Today I watched a TED Talk named 'Body Language May Shape Who You Are', which delivered by Any Cuddy, a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School.
In her talk, she mentioned we normally think what we're thinking can influence our behaviors, but she revealed that our behaviors can also change our minds.
So sometimes when we feel stressed before a public speaking or a very important event, she said, we can try to do some high-power poses.
The high-power poses are the poses when people behave with confidence and strength and feel like she/he can control everything.
She also mentioned those who have high powers usually have more testosterone in their bodies. And the so called faked high-power poses can help us get more testosterone in a very short time, which means the stress and anxiety can reduce in a rapid time.
This reminds me of an experience about how I handled stress before a public speech.
It was a speech for all the VPs in our company to show what I have done during the internship. It's like a report before being a formal employee. I have well prepared and I knew I won't be kicked off even though I behaved very badly. But I just can't stop being nervous and stressed. I can't sit on the chair quietly and I decided I want to do something to distract my attention.
I was just starting my bodyweight exercises at that time so I decided to do a set of push-ups. So I went out of the office and found a place with no one else around and did a set of push-ups.
After I finished, I feel released! It was like a magic and I said to myself: I can do so many push-ups, how hard could it be to deliver a speech?
My speech went very well and I didn't show any stress during the demonstration.
Why could some push-ups help me release and feel more confident? I guess maybe it's the exercise that helps me get more testosterone which turns me into a high-power person.
We all know that when we are doing exercises, our body will spend some of the testosterone to support the exercise itself, but will produce more after the exercises. And I found almost all actions or movements in the exercises are high-power poses, which makes me strongly think that exercises can not only shape our body but also can help to shape a high-power mind.
So if you are the type people who easily get stressed like me, you can try to do some exercises regularly during the daily life or before giving a speech or something else. Running, yoga, workout in the gym, whatever you want.
I think it should be very helpful because it works for me who easily get stressed.
