You’re the boss of you
“Stand up straight! You look so sad and pathetic like that. Roll your shoulders back and chin up. There, that’s better.”
I can still hear my Memaw’s voice warning me about my posture in every pretty dress I ever wore as a young girl. No special occasion was necessary for my mom to remind me that I needed to stand up tall and and stop stooping over. She was like a posture ninja, you never knew when she would grab your ears and pull them up to try to get your head over your shoulders instead of drooping forward, or put her hand between your shoulder blades and push while grabbing a shoulder and pulling it back.
Once, I remember sitting cross-legged and hunched over in front of the television when I was just school age and enjoying some animated orange cat’s antics on the screen, blissfully unaware of anyone taking note of me. At the first commercial break, I was instructed to sit up straight and hold that pose until the next commercial break. Those were the longest minutes of my short life. I didn’t even know I had those muscles, much less that they could get sore so fast!
Why did they obsess so much about posture? Why did it matter? While I had always thought this was just about appearance, it turns out that there is so much more to how we hold our bodies than just being “proper.” Our bodies can actually affect the way we think and feel. The way we hold our bodies can literally change our minds about ourselves.
I hadn’t been very bodily aware as an adult, not taking note of my own posture and not having my ninja mother to karate chop my shoulder blades into place. I live in a world of computers, smart phones, long road trips and the idea that I shouldn’t take up too much space. This affected my posture so much more than I ever realized. I was having back pain, constant headaches, knots in my shoulders, etc. The classic over-stressed story that we all know too well. I finally went to see somebody about it. Adrenal gland burnout was the diagnosis.
The adrenal gland secretes adrenaline and cortisol when our bodies perceive stress or danger, commonly known as the “fight or flight” mode. What a brilliant system! When we are being chased by big, scary predators, these hormones kick in and start a whole shift in our system for survival. Our blood pressure rises so we get more oxygen (which we’ll need to outrun sharp teeth chasing us), and all other non-necessary functions get suppressed. It’s the perfect survival-mode.
There are plenty of modern-day stressors that are not about survival, but our adrenal gland doesn’t know that. It simply senses stress, whether that’s activated by physical danger, or stress from traffic, balancing a hectic calendar with too many obligations, kids that rely on you, an impending dead-line, or just your phone chiming all day demanding your immediate attention. The stress hormone, cortisol, continues to be pumped through our system to keep us on our toes and able to survive all of the things coming at us constantly. This is not a sustainable way of operating. Our bodies weren’t meant to be stuck in “fight or flight” mode.
My doctor said that my poor adrenal gland had been working over-time for so long, it was just burned out. And so was I. But not driving in traffic was not realistic, I live in Southern California! My kids are always going to need me in some way and I love being there for them even when it’s totally overwhelming. And like most people, I have a love/hate relationship with my phone but it’s part of my world and I can’t ditch it. I was so afraid she was going to tell me that I had to cut everything out, become a vegan, work out 3 hours a day, and quit coffee. Instead, she talked to me about posture. I’m not kidding.
She showed me a couple of poses to do for a few minutes every day and told me to do something nice for myself. I was actually shocked. And you know what? It is working.
Recently I attended a talk in Las Vegas given by famed Social Psychologist, Amy Cuddy, on this very subject. She spoke to our group about posture, power posing, and cortisol levels. I was so excited to hear the scientific aspect of this. She spoke about high power poses and low power poses and how holding these poses for just 2 minutes every day can cause a major shift in your life.
When you’re in a high power pose, your body senses a victory, a sense of confidence. Even if you don’t believe it, when you hold this pose for 2 minutes, your hormones kick in and start to work. Amy Cuddy’s research showed that people who practice a high power pose for two minutes experience a decrease in their cortisol levels by 25%. Not by taking a pill, not by ignoring the kids, not by giving up your cell phone. But simply by posing your body in a power pose for 2 minutes.
Conversely, when you position yourself in a low power pose, you actually INCREASE your cortisol levels by 15%. Simply put, if you don’t pay attention to your posture, you could unwittingly be stressing yourself out even more than necessary.
So, it’s time to use our bodies to change our minds. You are literally the boss of you!
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