Today’s Oracle
My software angels choose this oracle quote for you today:
374) The way cannot be taught
in detail, but it can be grasped intuitively. - Miyamoto Mushashi
You can use my
Potent
Quotes Oracle page whenever you need help. Hold a question in your
heart, and see what quote comes up for you when you scroll down. It
will be a response to your question. Play with it.
Can Standing Like Wonder Woman Trigger Your Power Hormones?
Here’s the question: Can your posture encourage the release
of your good hormones? Can it magnify
the stress hormone and make you less optimistic?
Can you change your posture and become more confident,
optimistic and at the same time become calmer, less stressed?
Yes. But that ain’t
all. More in a bit…
First, this isn’t new.
Over 100 years ago, William James said this:
If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.
In more modern parlance we say, “Fake it till you make it.”
Here’s another one:
It’s easier to act your way
into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting.
—Millard Fuller, Founder of Habitat for Humanity
Cue Wonder Woman
As the quotes above indicate, the tail can wag the dog.
Just stand as Wonder Woman or Superman and good things
happen for you. You’ve seen the stance:
feet apart, fists on hips, elbows out, chin up, smile. Rocky demonstrates another power pose as he
dances at the top of the step in the classic film Rocky – arms up over his head, fists clenched, chin up, triumphant
smile.
You become more confident, optimistic and at the same time
become calmer, less stressed. Open poses
produce this result. Closed postures
produce the opposite.
Heads Up: Take advantage of my Simply Serene giveaway starting February 15th 2014 and lasting
for five days.
Enter Science
Even forcing a smile makes you happier. Years ago, researchers found that if you bit
a pencil held crosswise in your mouth, thus forcing a smile, you would become
happier.
Recently, Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy performed some lovely
research on posture and hormones.
Powerful people are more assertive, more confident, more
optimistic, think abstractly and take more risks. First, they wanted to know what hormones they
might use as a marker for this state.
High power people have high testosterone and low
cortisol. Low cortisol means you are
less apt to react stressfully to a situation.
Obviously, when you relax, you make fewer mistakes. Remember: Both genders need testosterone.
For the study, they tested the saliva of the subjects first
to find their levels of testosterone and cortisol. Then they asked some to stand in high power
poses you see above and others to assume the low power poses for just two
minutes. Then they retested.
What they found shocked me.
In the high power poses, the open ones, testosterone went
up. OK.
Cool. But what shocked me was
that they also enjoyed a 25% drop in cortisol.
Way less stress.
In the low power poses, remember those are the closed
postures, the subjects endured a 10% decrease in testosterone. And
the lower power pose
amplified
peoples’ cortisol (stress hormone) 15%. Like you need more stress hormones…
Remember this is in TWO MINUTES. Holy poop Batman. TWO MINUTES.
If you can find me a better deal, let me know.
Watch
Amy Cuddy’s TED
talk see more examples and hear more of the story. Amy reveals her own story in the last
minutes. She becomes vulnerable and
moves the whole audience including me.
So What? How Can You Use This?
Stand like superman or wonder woman for two minutes every
day. You can do deep breathing and you
can combine this with the phenomenally powerful owl eyes and owl ears at the
same time, as I do. (
Simply Serene shows you how.)
I recommend using this technique anytime you go into a scary
situation. Usually, when you are going
to be in a situation where people will evaluate or judge you qualifies.
You can benefit by
using it before
- ·
taking tests
- ·
job interviews
- ·
first visit with a new client
- ·
a trip to the doctor
- ·
a first date.
Or
you can use it anytime you want to feel more presence.
See what the video says about the job interview study they
did. Wow.
You can find Amy Cuddy’s original research
here.
May you be strong, powerful, optimistic, and at ease,
William
P.S. Please let your friends know about this.
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