I claim to be a morning person, but it still takes me forever to get out of bed.

However, I’ve been enjoying a new trick I recently learned about improving my energy first thing in the morning.

Empowering Wake Up Trick:

Stretch your body as wide as possible.

According to Amy Cuddy, our body posture can change the way we think.

Professor Amy Cuddy is a Social Psychologist that teaches Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Her research has found that these power poses affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain. These chemicals influence our confidence levels and overall mood.

To learn more about “Power Poses,” you can watch this video of Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk below.

Power Posing Your Morning

I’ve been experimenting with Amy Cuddy’s technique of stretching out my body when I wake up in the morning and when I get up from my nap in the afternoon. It feels splendid to stretch after waking up.

Normally, I would roll over, maybe look at my phone, and get into a more scrunched up pose (fetal position). Now when I wake up, I tell myself I can lay back down, but first I need to stand with for 30 seconds with my arms outstretched and legs shoulder width apart.

In her recent talk at 92nd Street Y, Cuddy talks about how daily routines around posture affects who we are and how we feel.

In the video below, we’ve tagged it to start at her discussion specifically about waking up. If you have 75 minutes to watch the entire video, it is worth it. For those interested in improving your health both mentally and physically with proper posture, you will want to watch the full video.

As mentioned in the video, your posture after waking is “bi-directional.” Waking up in a fetal position and staying that way is less energizing, but as Amy says in the above video, “the people who wake up like this [in powerpose] are super happy, like annoyingly happy.”

What Works for You?

Give the power post a  try and let me know if it works for you.

Do you have any morning routines that help you get up in the morning?
I would love to hear them! Feel free to post them in the comments below.