I watched a TED talk last night that has stuck with me all day long. It’s a 20-minute share-out by a Harvard professor named Amy Cuddy, and she has some valid things to say in the world of social science. Her talk was entitled “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are”. When I started watching it I had no idea where she was going, what was she really getting at. Well, from what I inferred, studies show that people who strong non-verbals do better in careers then people with closed off non-verbal’s. A bit of it has to do with power and dominance, which quite frankly turns me off, like if someone walks around like they own a place. However, I can learn from this. We need to fake a little bit of strong non-verbals in order to gain confidence, and this is where our bodies can change our minds. By holding our body postures in a way that exudes confidence and presence, we can gain mental confidence. Makes sense, huh? “It’s about opening up”, Cuddy says. I think yoga is a great outlet for people to use their bodies to shape their minds, not just with heart openers, but just gaining confidence through movement. It’s about opening up, having control of our bodies, being bigger not smaller. So no more of this hunched over stuff or playing nervously with my hair. It’s time to use strong non-verbals!