Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are

Everyone has often been in a situation in life where they feel at their best and on top of the world due to various circumstances, including being powerful or unrelenting. One’s body is meant to communicate these feelings using expressions like widely opening up our hands and having the chin high. On the other hand, everyone also undergoes some situations that make them feel powerless, miserable and overpowered. Similarly, a person’s body communicate these feelings to the outward using actions like wrapping together our hands, standing hunching towards the ground and general appearance of shrinking. In 2012, Amy Cuddy delivered a TED Talk titled “Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are,” within which she explores the way mindset and body language can impact one’s personality and their future outcomes in life ( Cuddy, 2012 ). This essay presents an opinion-based positive criticism of Amy Cuddy's TED Talk and the talk's application on our lives and those of others.

Army Cuddy, being a psychologist lecturer successfully had a breakthrough in researching how the concept "fake it till you make it", has a profound effect on the lives of people. Body language shapes people's personalities and their future outcomes by influencing the way they present themselves to other people; thus, the ideology that body language shapes who you are in life at a given time. According to the first thirds of Cuddy's speech, she expresses logic-based reasoning to provide her argument, mindset and body language shapes who you are and profoundly what you get out of life, with a scientific background ( Cuddy, 2012 ). Nonverbal expressions of power and dominance actually affect the animal kingdom significantly. People feel dominated when they encounter more powerful peers, thus prompting the shrinking expressions of feeling powerless. This is considerably applicable in real-life situations. For instance, at the workplace, authoritative bosses might tend to express their seniority by lifting their hands and chin when giving instructions to their colleagues or workmates. On the other hand, those being advised will mostly wrap together with their hands as they stand hunching towards the ground listening.

Cuddy's argument on body language and perception can be used in real life to impact one's life positively and also the lives of others. Perceptions of body language can be accurate at times; for example, being conscious of our body language can considerably impact our careers and those of people around us. Understanding oneself helps maintain a good impression that will continuously maintain people's perspectives and opinions about us. Since our body language affects our perception about us, one should help others understand their body language, thus help them understand their own self-perception. One's body language communicates some important message to oneself, which people should be meant to understand and help in their careers ( Cuddy, 2012 ). According to her argument, one can fake power in an environment where they feel belittled and in the long-run end-up feeling powerful. This can be done by adopting a powerful pose while interacting with others which will affect physiological role changes. This makes the other party feel powerless and subdue to the one adopting a powerful posture. This concept can be used to help friends who have been dominated by their workplace by their colleagues.

Focusing on body language, ideally other peoples body languages, people are significantly influenced by the body languages and expressions of others. This is described as nonverbal body behaviour. Body language communicates differently from one person to another. It also leads to making judgments regarding a certain person and their personalities. Thinking on nonverbals, we only focus on how we judge other people and how they also judge us. However, we do not focus on the other audience that influenced by our nonverbals, that is ourselves, including our feelings and thoughts. For example, when one appears more powerful energetic, we do not naturally mirror them but appear inferior.

This concept regarding the nonverbals can be used to help people improve how people feel about themselves. People who feel less optimistic and powerful about themselves are in the best place to receive assistance from Cuddy's Ted talk about nonverbal communication ( Cuddy, 2012 ). This can be used to help other people by teaching them how to embrace power poses which are related to high confidence and risk-taking behaviour. According to Cuddy's talk, deliberately changing the body language can considerably influence changes in behaviour and self-presentation. Since the powerful feeling has been established to relate with hormone testosterone, one can learn how to raise testosterone levels using deliberate body language adjusting to impact how other people perceive or judge him or her. Power Posing is an important strategy when it comes to interviews. When waiting for an interview, one can use the power posing technique to raise his or her confidence levels, thus ensuring excellent performance. 

Power posing can also change one's behaviour in the long-term. If you are used to power posing, people will get used to your powerfulness and dominance due to their judgements and perceptions. High power poses are also associated with risk tolerance; consequently, using high power pose will help lower down the cortisol levels this, helps how we think and perceive about ourselves. For instance, at social threat situations, one can embrace power poses create a powerful environment. Besides, at job interviews, power poses can also help boost one's confidence and enthusiasm, thus presenting a perception of authenticity and captivating. As a result, we can conclude that our bodies change our minds, which in turn affects our behaviour and the outcomes in life.

Reference

Cuddy, A. (2012).  Your body language may shape who you are.  [Image]. Retrieved 8 November 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc.