2823: Shift your Mood: 7 Quick & Easy Body Tools by Rachel Shanken of Mind Body Wise on Emotional Balance

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[00:00:38] This is Optimal Health Daily. Shift Your Mood, 7 Quick and Easy Body Tools by Rachel Shanken of MindBodyWise.com. And I'm Dr. Neal Malik, reading you some of the most popular health and fitness blogs out there, with permission from the websites, of course.

[00:00:54] All right, and with that, let's hear today's article and continue optimizing your life.

[00:01:03] Shift Your Mood, 7 Quick and Easy Body Tools by Rachel Shanken of MindBodyWise.com.

[00:01:10] You have the power to shift your mood using quick and easy body tools. Science has proven that the way you hold your body and the way you move can dictate much more about how you feel than you may have realized.

[00:01:22] You can use your body to heal your mind. Here's how I know this from my own personal experience.

[00:01:27] When I was a young competitive gymnast, my coaches decided that everyone on the team needed to work on their postures in order to impress the judges and get higher scores.

[00:01:37] The coaches instituted a mandate. For the six or more hours per day that we were in the gym, we had to suck in our stomachs, flexing our stomach muscles, and tuck our butts under by flexing our glute muscles and slightly tensing our lower backs.

[00:01:52] My team members and I spent an entire summer on high alert on our bodies, hearts, and minds, fearful of the next time we were caught by our somewhat intimidating coaches with less than perfect posture.

[00:02:03] If we got caught with a loose gut or an untucked butt, even while on a break, the coaches would yell out to the poorly postured child,

[00:02:11] Rachel, suck and tuck. When my name was called, it was jarring.

[00:02:15] Immediately, I flexed my stomach, tucked my butt, and put the required penalty of a quarter in the community piggy bank.

[00:02:22] By the end of the summer, we were all permanently tensing our bodies into our coaches' desired posture,

[00:02:28] and there was enough money in the piggy bank to throw a party for the whole team.

[00:02:31] This summer was when a fear response pattern became imprinted in my body.

[00:02:36] Even without hearing someone yell my name and punish me for not sucking and tucking,

[00:02:41] I began to live in tension at all times.

[00:02:44] The body tension translated to emotional tension, and so it went.

[00:02:48] Why did I share this story with you?

[00:02:50] Looking back and knowing what I know now, your body releases tons of hormones all the time that influence your mood,

[00:02:58] your thoughts, and your feelings.

[00:02:59] I know that one of the worst things you can possibly do to your body is create constant tension,

[00:03:04] especially in your gut.

[00:03:05] This tension sends a false alarm signal to your sympathetic nervous system,

[00:03:10] alerting it to potential danger.

[00:03:11] That actually isn't danger at all.

[00:03:14] And when this alarm switches on, your flight, fight, or freeze response gets turned on.

[00:03:20] It's a false alarm that never turns off,

[00:03:22] unless you consciously do something to reverse the pattern.

[00:03:26] It's empowering to know that your body, not your mind,

[00:03:29] is hugely responsible for how you feel emotionally.

[00:03:32] You have agency to shift your mood by shifting your body.

[00:03:37] Consider choosing one of the following to focus on the healing of the body and mind over the next week,

[00:03:42] setting a timer for three times a day to try it out.

[00:03:47] 1. Loosen your jaw.

[00:03:49] If you're a jaw clencher, stop.

[00:03:51] Okay, okay, I know it's not that simple.

[00:03:53] When your timer goes off, take a breath and soften your jaw.

[00:03:57] Start with a huge open mouth stretch, sticking your tongue out as far as you can.

[00:04:02] Follow this stretch with a little jaw massage,

[00:04:04] by doing circular movements with your fingertips at the hinge where your lower jaw meets your upper jaw.

[00:04:10] 2. Soften the space around your eyes.

[00:04:14] Holding tension anywhere in your face increases your body's sense that there's something to be worried about.

[00:04:19] Let your body know that you're safe by closing your eyes

[00:04:22] and imagining the area around both eyes releasing.

[00:04:25] Breathe into this sensation.

[00:04:27] Then, open your eyes and again envision softness surrounding your eyes.

[00:04:32] Breathe.

[00:04:33] Breathe.

[00:04:33] 3. Relax your belly.

[00:04:36] Your gut is known as your second brain.

[00:04:39] There are more receptors for specific hormones related to mood in your gut than in your brain.

[00:04:44] So, take a moment to breathe with the intention of inflating your belly.

[00:04:48] With each breath, feel your belly soften and the muscles of your core release.

[00:04:54] 4. Drop your shoulders.

[00:04:56] Holding or tensing your shoulders is a surefire way to create an unnecessary stress response in your body.

[00:05:02] In cold weather especially, it's very common to tense your shoulders as a way to abate the cold.

[00:05:08] Play with shoulder rolls.

[00:05:10] Practice rolling your shoulders forward, up, then down, while breathing into the center of your shoulder blades.

[00:05:16] 5. Stand tall or taller.

[00:05:19] Your central nervous system relies on you to know if there's a threat to your well-being.

[00:05:24] Slumping makes your body small, as if you're hiding from danger.

[00:05:28] Making your body small has been shown to increase the stress hormone cortisol and decrease the confidence hormone testosterone.

[00:05:36] 6. Open your arms.

[00:05:38] Fan your feathers, so to speak, and take up space with your upper body.

[00:05:42] Let your system know that you don't need protection right now.

[00:05:45] As you open your arms, breathe in deeply and repeat in your mind,

[00:05:49] I am safe.

[00:05:50] I am at ease.

[00:05:51] All is well.

[00:05:53] 7. Take a deep breath.

[00:05:55] The simple act of taking a big, conscious breath makes a huge impact on your body, mind, and soul.

[00:06:02] Sit tall and feel the breath inflate your lungs and expand your diaphragm,

[00:06:06] expanding your rib cage and back body, and inflating your belly.

[00:06:10] Then, feel the release as your body deflates on the exhale.

[00:06:14] The more you practice these simple stress-relieving body-based exercises,

[00:06:18] the more you create healthy patterns in your body, mind, and mood.

[00:06:22] Which one will you try first?

[00:06:28] You just listened to the post titled,

[00:06:31] Shift Your Mood, 7 Quick and Easy Body Tools,

[00:06:34] by Rachel Schenken of mindbodywise.com.

[00:06:37] And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:06:40] Dr. Neil here for my commentary.

[00:06:42] Rachel's absolutely right.

[00:06:44] There is quite a bit of research showing that our posture influences how we feel.

[00:06:49] Probably the best example of this are studies that looked at when people are anxious

[00:06:53] or just not feeling their best.

[00:06:55] What the researchers will do is say,

[00:06:57] okay, half of the group will start to smile when they feel that way.

[00:07:00] The other half won't do anything or will frown or do something completely different.

[00:07:05] And what they find is the group that smiles

[00:07:07] typically changes their mood more quickly than those that don't smile.

[00:07:12] One fascinating study had people put a pencil between their teeth.

[00:07:16] Why?

[00:07:16] Well, putting a pencil between your teeth forces you to almost make a smile.

[00:07:21] And they found that even just doing that may improve mood.

[00:07:25] So I guess it's true.

[00:07:27] Turn that frown upside down to start feeling better.

[00:07:29] Now we have science to show that it's true.

[00:07:32] When I interview folks, I've often found that, yeah, they shrink their bodies down.

[00:07:36] They're kind of tucked and in protective mode.

[00:07:38] I have to show I'm the boss.

[00:07:39] So I'm often kind of stretched out.

[00:07:41] I puff out my chest a little bit more.

[00:07:43] I try and spread out a little bit more.

[00:07:45] But it does show confidence.

[00:07:47] When you walk in, your posture is upright.

[00:07:50] You give a firm handshake.

[00:07:51] You sit down.

[00:07:52] And instead of sitting down and kind of hunching over,

[00:07:55] you sit down and keep your shoulders back and down.

[00:07:58] Puff out your chest a little bit.

[00:08:00] Take a deep breath.

[00:08:01] And all of a sudden, you look like a very confident candidate.

[00:08:04] And sure enough, what we find is when people emulate that posture,

[00:08:07] they do feel more confident.

[00:08:09] So I agree with Rachel.

[00:08:11] I'm excited for you to try one of these.

[00:08:13] Which one are you going to try first?

[00:08:15] All right.

[00:08:15] That'll do it for today.

[00:08:16] I'll be back here tomorrow as usual.

[00:08:18] So stay tuned for that where your optimal life awaits.