How to bring the mind balance back?
9 April, 2021
The mind changes our body. When a person is happy, a smile appears on his face, when he feels lonely, he “hugs” himself with the arms, when he is insecure, he puts his head down. This body language can help you to draw a lot of conclusions about the interlocutor.
Social psychologist Amy Cuddy and Columbia University professor Dana Carney asked themselves: “Can the body change the mind?” They decided to find out if body language influences our opinion of ourselves. Cuddy shared the results of her research at an international TED conference.
@What is the difference between the strong and the weak? Influential people are more aggressive, confident, and optimistic. They take more risks and tend to think abstractly”, says the psychologist. “There are also physiological differences between strong and weak people in two main hormones: testosterone, the hormone of leadership, and cortisol, the stress hormone. Strong and effective leaders have high testosterone levels and low cortisol levels.”
To track how body language influences a person’s mood, Cuddy and Carney conducted a small experiment. They asked people to stay in strong (arms out to the sides, head higher) or weak (cringe, look at the floor) positions for two minutes. The participants then responded to a question about their self-confidence and gave a saliva sample so that testosterone and cortisol levels could be compared before and after the experiment.
Here are the results:
- About 86% of people in a strong posture wanted to take risks, while only 60% of those in a weak posture wanted the same.
- Testosterone levels, in people in strong postures, rise by 20%, and in people in weak ones, it decreases by 10%.
- The level of cortisol, in people in strong postures, decreases by 25%, and in people of weak ones, rises by 15%.
“Little tweaks can make big changes. Before the next stressful situation, stand in a strong posture for two minutes in the elevator, in the bathroom, at your desk behind closed doors. Tune your brain to the best scenario. Let testosterone go up and cortisol go down,” advises Amy Cuddy.
