Confidence can’t be built up overnight, but there is one thing that can make you look and feel more confident almost immediately. Read on.
When I was 11 years old, my friend – the new girl in school – asked me why “I walked like that”.
“Like what?” I answered; and she proceeded to walk down the corridor with hunched shoulders, looking to the ground.
“Oh.” I said. “I don’t know. I guess I want to look shorter.”
“But why?”
That was my first real lesson in posture, something my mom had been telling me for as long as I could remember, but I never listened. Like any rebellious child, I always thought my mom was just being nit-picky. But when I realized other people say it too, I took up and notice.
Hunching for me was my way to look shorter, because as a child I was insecure about my height. (I guess I didn’t have “Gratitude Attitude” yet!) I was called “giraffe”, “ostrich legs” or whatever else a child could think of that was lanky; and during grade school and I didn’t like always being a head taller than everyone else.
However, if there’s one thing – one simple thing that literally takes seconds – you can do to look and feel confident, it’s to stand up straight and strong. Yep, that’s really it. It took me awhile to learn to stand tall again – because it was such a bad habit by then – but it really makes a difference; both how you look on the outside and how you feel on the inside.
So when you’re about to enter a room, about to meet someone, about to… whatever, stand up straight. It’ll be an instant confidence booster and whoever will look at you will also see you as more confident and self assured. After doing that a few times, try to practice standing up straight all the time. Even if it hurts, just keep doing it! You’ll get used to it eventually.
And if you think this is just something so small that it can’t really make a difference, check this out: Erik Peper, a behavioral scientist, has spent much of his time researching the link between posture and the person’s state of mind. In a nutshell, his findings found out that good posture is good for your energy and mood (source). Likewise, a study done in Ohio State University by Richard Petty, professor of Psychology, showed that a confident, upright posture made the students feel more confident in what they thought about themselves (source).
“Most of us were taught that sitting up straight gives a good impression to other people, but it turns out that our posture can also affect how we think about ourselves,” said Petty. “People assume confidence is coming from their own thoughts. They don’t realize their posture is affecting how much they believe in what they’re thinking,”
Just like how smiling makes you feel happier immediately; standing up straight can make you feel much more confident just as fast.
So stand up tall, beautiful!