Channel your inner Wonder Woman and Strike a Power Pose!
 
What is power posing?
 
The phrase “power pose” was popularized by Harvard Business School social psychologist Amy Cuddy in a 2012 “TED Talk.” The core concept behind power posing is this: Our bodies can change our minds.
 
According to Cuddy, our body language can actually alter the very real hormone secretions within our bodies. Those hormones can then change our minds.
 

 
The purpose of power posing is to pose as a powerful person would to trigger the release or inhibition of certain hormones so that your hormone balance more closely resembles that of a powerful person.
 
If you’re looking for a powerful person to emulate, Wonder Woman is a great choice. The most commonly referred to power pose is known as the “Wonder Woman” pose.
 
Why do I want the hormone balance of a powerful person like Wonder Woman?
 
The minds of powerful people are more assertive, more confident, more optimistic, and—here’s a real winner for law school and the bar exam—better able to engage in abstract thinking.
 
Which hormones are impacted by power posing?
 
The two main hormones impacted by power posing are testosterone and cortisol.
 
Powerful people tend to have higher testosterone levels and lower cortisol levels. High testosterone levels are usually given most of the credit for the attributes listed above. However, the lower cortisol level is a key partner.
Cortisol is commonly referred to as the “stress hormone.”
It is safe to say, most law students cortisol levels are rather high because cortisol levels increase in high stress situations.
Your cortisol levels determine how stress reactive you are.
Cortisol is an important hormone to our survival because it aids your “fight or flight” response. This is great for those times when you need to do Wonder Woman-esque athleticism.
 
This is one of the reasons someone can suddenly have the strength to lift a car to save a child because—among other things—cortisol signals a flood of glucose to your large muscle groups.
 
I’m no expert on Wonder Woman, but I’m guessing Wonder Woman doesn’t need a sudden rush of cortisol because she has super powers.
 

 
However, our bodies do not differentiate well between stress that comes from threats to our physical survival—i.e. Ares’ threat to Wonder Woman—and stress that comes from law school or the bar exam.
 
For law school and the bar exam, excessively high cortisol levels can actually be quite detrimental. For each day, each exam, or even each issue you IRAC, you want to approach with calm confidence. You don’t want to succumb to panic.
 
[Gets on Soapbox]

Although it is beyond the scope of this post, the following is too important to omit.
The chronic stress experienced during law school and the bar exam can lead to chronically elevated cortisol levels.
Chronically high cortisol has been linked to disastrous health consequences including: immune system suppression, weight gain, gastrointestinal problems, increased risk for cardiovascular disease (separate from the weight gain), insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome, thyroid disorders, anxiety and depression.

I apologize if this sounds like scare tactics, it is not meant to be. After all, I have nothing to gain by you deciding to try power poses.
This is simply a matter that is near and dear to my heart and the reason I feel so passionately about helping law students.
Law school and the bar exam induce a level of stress that can have a ruinous impact on students’ physical, mental and emotional health.
There is too little awareness. Worse—when there is awareness—there is far too little done to mediate these consequences.
[Gets off Soapbox]

How do I do a power pose?
Set a timer for 2 minutes, and strike a pose!
You want to pick a pose wherein your body language is open, but you still feel solid—on steady ground.
In other words, if you choose to stand with a wide stance to promote open body language, don’t have such a wide stance that you feel as though you may slip into a bambi-esque splits.
You also want your body language to project other indicia of confidence or optimism. These indicia could include inter alia: chest up, shoulders down and back, chin up. Bonus points if you smile.

Take a cue from Wonder Woman’s iconic stance.
Her stance is wide, yet stable.
Her hands are placed firmly on the hips.
Her shoulders are down and back.
Her chest is up.
Her chin is up.
…and sometimes, she’s smiling…
Small yet significant actions add up.
In the aggregate, you might be surprised at their power.
This is something that I say all the time. It is the cornerstone of coaching. Yes, there are areas in which I help clients conduct complete overhauls. There are also actions which are not so small, yet crucial.
However, there are innumerable “small yet significant” actions you could take. By definition “small yet significant actions” are easy—they do not drain your overall physical, mental and emotional energy. So, in a single week, you can complete several!
In Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk, she has a similar quote,
“Tiny tweaks can lead to big changes.”
That is one of the best things about power poses. Power poses are “small yet significant actions” or “tiny tweaks.” It only takes 2 minutes to experiment with power poses.
If you decide that it helps, it only takes a small reminder to either integrate it into your regular rotation of brain breaks, or become more mindful your posture throughout the day.
Congratulations!
 
You just took a brain break!
 
Even if you don’t end up using this particular brain break idea, just reading this light little post gave your brain brief relief from dense legal texts and lectures.
 
Yay!
 

 
If your brain is ready to get back to work, great! Get after it!
 
If your brain is not ready to go back to work, that’s okay, too.
 
If this sounds like a brain break you might want to try, set a timer and strike a pose!
 
You could also take a look at some of the other brain break ideas—either to try on their own, or to try while in your power pose!
 
Questions, Comments, Suggestions?
 
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments to this post on Instagram!
 
 
No matter what,
feel free to congratulate yourself!
 
You took a brief brain break, and you explored ways to help optimize your brain, your study habits, and—ultimately—your performance!