Change Your Physiology & Become Unstoppable
Hey there! Happy April! I hope this month and the spring season are treating you well!
With new buds blooming and the bees buzzing, I definitely feel the energetic pulse of new life all around us! It’s the perfect time to get projects started, seeds planted, and gain momentum on the goals and intentions we set for the year.
My goal is to guide you in being able to continue that feeling of momentum that’s in the air, so let’s dive into one of the components of the Triad that I touched upon in last month’s blog: Physiology.
At the ‘Unleash the Power Within’ (UPW) seminar I attended in LA this past March, I was amazed when I learned that ‘Success is 80% Psychology and 20% strategy.’
Um, what?!!
If you’re like me, sometimes mindset and psychology can get in the way of what I want to do (we can literally ‘psych’ ourselves up or out of something), especially when self-doubt or over analyzing something creeps in.
An impactful way to affect and boost our psychology and mindset is through the power of our physiology.
In his book Unlimited Power (which I HIGHLY recommended, despite it being published before I was born; all the info is still very relevant and has stood the test of time), Tony talks about how intentionally using our physiology, in addition to the other 2 components of the triad (language and focus), allows us to be in 100% control of our state. If we are in an empowered state/feeling that serves us, empowered actions and behaviors are the outcome, and propels us forward in the direction of what we want to accomplish in life.
Learning to master our physiology is a must because it can be a huge game changer in our lives.
So what is meant by physiology? A few things. Physiology is affected by :
Our posture
Our breathing
How hydrated we are
What we’re eating
How much sleep we’re getting
How much movement we are getting in and the type of movement
Our environment (artificial vs natural light, being indoors vs. outdoors, sounds, room temperature, etc)
All these play a role in changing our physiology (and therefore, our behavior and actions).
You’ve probably heard about the ‘wonder woman pose’ phenomenon? It’s been studied and stated that if you stand in the wonder woman pose for 2 minutes (or any other power pose), that you start to feel more confident (check out the awesome ted talk here) What is the wonder woman pose? It’s the pose you see Beyonce in above: chin up, chest out, shoulders back with hands on your hips and feet in a wide stance and deep, full breaths of confidence. I feel the power of the pose just writing about it! Amy talks about how doing these poses for 2 minutes (what she dubbed as the 2 min tweak) decreases cortisol levels and increases testosterone. Pretty amazing!
This is a powerful technique called modeling, and you can model the physiology of anyone you admire; think of how they stand, how they sit, how they walk, etc, and model it to feel how they feel. The more you practice, the more natural it will feel. As Amy Cuddy states in her ted talk “don’t fake it til you make it, fake it til you become it”. I absolutely LOVE that.
So if power postures can increase our energy and amp up our confidence, what postures do the opposite? It’s making our selves smaller; think head and eyes down, shoulders slumped, arms crossed hand on your neck, shallow breathing, taking up as little space as we can. It’s good to know these too so we can be aware when we are doing them.
At UPW, I learned that body language or these body postures are a universal thing; these are things we all do with our body when we are happy/excited/confident vs feeling fearful/uncertain/depressed/stressed. Simply by being aware of these differences can make a difference. (Whenever I feel stressed, I now no longer put my hand on my forehead like I used to; instead I close my eyes, take deep breaths, think of what I’m grateful for, then open my eyes and work on a solution with shoulders back and my chin up).
So how can you apply this to your work and projects? When you are working on getting something out into the world, just by being aware of your posture can help keep your physiology in peak shape.
If you feel an energy slump when working, take a break and get some fun movement in. Get outdoors, jam out to your favorite song, get some natural light and fresh air, take some deep, cleansing breaths. 5-10 minutes of this, and you’ll feel a new wave of energy (and thanks to divine timing, Beyonce’s Homecoming came out at the perfect time to reference in this blog, because I can say from experience that dancing along with Queen B herself is equivalent to 5 espresso shots and the joy that comes from cuddling with 10 puppies).
So let’s chat a sec about hydration, nutrition and sleep. These can be blog posts (actually, more like libraries of books) on their own, but I want to keep it simple for you here:
Hydration: aim to get 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water in daily. I.e. if you weigh 150 lbs, that’s 75 oz of agua. I get 1/2 of my intake in by noon, and the 2nd half in before I get home from work.
Nutrition: Oh nutrition. With so many dietary preferences, philosophies and menus out there, I hope to keep this tip simple: aim to get greens in at each meal, easy peasy (haha, see what I did there?!).
ok, another tip on nutrition, and I feel like this takes the cake: pay attention to how the food you consume makes you feel. If it doesn’t make you feel so great within 12-24 hours of consumption, limit or eliminate it. I know that may be easier said than done, but the way food makes our body feel (energized vs. lethargic) is our body letting us know yes or no. Again, this is a whole ‘notha blog post on it’s own, but feel this suffices for now.
3. Sleep: Aim to get in 6-9 hours a night. You can keep a journal of when you go to sleep and when you naturally wake up without an alarm clock. Typically, we go through 4 rounds of 90 minute sleep cycles. Most days, I wake up before my alarm clock and log anywhere from 6.5-7.5 hours of sleep feel pretty rested.
Whew! A lot of info, but I hope this helps you keep the momentum ball rolling. There are lots of things we want to do with and in our life; lots of experiences/fun/adventures to have, work to get out into the world to make it a better place and people to hang out with. To do these things, to live out the life vision we have for ourselves, we need to feel as good as we can. Mastering our physiology to work for us is a HUGE part of that.
So chest out, shoulders back and chin up buttercup. Let’s become unstoppable.
