Over the past decade, the power pose has faced controversy and scientific scrutiny, leaving many people confused about its efficacy and many turning their backs on a simple practise that can yield positive results. This article sums up the debate, clears the myths and explains the current scientific findings so that you can leverage positive feelings with simple postural change.

When we experience emotions we feel physical sensations within our body. Have you ever stopped in the moment of an emotion, to evaluate what you are feeling? And where that feeling is? In an emotion, our brain triggers physiological changes within our body. These changes alter our autonomic processes (processes we don't consciously control), such as heart rate, breathing, sweating and blink rate. In turn these physiological changes create physical feelings, or sensations, within our body. We associate these physical feelings with the emotion. Researchers at Aalto University have created visual bodily maps of emotions, based on self reported bodily sensations, experienced when an emotion was triggered. The results were gathered from 701 participants from around the world.