#598: 1 Self-Belief Hack Backed By Harvard For a Better Mindset
19 Mar 2024 · 8 min
Host David Holman coaches a client, Ashka, who experiences public-speaking anxiety and wants fast confidence. Holman presents a body‑based intervention grounded in Harvard research: holding expansive "power" postures (e.g., hands on hips or reclining with hands behind head) for two minutes produced large hormone shifts in the study — cortisol decreased ~25% and testosterone increased ~20% (and participants were ~33% more likely to make risky decisions). The inverse posture (slumped, head-in-hands) produced the opposite changes (cortisol +25%, testosterone −20%). Holman then guides listeners to experiment with two‑minute posture holds and other embodied movements (arms wide, stretching, jumping, dancing) that replicate moments when they felt confident, and encourages applying these before speaking engagements; he closes with a CTA to the Self Belief Chief website and scheduling.
Questions this episode answers
Two minutes.
Cortisol decreased by 25%.
Testosterone increased by 20%.
Approximately 33% more likely to take a riskier decision.
Cortisol increased by 25% and testosterone decreased by 20%.
Chapters
So Ashka says, look, David, I speak in front of rooms of people and I get so anxious. I get so nervous. I just need to know how to be confident quickly. Hello, and welcome to the Self Belief Chief podcast. You're here with David Holman. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast to keep up to date with the latest episodes, the latest science research, information, experiences, sessions that I have with my clients. I can feed back that information for you just so that you can best propel and grow your life. And let's get on with the episode. So I speak with Ashka. She has a issue speaking in front of a room of people, which she's regularly doing in front of rooms of people to educate them, to inform them. But she's struggling with confidence, but she wants it quickly. She wants to know how she can get it quickly. Now, one of the things that people get wrong with this is they try and fix it all in their head. The hardest way to change your mind is to try and change your mind. The easiest way is through your body. And there's a very simple but effective piece of research that Harvard did on confidence. So they did a study where they got two groups of people and one group of people they got to. If you imagine you've probably heard of some of this stuff before where you sort of stand like Superman or Superwoman, so you stand upright, feet about shoulder width apart, chest up, hands on your hips looking forward, right? So they got participants to do that. They also got participants in that group to, at a different point, lie back with their hands behind their head. So imagine like a really relaxed position. What they found is when you do that for two minutes, so that in either of those positions for two minutes, they found that your cortisol, which is your stress hormone, goes down by 25%. And they found that your testosterone, which is the key hormone for confidence, goes up by 20%. So your cortisol, your stress hormone, goes down, and that's a big contributor to self doubt. And your testosterone, which is the key hormone for confidence, goes up. So that's a 45% swing in your emotions, in your hormones, to make you feel more confident. And they also found you're 33% more likely to take a riskier decision. Now, that's just standing in a particular position for two minutes. So imagine what happens when I get people to really use their body, really commit their body and get it to do things in positions in ways that they've always done when they're most confident. But Harvard also found something else. They got A second group of people to sit in particular positions. You might even be sat like this right? Now they got participants to sit with their elbow on the table and their hand holding their head, right? So imagine kind of slumped over in a particular direction, right? And what they found was when people adopted that position, sort of head in hands, kind of looking down, they found the inverse of the first group, that the cortisol went up by 25% and the testosterone went down, down by 20%. So they got more stressed, therefore more self doubt and they got less testosterone, so less, you know, confident in two minutes. So between the two studies, 45% going up in the first group, 45% basically going down in the second group. That's a 90% difference in our hormones in two, you know, over a two minute period. Now, most people will be doing what the second group does. They just have their head in their hands or they're slumped over, their shoulders are rounded over, they're looking down, they're looking miserable. Key part of confidence is energy and that's about your hormone balance and Harvard have done the work for you. So just stand like Superman or superwoman for just for two minutes. Put your hands on your hips, shoulder width apart, chest up, look up and just do that for two minutes. Now for the first 10 seconds you'll probably be like, well, what am I doing? This is silly, this load of nonsense. Ten seconds after that you'll start to be like, okay, just standing up straight now. About 10 seconds after that you'll probably start to notice a little bit of strength in your shoulders and your chest. Maybe 10 seconds after that you start to kind of go, okay, kind of can feel it. Maybe another 10 seconds after that you start to notice that your breathing changes. When we get to that sort of minute mark, you start to notice that maybe you breathe in a bit deeper. 10 seconds after that you notice that. That's true. Maybe 10 seconds after that you start to feel like your head is almost nodding slightly. Maybe another 10 seconds after that you start to notice how the tone of your thoughts are starting to change. They're more firm, they're more certain in terms of what you're capable of. Just a little bit. Maybe 10 seconds after that you feel even more strength in your chest. Maybe you feel the power somewhere else in your body. Maybe you feel it in your stomach or your eyes or your legs, wherever. Another 10 seconds after that you start feeling like, okay, I'm capable, I can do this and I could keep going on and on and on what's happening is there's that subtle shift in your hormone balance that actually makes quite a big difference. And that's just two minutes. So I showed Ashka this and we started to look at different things. I started to look at points where she was really confident in her life, look at five different examples, find the common denominators in terms of what she did with her body. What we found was she stood up before, you know, she had to do a talk or whatever, but she had her arms stretched out wide, shoulder width apart, just really stretching out. And she'd hold that position and she could feel the strength in her arms, but she could feel the width. She could feel herself being longer and taller and stretched out, have more presence and physicality. And we start to find that that is sort of what unlocked her confidence. So just have a go. Try and think of positions that you've been in where you've been really confident with, you know, jumping. I don't, don't care what it is. Jumping, spinning, dancing, standing up straight, you know, arms out wide. Whatever you think it might be, it's been in the past. Just, just test some of these things out and you'll notice it actually makes quite a big difference. When you commit to it for at least two minutes, it actually starts to change how you think and feel. And that's just a really simple, quick way to be more confident. If you want more information on this, you can visit the Self Belief Chief website. We'll put some other bits in the description as well, so you can schedule some time with me to learn more. My name is David Holman. If you change today, today will change your life. So enjoy the rest of your day. Enjoy the rest of your life. Happy to get embrace you.