Off The Record
A Harvard Psychologist Says: This Is The First Thing You Should Do When You Wake Up
Is it that the moment you’re up in the morning, your bed seems cozier and more gravitating than usual? Well, you’re not the only one to feel the morning pull into the bed.
But, there’s a way out, according to Amy Cuddy, a Harvard psychologist. She says that all it requires is mindfulness. One where, even before you put your feet down, you stretch your entire body so that it expands really wide.
Amy Cuddy who’s authored Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges, talks about different ways in which our postures influence our manner of thinking and our emotional states through the day.
In one of her TED talks on the stylistic ways of power posing, she has talked on standing the way Wonder Woman does, and how it directly affects the construction of our confidence. And the most amazing thing about this video is that it has become the 2nd most viewed video by TED talks.
Normally, all of us believe that it’s the way we behave that our emotions are controlled and it is true. For instance, when we are standing upright, we’re naturally feeling more confident and sure of ourselves.
Cuddy’s research indicates that it could also work the other way around. In the sense that, if we practice this extraordinary way of power posing once we wake up, our confidence level will boost.
During one of her recent talks given at New York’s 92Y, the researcher conveyed to her audience that it’s this wisdom about oneself that can become a part of our everyday life. On this note, she explains the way in which you can make yourself feel huge just the moment when your eyes open.
She agrees to this feeling being a “bi-directional”, one where the act leads to a positive feeling. But, at the same time, she says that when people wake up with their arms stretched like a V, they’re annoyingly super happy all through the day.
You should also read: Psychologists reveal the 4 key things that makes us truly happy
Similarly, when you are curled up under the blanket, like a kitten, then your emotions will also be coiled. She assures that research has proved that those who sleep in curl or a fetal position wake up feeling more stressed than others.
Approximately 40% people, says Cuddy, have a fetal posture of sleeping. It eventually affects their level of confidence throughout the day. So now, if this happens each day, across weeks and years, there comes a morning when misery seems something beyond one’s comprehension even.
Her research insists on the fact that starting your day on a right note is as important as trying to avoid grim realities. And it means that sometimes one may have to even fake this happiness and confidence but, eventually, as one would realize, this fakeness will morph into a reality which you’ll believe in and practice each day of your life.
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