Strike A Pose - There’s Everything To It
When Madonna once famously sang the song ‘Vogue’, she penned the lyrics ‘strike a pose, there’s nothing to it’.
From our mind’s perspective, however, there is everything to it. It is a known fact that the positioning and shaping of our bodies can strongly influence our minds.
To test this premise right now simply stand up tall, put your shoulders back, arms out wide, your head up high and smile widely. How do you feel? Good, right?!
Now sit back down with hands tucked into your lap, hunch your shoulders forward, bow your head to the ground and frown. We’re guessing you’ve noticed the difference!
Strong body language creates presence and in turn presence shows off confidence, passion, enthusiasm and authenticity - attributes that we often strive for in our lives.
So, if you are to take with you just three vital learnings from this blog, then these are those:
Our bodies change our minds
Our minds change our behaviour
Our behaviour changes our outcomes
In 1971, Albert Mehrabian, a professor at the University of California, published his findings from research into face-to-face communication. He found that our communication could be broken down into three areas: our body language, our voice tone and the words that we use.
Importantly, he also found that the degree of meaning we take from each of these three elements is very different - 7% comes from the actual words we use; 38% can be found in our voice tone; and as much as 55% comes from our body language (our physiology).
What this tells us is that as much as 93% of all our communication is done unconsciously using non-verbal means.
Returning to our friend Madonna, one excellent way of putting yourself into the right mindset for any important meeting, presentation, sporting event or performance is to spend a few moments striking some power poses (examples below).
The difference this can make as to how you then feel and subsequently perform is phenomenal.
When we strike ‘alpha’ poses it releases our testosterone hormone that allows us to feel assertive and comfortable whereas when we are hunched up and small it releases our cortisol hormone which in turn make us feel anxious and concerned.
A lot of people may think that spending a couple of minutes adopting a power pose “isn’t them” or that they “feel foolish”. This is understandable but what we are saying is do it in private, do it wherever suits you best. The impact these 2 minutes will have is potentially huge.
Amy Cuddy, a renowned social psychiatrist and professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School famously said “don’t just fake it ’til you make it, fake it ’til you become it”. Wise words indeed.
A Game Changer says…
The mind and body cannot work independently. It is impossible to change one without affecting the other. When we alter our physiology it changes how we think and feel and when we think in a different way it changes our physiology.
The implications of this are massive in all walks of life so it’s important to consider it wisely, use it to your advantage and get it right!
When a top athlete is preparing for a major sporting event, take a moment to watch how they affect their own body language several minutes prior to the action. It is very noticeable in high octane alpha sports such as boxing. Also watch the competitors prior to a men's athletics 100m final. It is fascinating.
Finally, having read this blog, we ask that you do one thing. Before your next meeting or interview, sporting event or important performance, take just 2 minutes to strike a few ‘power poses’ and as you do it, smile and allow yourself to feel good :-)