to behave and live like you got it together; like you belong, and deserve it? i.e., ‘fake it till you make it’? Maybe. But, if so, will it really work? Who would you be trying to fool; yourself or others? Neither is wiser. What matters most: the lyric or dance?
It’s well understood that the mind (thoughts, feelings-measured by hormones) can change the body (reaction/behaviour). But, can the body change the mind? i.e., can your behaviour/reaction change your feelings and thoughts? This is what we’ll try to explore today.
Dr Amy Cuddy is a social psychologist who endeavoured in her research to show that standing in a posture of confidence, even without feeling confident can boost the feeling of confidence and may impact our chances of success.
In an experiment with a group of people: First, their saliva sample was taken and measured for levels of testosterone and cortisol. Divided into two groups, one group was given high-power poses while the other was given low-power poses, that both were to maintain for 2 minutes. They were then asked how powerful they felt on several items, and later given an opportunity to gamble. Finally, their saliva sample was taken and measured again. They found out that the high-power posers had a 20% increase in testosterone and a 25% decrease in cortisol; 86% of them were ready to gamble (higher risk tolerance). On the other hand; 60% of the low-power posers were willing to gamble; they had a 10% decrease in testosterone and a 15% increase in cortisol.
In another instance, the pictures of high-power and low-power posers were presented to unbiased judges and it was found out that the judges were more willing to hire the high-power posers than their counterpart. These findings provided evidence that indeed our bodies can change our minds and the minds/judgements of others too, about us.
Note: this study was published in 2010 and there have been inside debates about power posing since; about whether to use blood or saliva, replication concerns etc. Nevertheless, what was abundantly clear was that adopting expansive poses increased the feeling of power and confidence- it activates the behavioural approach system– which consequently improves executive function, we become happier, more optimistic, more creative, more likely to take action (including helping strangers) and seek rewards and opportunities, we become more physically energetic and less inhibited. The feeling of powerlessness activates the behavioural inhibition system which produces the opposite effects.
Other instances that the body has proved to change our minds include: breath work in medicine; slow breaths slowly trigger the nervous system response, making people feel much more relaxed and safe before stressful procedures. In psychology, when you open up the posture of a person suffering from major depressive disorder for a few minutes, and afterwards have them fill up a depression scale, they will be less depressed. This works in treating people with PTSD too: teaching them yoga posses that open them up help reduce their PTSD symptoms.
So, to answer our question of what do we do: Take a power posture and smile😁. Could it be that simple? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe we need the small incremental expansions too- self nudging, I mean. Expanding, opens up and allows the truth of who you are in, and the powerful feeling will give you the courage to confront and know yourself. With that courage, you’ll begin to see challenges as opportunities and other people as allies not competition or predators. Dr Amy proposes that we ‘fake it till we become it’.
She concludes that self affirmation is anchoring yourself in who you are and I couldn’t agree more. When anchored properly in who you are; going in and out of these situations or through life generally, you remain yourself.
Put a pencil in between your teeth and see if it won’t improve your mood. A forced smile -involving the eyes- will have the same effect in the mind as a real smile, so smile whenever.
See this post ⬇️⬇️⬇️ which paved way for the post you’ve just read.
Self Affirmation or Self Nudging?
NB: I’ve tried to represent the information from the studies as accurately as possible but feel free to correct and update me necessarily. This is definitely not for scientific research purposes. Thank you for reading.