For a few years now, this TED talk has been in my top three. I have watched it a few times and every time it makes me smile. During the talk Amy Cuddy explains how making a few simple physical changes can change the way you feel.

Your body language may shape who you are

Power posing is an effective way to boost the testosterone levels and lower cortisol in the body. Just as a reminder, the higher the testosterone, the more confident we feel in our abilities; and the lower the cortisol levels, the better we deal with stress. Amy Cuddy shares that research has found that making a change in your physiology can improve performance. Another great speaker, Tony Robbins, says that “emotion is created by motion”. This overlaps with the message in this talk, as it promotes the fact that when you’re feeling down, you need to start moving around. A natural human behaviour is when we’re feeling down to shrink our bodies, to look down and thus to get sucked into the downward spiral. Instead, as soon as you notice that you start feeling on the low, make a move. Literally. Change your posture, open up your body, or even bite a pencil as suggested by Amy Cuddy in the video.

One of the key messages in the video is “fake it until you make it”. This is a reminder that even if it feel unnatural to do the power posing or to feel confident in yourself, you just need to keep doing it. Soon it will become a part of who you really are. Then you’ll be able to easily control how you deal with whatever challenges you have in life.

TED talks

If you’ve never watched a TED talk, this one would make for a great start. You’ll simply get addicted to them. TED is a platform allowing people with a powerful message to go on stage and share it with the world. There are hundreds (if not even more) of TED events across the globe and hours of videos are uploaded on a daily basis. It’s unlikely you’ll have time in your lifetime to watch all of them (which is a shame), but if you only had to watch one, this might be the one to do it.