Watching the TED Talk by Anne Cuddy was really interesting and very helpful for me to watch as I prepare to deliver my finalized lone wolf speech. Prior to watching the video I had done power posing before and knew a little bit about it, but not nearly as much as what she explained. Cuddy talks about how our own nonverbal behavior affects how we perceive ourselves in addition to how others perceive us. It was really helpful to hear this out loud because although it’s something that I knew at a subconscious level, it’s not something that I think about very often while I’m actually communicating. Something that I found even more interesting was that when we are communicating with others, we often compliment their nonverbals by doing the opposite types of poses as opposed to mimicking the same ones. Simply paying attention to this fact can be very beneficial in situations where we are feeling an obvious power imbalance and want to give ourselves a leg up.
What resonated with me the most was when Anne discussed how only two minutes of power posing can literally change the hormones in your brain and make you feel more confident and powerful. I think that this will be really beneficial to take with me into Tuesday’s class and the rest of my life. Although you can’t necessarily change the nervousness that you feel regarding certain situations, it’s empowering to know that you do have the ability to change how your brain responds to the situation. Despite the fact that I’ve power posed in the past, before big presentations or exams, knowing that it actually has a physiological effect will encourage me to do it more often.
