We tend to forget how powerful the connection between our minds and bodies is. This connection is so strong that by simply changing our physiology we can hack our brain into changing our state of mind. Below you will find three examples of techniques you can use every day to uplift your mental state.
Smile
By practicing smiling and even holding it for 30 seconds to a minute, we can hack our brain to begin releasing the endorphins that control our mood and make us feel better. This is a technique you can easily do alone in the car next time you are on your way to work or the store. Smiling more will even have a positive effect on those around you.
Posture
Hacking your body to become more confident is something that will require a little more awareness and practice but the results are wonderful. This one is all about body language and how we carry ourselves. Our posture has a direct effect on our mental state. When we are in a more negative mind state we may find ourselves slouching more with our shoulders forward and head down. On the other hand, when we are feeling good and full of confidence our shoulders tend to be back and relaxed and our head held high eyes parallel with the ground ahead of us. We can use this to our advantage in situations where we are uncomfortable or feeling unsure of ourselves. We can change our body language to trick our minds into believing we are in a comfortable, confident state.
Breathe
Anxiety is something we have all experienced in our lives and it can be very overwhelming. The following is a breathing exercise that you can use when you need to calm yourself down. It is very simple but there are a couple of key details we need to get right to have the desired effect. The first is you want to make sure when you are exhaling you are completely emptying your lungs. The second is when you inhale you are breathing into your stomach and not your chest. The reason we want to make sure we are breathing into our stomach is because that is what our body naturally does when we are resting and this is what we are trying to accomplish. The breathing count is easy we want to exhale twice as long as we are inhaling. If we inhale into our stomach for four seconds we want to exhale everything out in eight seconds. There are two main things this breathing exercise will accomplish. The first is that by increasing our exhale time we are slowing our breathing rate down which in turn will lower our heart rate. The second is that by emptying our lungs on each exhale we are getting rid of the stale air and oxygen in our lungs. Repeat this breathing exercise 6-10 times or until you feel your heart rate return to normal.
Communicate
The staff here at Easton want to remind you that we are a family and a community. If you notice a training partner hasn’t been in a while reach out to make sure they are okay! On the other hand, if things are getting rough for you, reach out to one of your instructors!
Ready to Get Started?
Easton Training Center’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu program has classes for students of every level. Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned brown belt, you’ll find training at our academies to be fun and challenging.
Our Fundamentals program teaches the essentials of offense and defense from the foundational positions. You’ll learn self-defense techniques for real life situations. From there, you’ll start to build your own game in live training, or Randori. In our advanced classes, you’ll learn the finer points of sport Jiu-Jitsu from the best instructors in Colorado.
