Stand like a Superhero!
Do you know that you can alter your emotional state, change your internal biochemistry, and have greater feelings of power and confidence by simply changing your posture?
Let’s start by doing a little experiment.
Begin by thinking about someone who might be feeling really sad or in a depressed state. What would their posture look like – standing tall or slumped over? Where would their head be – looking up high, or looking down? Are they breathing full or shallow? Are they talking fast or slow? Loud or soft?
Now think of someone that is strong, bold, and supremely confident, and ask yourself the same questions.
Can you see the difference?
Our posture can have a huge bearing on our emotional state, especially when we are about to confront our fears and head into a high-pressure moment. It is so easy to shrink down and shy away from such confronting circumstances. So what you can do is unleash your inner superhero and pose like Superman or Wonderwoman before you play! 🦸♂️🦸♀️
Start with your feet about shoulder-width apart, hands on your hips, chin up, and put your chest out. Breathe deeply for 2 minutes. Hopefully you should notice a positive difference in how bold and confident you feel. This is called a “Power Pose” and has been used by top musicians, businesspeople, sports stars, and public speakers all over the world.
Adopting a strong, expansive, upright stance changes your internal biochemistry, by increasing the amount of testosterone in your bloodstream. Testosterone doesn’t just increase muscle mass in your body, but it increases risk-taking and assertive behaviour in performance. This pose also decreases the amount of cortisol in the bloodstream, a stress hormone that clouds your thinking and keeps you in fight-flight-freeze mode. With these two changes combined, research has shown that you are more likely to take action that you wouldn’t have before, due to fear and self-doubt holding you back.
Making a significant adjustment to your internal biochemistry, which changes your emotional state, will lead to you taking a different course of action. Different action equals different results, meaning a potential boost in performance.
Why don’t you try a high-power pose before your next rehearsal, lesson, or performance! 2 minutes is all it takes to change your whole outlook, and gain a lift in confidence and daring before putting yourself out there. Write in the comments how you went!
Here’s social psychologist Amy Cuddy talking for “30 Seconds on Power Poses”
P.S. Whilst doing a Power Pose gives you an excuse to wear your underwear over the top of your performance outfit, it is unknown if this is performance enhancing – I haven’t tried this out (yet!). 😉 If you want to test this for yourself, then please be my guest and let me know of the results! Photos of evidence are required for verification purposes! 😆