How your body language expresses yourself is important. You may be surprised to know that by changing your body language, you are changing how you and other people perceive yourself. This ultimately changes you - so if you want to be a rock star, start by acting like one, not kidding.
What if, your body language changes who you are?
This experiment1 suggests that different poses actually have a real impact on your hormone levels, that is testosterone and cortisol, and therefore influencing your thoughts.
We knew that you control your body langauge, but it’s also true the other way around.
So when I tell people about this, that our bodies change our minds and our minds can change our behavior, and our behavior can change our outcomes, they say to me, “It feels fake.” Right? So I said, fake it till you make it. It’s not me. I don’t want to get there and then still feel like a fraud. I don’t want to feel like an impostor. I don’t want to get there only to feel like I’m not supposed to be here. And that really resonated with me, because I want to tell you a little story about being an impostor and feeling like I’m not supposed to be here.1
Fake it until you make it? I suppose intuitively it does have a lot of positive effects.
Footnotes
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https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_may_shape_who_you_are + Amy Cuddy: Your body language may shape who you are | TED Talk + (NOTE: Some of the findings presented in this talk have been referenced in an ongoing debate among social scientists about robustness and reproducibility. Read “Corrections & Updates” below for more details as well as Amy Cuddy’s response.) Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy argues that “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can boost feelings of confidence, and might have an impact on our chances for success. ↩ ↩2