Your body language shapes who you are

and yes, this is going to change your life

With a bottle of Pellegrino, grilled cheese with extra ketchup and the resolution to never drink again, I was skimming through Netflix. I always end up in this situation after a rowdy Friday night out. I scroll a bit and came across TEDTalks. A popular platform for many filled with the most inspirational presentations about anything and everything, but mostly about life.

My attention geared directly to Amy Cuddy’s presentation about body language. And not about how you can read other people’s body language (and how to flawlessly spot potential heartbreakers), but how certain body languages can change you mentally. For example, research has been conducted to see if people produce an excess of happy hormones by just simply holding a pen vertically in their mouth. Sounds odd I know but what this does is it gives your mouth the shape of a smile. But does that work if you want to feel mighty and powerful too? There are universal ‘power poses’ – poses people take on once they’ve been victorious in any given situation. So as soon as someone feels powerful, they take on a certain pose. But does this work the other way around too? In other words: is there a specific pose you need to do to give your brain that extra bit of power? Amy Cuddy decided to research this and came to the conclusion that anyone is capable of becoming powerful in only two minutes. Simply by standing like a boss.

And so I watched, hanging on to Amy’s every last word. Everyone needs to give this a go. So in short, hereby Amy’s golden rules to turn you into a powerful woman in a mere 120 seconds.

1. How it works

Take a power pose. Power poses physically make you feel big. So: stretch out your arms, lift your legs, then put your hands on the back of you head, then on your hips, spread your legs, and so on. Find somewhere that has plenty of room so you can do this for at least two minutes without being interrupted. Stand up, and stay standing.

2. What happens

Powerful people are more assertive, have more confidence and are more optimistic. They always think about winning, even if the odds are not in their favor. But physiologically there are differences too. Powerful people have a higher testosterone level (the dominating hormone) and a low cortisol level (the stress hormone). Weak people have it the other way around. Amy’s research shows that people who aren’t powerful at first, will be after taking on this power pose: their testosterone levels will rise and cortisol will decline. And all of this after just two minutes.

3. Why it will change your life

YES! Even scientific research has shown that people who are powerful or have become powerful are always one step ahead of less powerful people. They are more likely to get hired for jobs, get higher grades and so on. Especially in the job application process it can be a real game changer. When you’re in the lobby waiting for your meeting, don’t hide behind your phone. No. Stand Up. Walk to the bathroom and transform into King Kong for 120 seconds. The odds of you being hired are way more likely.

So please, give this a go. You’ll find the entire Ted Talk here by the way.