Be the Peacock! You Have The Power (Pose)

Be the Peacock. Seriously.

You already are. We all are (sorry ladies but this metaphor doesn’t work so well with Peahens, but hey, gender fluidity means you can absolutely be a peacock).

I should probably explain…

So there’s this guy. Feathers down. Hiding his head. Unsure. Shy. Maybe feeling lost. Out of his depth. Worried about what people might say.

We’ve all been this peacock. Even the loud, confident, types can be this peacock on occasion. And d’you know what? That’s absolutely fine. But you don’t have to be him…

Because you can be this guy!

Look at this glorious bastard (I don’t actually know its parentage)! We can all be this guy. Feathers up, strutting around, getting shit done, having a great time, no worries, stopped caring what people think.

Doesn’t that sound like the way to live?

So what’s getting in the way? Well I could talk about limiting beliefs and self-doubt and all that (and I will in the future) but today I am going to talk biology.

The peacock has got it right. Making yourself big has a direct impact on our body chemistry. We still carry around with us aspects of our reptilian heritage (sorry but if you don’t believe in evolution, I am not the coach for you and this post is gonna be sciencey) in our limbic system. The parts of the brain responsible for instinct and emotions are a direct hangover from our past and play a massive role in who we are, what we do, and how we behave.

The good news is that our physiology, the way we carry ourselves has a direct impact on our limbic system, which has a direct impact on how we feel about any situation. So it’s time to be the beautiful peacock you are!

“But how?” I hear you ask.

It’s proper simple and is based in well-researched science, thanks to Amy Cuddy. You can see her TED talk on the power pose.

Amy and her team worked with people and took mouth swabs to determine the base level of hormones including cortisol (the stress hormone) and testosterone (regulates our response when a dominance challenge is perceived), and then had the groups perform low power poses – like the shy peacock they folded up as small as they could, hunched, hid their faces for 2 minutes and were swabbed again.

And what happened? Those who performed a low-power pose increased their cortisol levels by about 17 percent and decreased testosterone about 10 percent.

So what about the high power pose? The glorious peacocks with their feathers up – and these power poses were making themselves as big as possible, hands on hips, arms in the air, big, bold, and beautiful.

Professor Cuddy and her co-authors found that the people performing these high power poses decreased their cortisol levels by about 25 percent and increased testosterone by about 19 percent for both men and women.

Boom! Almost instant confidence. It takes 2 minutes to have an impact.

 So how can you use this? You just need 2 minutes and somewhere you can make yourself as big as you can. 2 full minutes. Not a second less. Nip to the loo before a big meeting or interview. Go to a quiet room. Take 2 minutes to give yourself a hormonal boost that will make you feel powerful and more willing to take risks.

BE THE PEACOCK – DO THE POWER POSE!