A Harvard professor and psychologist has given her advice on how to kick your day off in the best way possible.
Amy Cuddy, author of Presence: Bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges, says there’s one thing you should do before you reach for that smartphone, tablet or clock, and claims it will have big benefits to the way we feel.
Before you even step out of bed, Amy recommends stretching your arms and legs out as far as they will go, creating a ‘power pose’ that will get you in the right frame of mind for the day ahead.
But before you rubbish the link between a morning stretch and positivity, Cuddy’s got some news for you.
“The people who wake up like this (stretching out their arms in a V) are super happy, like annoyingly happy,” she explains. And that is all because our posture can influence your emotions, not just vice versa.
The TED talker said in a recent interview that in contrast if you “sleep in a fetal ball…we have some preliminary evidence that people who wake up like that wake up more stressed out.”
In case you needed more reasons to stretch it out first thing, other benefits include muscle flexibility, improved circulation and overall and enduring stress relief.
For more information on power poses and how body language shapes your emotions, watch Amy’s TED talk above.
