“How to Decrease Anxiety and Increase Confidence in Only Two Minutes”

Amy Cuddy, a social scientist, began with the premise that just as body language can be a powerful non-verbal communication between people and animals it can also be a powerful way to nonverbally communicate with ourselves. She found that our thoughts, feelings and physiology are influenced by our body language. 
If you have been feeling stressed, anxious or powerless, or if you know you have a potentially stressful situation coming up like a job interview, I encourage you to watch this video and take two minutes to change your body language and see what happens. 

This power pose and the physiology behind it is one specific example of how we can truly change ourselves in a positive way by simply changing the way we position our bodies. One of the fundamental concepts Cuddy explains is that in high power poses we open up and make ourselves large and take up space. In low power poses we contract, collapse, and make ourselves small.

In my seventeen year career as a massage therapist I have witnessed the power of changing the body, introducing different positions, different movements. I have seen many clients change in both large and small ways. I encourage people to take their newfound awareness from the session out with them into their daily lives. Sometimes this means changing the position of their elbow when using the computer. Sometimes it means taking five minutes to lie down with legs up a wall and focus on breathing. Sometimes it means just noticing the difference in posture when the sternum is allowed to float up. 

I’m sharing this video because it continues to fascinate and inspire me. I hope it also intrigues and encourages you. As Amy Cuddy says, we don’t just “fake it ’til we make it” we “fake it ’til we become it”. We all have the power to change our thoughts, feelings and physiology by changing the way we move and hold our bodies.