A simple way to feel calm, confident + in control

Why striking a pose can boost your mood, energy and even immunity

Feb 13, 2024

Back in 2012, social psychologist Amy Cuddy presented a TED Talk about ‘power posing’, a technique for improving your mood and confidence by putting your body in an expansive pose. For example: standing with your feet hip-width apart, chest out, and hands on your hips. Like Wonder Woman, or Matilda, depending on your preferred cultural reference.

That TED Talk is still the second most popular of all time, with over 70 million views, but it faced an immediate backlash with critics claiming the idea is pseudoscience. At the time, I worked on a women’s magazine and the whole concept was a source of much hilarity. We did a funny feature where a writer tried power posing in all kinds of awkward situations, and most of our meetings started with someone jokingly power posing in the corner.

I hadn’t thought about this in years until last week when I interviewed psychologist Dr Nicole LePera for The Times. The feature was about improving your relationships, but one of her key points was that what you do with your body is as important - if not more so - than what you say. She talked about ensuring you are ‘calm and grounded’ before going into any kind of potentially-stressful situation. Taking time to relax your shoulders and slow your breathing not only makes you feel calmer, but also calms the other person, through co-regulation. She said that being intentional about how you use your body is a good way to ‘let your brain know that you’re safe’.

It reminded me of something I heard from Anna Campbell, author of The Vagus Nerve Reset (regular Well Well Well readers might remember she gave some excellent advice on this back in December). The vagus nerve is like ‘a two-way walkie-talkie’, sharing information between your brain and body. But surprisingly, your body sends four times as much information to your brain as your brain does to your body. So your brain is learning a lot about the situation that you’re in (ie. whether you’re ‘safe’) from your body.

In a world where many of us spend much of our time hunched over screens, as if shielding ourselves, no wonder our brains might think we’re constantly under threat.

Three years ago, while emerging from the bleakest of the winter lockdowns, I wrote a feature about ‘tech neck’ for Grazia. The term refers not only to the aesthetic effects (ie. the horizontal wrinkles that can accumulate below the jaw) but also the litany of aches and pains associated with it. For that feature, I spoke to Nahid de Belgeonne, founder of The Human Method, whose work is all about the mind-body connection. She advised lying on the floor between Zoom calls to get you out of forward flexion and realign your spine, adding that it’s as important for your emotional wellbeing as it is for your joints. (For more on the ways in which how we breathe and move our body impacts our nervous system, Nahid’s book Soothe is out next month.)

Part of the reason that yoga, pilates and barre classes make you feel so good afterwards is because of the focus on posture and alignment. Catie Miller, founder of the brilliant Barre Series, has just launched a Postural Reset Programme, promising a strengthened core, deep mindfulness and enhanced confidence through self non-verbal communication. ‘Maintaining good posture is not just about standing up straight,’ she says. ’It involves a dynamic interplay between muscles, breath, and mental focus. This intermingling relationship decreases tension, increases energy, improves circulation and strengthens the muscles to alleviate pain such as headaches, back pain, and digestive issues.’

Not only that, but there’s growing evidence to show that reducing stress in your body is beneficial for your immunity.

So perhaps Amy Cuddy was ahead of her time with all this?

In 2018, she actually published an academic paper in the journal Psychological Science, showing evidence from a meta-analysis of 55 studies that adopting postural feedback (ie. power posing) is linked with feelings of power. Although I missed that story at the time, so I guess it didn’t get as much attention as the original disputation.

Anyway, I think it’s safe to say that how we move our bodies has an impact on our brains, so we might as well utilise that. But our aim isn’t always ‘power’ so, for now, try this:

Depending on where you are, and whether you’re reading this on a phone or not, could you elevate your device slightly so that your neck is straight and your shoulders un-hunched?
In fact, roll those shoulders back and down.
Assuming you’re not somewhere where it would be weird to do so, could you actually stand up?
Become aware of your posture, from the top of your head to the bottoms of your feet.
Make your breathing deeper and slower.

How do you feel? Any different to 30 seconds ago?

You don’t have to do a ‘power pose’ before a meeting to get the benefits of this. Simply making an effort to be more aware of your posture on a day-to-day basis could be more powerful than you might think.

This week I’m…

Wrapping up in my Scamp & Dude scarf, which is part of their wonderful #superscarfmission to donate a scarf to a woman going through cancer treatment for each one sold.

Taking the kids to the exhibition of Cute at Somerset House (and slightly dreading the gift shop demands afterwards).

Trying to reduce plastic waste in my bathroom and thinking I might start washing my face with a bar of not-soap (giving me an excuse to buy this lovely soap dish).