A Second Technique to Help Students Overcome Performance Anxiety: Power Pose

After I’ve taught kids all about their “inner superpower” (which you can read about here), the next step is the help them learn to further handle the physical aspects of performance anxiety in the moments before a big performance.

This lesson is taken from the wonderful TED talk by Amy Cuddy. More on that in a minute.

When I explain this to kids I keep it super simple.

OK – Let’s talk about how to feel great right before you go in to perform your solo. (or go on stage for the big concert, walk up to the chair to play your audition etc.) We’re talking the last 2 minutes before you perform. You’re going to strike a “Power Pose.” Think of how a super hero stands -remember your inner superhero is probably already helping you out, so embrace it!

The Power Pose is simply standing up as tall as you can, shoulders back, head up. Then you can either put your hands on your hips or, if you have na instrument in your hand, hold your hands out a bit wide. Now, depending on the setting you may not want to go all the way out, but just a few inches out from your will do it.

Standing in this Power Pose for 2 minutes has been scientifically proven to help make you feel more confident & assertive and less anxious. So this, along with understanding your body is already helping you out in superhero mode, should make you realize you’re at the top of your game and help your body relax right before you enter. You’ll still feel excitement – that’s ok! But you should have extra confidence.

Now, while you’re holding this Power Pose for these 2 minutes, breathe in and out slowly. Breathe in for about 4 seconds through the nose and then breathe out for 6-8 seconds through the mouth. This can help lower your heart rate and calm you even more.

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Then we practice and I show them how they can do this without making it a big thing. I don’t do an extreme pose – just standing up tall, head up/level, hands out about 6 inches from my body. Then breathe. It’s ok if they giggle a little – I try to keep it light and fun since the whole point is to make them think all of this is a fun part of performing – not stressful.

A little more info for you that I don’t share specifically with the kids. In the Amy Cuddy Ted Talk, she gives lots of examples and scientific evidence. I highly suggest you watch the video. My favorite data from comparing people in high power poses compared to low power poses is the following:

“(With testosterone, the dominance hormone) from their baseline when they come in, high-power (pose) people experience about a 20-percent increase, and low-power (pose) people experience about a 10-percent decrease. So again, two minutes, and you get these changes.