Your body is constantly sending messages to your brain. The good news is that for the most part, you’re in control! Simple changes to your posture, your facial expression, even the way you’re standing can change how you feel!
SHOW NOTES
In this episode of Crina and Kirsten Get to Work, our twosome talks about using your body to hack your brain. What you do with your body can affect your performance, your success – and get you more of that joy, meaning and ease we are looking for in our work. Who knew?!
As with most show topics, this show topic was inspired by a listener and her own struggle with her body’s response during public speaking. Crina has listened to Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are – and suggested a few of Amy’s strategies on how you can use your body language to affect your own brain and body. We often think about what our body language communicates to others, but this episode is about what your body language communicates to YOU!
Think power poses, think the runner crossing the finish line first and raising arms overhead, think the soccer player scoring a goal and arms thrust overhead and eyes to the sky – these are the poses of winners. Many of these poses are associated with men and masculine traits, but it’s time for us fabulous females to own some of that magic. And this is a real thing – a field of science called embodied cognition.
Cuddy conducted an experiment where applicants were interviewed – and the situation was stressful because the interviewers were coached to show no reaction at all. Half of the participants were instructed to do the power pose (arms outstretched and overhead) before the interview and half were instructed to wrap their arms around themselves and curl up. These interviews were taped and when operservers watched the interviews and picked the successful candidates – the cast majority were the candidates who had performed the power pose.
There is some interesting work from Mat Boule in Montreal on how posture affects how you learn and perform.
What we do with our bodies can affect how we perform and how we experience our workplace. Listen in for the extra special not-so-secret strategies on how to get your body to speak the language you need to hear.
And, of course, as always – interesting reads and listens:
Science Says These 11 Body Language Secrets Will Make You More Successful