Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are
Amy Cuddy wasn’t supposed to become a successful scientist. In fact, she wasn’t even supposed to finish her undergraduate degree. Early in her college career, Cuddy suffered a severe head injury in a car accident, and doctors said she would struggle to fully regain her mental capacity and finish her undergraduate degree.
Notes that psychologically humans are profoundly influenced by the way the carry themselves. While maintaining a hunched and closed position, one feels weak, powerless, and intimidated. Others then perceive the individual as lacking.
However, if a person exhibits a broad, open, upright, and expressive posture, the individual's brain changes self-perception, and she becomes powerful even if she previously felt weak. Others perceive her as strong, which reinforces the new self-concept, and overtime she becomes what she initially pretended to be.
A basic example of this causal relationship has been documented by psychologists. If a person who feels unhappy forces himself to smile, the action boosts a feeling of joy, even though the individual fakes the smile.
Humans have the ability to profoundly affect who they are psychologically by being conscious of physical posturing and altering it. The knowledge empowers individuals to adjust self-concept.
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Source is TedTalks.com