How to Increase Courage: Power Poses

Power Poses

Power poses is a physical confidence-boosting technique based on the idea that how you hold your body influences how you feel. Dr. Amy Cuddy, one of the pioneers of the power posing movement, ran an experiment in which they asked participants to assume either an expansive posture (taking up more space) or the opposite, a contractive posture (hunching in) for several minutes prior to completing various tasks. They found that the people that used the expansive posture felt more powerful, took more risks, and did better in a mock interview.

While the validity of these results are still being analyzed and replicated, research supports the idea that our body language may have robust effects on our mood, and by assuming the body language of the emotion we’d like to embody, we may promote the development of that feeling for real.

If you’d like to learn more about power poses, you can watch Dr. Cuddy’s ted talk!

Challenge

Try out a power pose next time you need a boost of courage and increase in confidence.

How does it make you feel? How does it affect your self-esttem, confidence and bravery?

Take a moment to reflect back on this prompt. You can write about it in your journal or in the text box below.