Change your posture, change your mind

psychologist and author noa Belling reveals the easy, restorative poses that can make a big impact on your confidence and wellbeing.

Easy, restorative poses for your wellbeing

Certainpostures can change the way you feel, giving you confidence, energy and peace when you need it. It’s as easy as holding a pose for a few seconds and feeling how it affects you. Do the following poses, as often as you need, to manage stress and help calm you down.

The confidence pose: hands on hips

If you need a confidence and assertiveness boost, or you wish to calm your anxiety levels and reduce shyness, use a ‘high power’ pose for two minutes. Researcher Amy Cuddy classified different body positions as ‘high power’ or ‘low power’ based on their effects. In general, the high power poses take affect across the chest area, while standing upright. These poses allow you to inflate your chest area, displaying confidence, like an elephant fanning out its ears to make it look bigger. Low power poses close around your chest area – arms crossed, head bent down.

While holding the confidence pose, take a few conscious breaths, breathing in to fill your chest area for a count of three and out for five, to encourage your body to relax in the pose. Even if this feels unnatural for you, knowing that you can increase your confidence when you need to is empowering. It can help give you a boost before an important presentation, an interview or a challenging meeting.

The centred pose: hands Together

Placing your hands in a prayer pose has been linked with feeling centred, contemplative and content. Largely due to the biochemical associated with feeling this way: serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter manufactured in the brain and the intestines, and influences your mood. Low levels of serotonin are linked to depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, panic, attention deficit disorders, impulse control disorders and excessive anger. Abundant serotonin is associated with a quiet, and a deep sense of contentment and wellbeing. This is in contrast with dopamine, which